Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Wacky 3-D Weavings Complete!

My DragonWing Arts students completed their crazy 3D weavings last week, and I wanted to share the results.  We've been working on them in bits and pieces over a few weeks, along with several other multi-step projects.
In case you've missed it before, here's what we did:
  • We each painted painted two sheets of 12x18" with various fun processes to create colorful painted paper, using tempera.  These were later sliced apart for  weaving strips (weft).
  • We painted a third and fourth sheet (same size), each with one color of acrylic, that were cut in half lengthwise and twisted into tubes.  These were then glued down at the ends, lengthwise, onto a large rectangle of cardboard in an alternating color pattern to create our warp.  We made sure they were arched upward in the middles, like rainbows.
  • We painted the large cardboard rectangles black so our weaving colors would show up nicely.
  • We weaved our slices of painted paper into our warp, using an alternating color pattern.
  • Finally, we embellished with a bunch of feathers to give our work pizazz!!
 
I think these weavings turned out kind of fun, don't you?  This was an adaptation of a simpler version of this project that I blogged about previously here and  here.  The simpler version was done with first graders. 

8 comments:

  1. Huh?!?! I've not seen it done like that before...that is really fun!!!! Hmmm...got my wheels turning Phyl!!! I'm doing a bug themed art show for spring. Maybe have them do that with two kind of greens....and then make bugs to put all over!!

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    1. What a fun idea! Just try it out yourself before you do it with kids. Some papers work much better than others...

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  2. Oh WOW those look like so much fun! I love tactile art (mainly cos I suck at drawing) - how well do the pieces stand up over time? Do they fall apart easily or are they resilient?

    ~ Dragons and Things ~

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    1. Yes, they are fun! They are quite sturdy; everything is glued down really well with either a strong white glue or hot flu. But if I wanted it to REALLY stand up well, I'd paint the paper that we made and cut up for weaving strips with acrylic paint instead of tempera, for a more permanent finish. Or try weaving in some other crazy stuff - pipe cleaners! Colored wire! The nice thing about it is that you can't go too far wrong!

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  3. I love this project! What size was the cardboard background?

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    1. Thanks, Grace. This time, the cardboard pieces were, I think, maybe 8"x16" or so? They were scraps, so I'm not really sure, and I've done the project with smaller pieces, maybe 9"x14" or so. Just guessing!

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  4. Thanks! I'm cutting my cardboard today. I love this project, thanks for sharing it!

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    1. Good luck! I suggest you try one yourself first, to get out the kinks. Different types of paper will twist differently or possible rip and some will glue better as well. I had a glue gun handy to glue down ends of the warp that didn't want to hold well for a couple of kids. I had great success with this project the time we used paper from classroom recycling boxes for the warp!

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