Teeny Tiny Looms!

DragonWing Arts is my little business of after-school art enrichment classes for students grades 2-5.  We are back in session for the winter!  Our theme for this winter session is 'Wonderful Winter Weaving'.  My current 5 students (one 3rd grader, two 4th graders, and two 5th graders) have told me that they've never done weaving in art class, so I figured I couldn't be too confident about their weaving knowledge and skills.

I have an ambitious set of weaving projects I'd like to accomplish with them in our 7-week session, and I wanted to make sure they all understood the basic concept of weaving to make the projects move along easily.  So I made some teeny tiny looms - 2"x 3" - out of mat board scraps.  I cut notches ever quarter inch, and then strung the looms, wrapping the warp around the back and tying together the two ends.  The photo above is the back of the looms; you can see the front in this pic below.

The kids started weaving, using blunt big-eye needles and yarn.  I had them measure yarn from their nose to their fingertips to cut.  Longer pieces will tangle too easily.  Because the looms are so small, if a mistake is made, it can be noticed and rectified quickly.  In just a few minutes time, everyone had gotten the hang of the process and all 5 kids were rapidly weaving.  We put Popsicle sticks under the warp to make it easier to get their needles under the warp as weaving was progressing. 

When the weavings are complete, the kids will have the choice to take them off the looms or keep them on. (I'm going to recommend taking them off.)  We will cut the warp on the back of the looms, and knot them together in pairs.  I think they will make cute little woven pendants!  I promise to post pics of them on the blog when they are finished.

Meanwhile, we made some warm and cool painted paper for another weaving project, and everyone started weaving on looms made for little pouches.  I'll do full blog instructional posts on both of these projects when they are complete, but in the meantime, the pic below is an advance preview.