My Turn at the Easel

Progressive Bee,
originally uploaded by Snippety Gibbet.

5″ x 7″ scherenschnitte.

Swirlies,
originally uploaded by Snippety Gibbet.

I’m working on artist trading cards for an art teachers’ swap. This is an embroidery 2.5″ x 3.5″.

Though I haven’t been trained in using Think Blocks yet, I am anxious to learn. My colleagues are very excited about using them. Here is a short tutorial for using them in art:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldWRJ-ZNnRY

pollen,
originally uploaded by Snippety Gibbet.

The Pollen Was Bad that Day” is the title of this little piece.

It’s summer and that means it’s Artist Trading Card time with art teachers. My ArtEducation2.0 Ning group is doing their annual swap. I have to make five cards.

I’ve been watching every grade stitch and weave this quarter. Weeks upon weeks of watching kids having fun with needle and thread. Finally, it’s my turn. I’ll do my ATCs with embroidery.

This particular card was first colored with a freezer paper print and then embroidered. I like the idea of printing first. It gives me good guidelines to follow while filling in empty spaces between stitches. The insect motif is a favorite of mine and was an easy choice to start off the process, but I think I will base the next one on a design from a masterpiece.

Looking at photos of my work, I always see errors that I don’t see in person. The eyes need to be darkened or outlined and I forgot to stitch an antennae. After that, I’ll be happy with it.

The weekend’s here. Finally. And it is the last one of the school year.

Another 3DBee,
originally uploaded by Snippety Gibbet.

In a little over 2 weeks I will have all the time in the world to do whatever I like. Probably I will be snipping away. I did this paper snip for a friend in Italy.

Kindergarten Picnic Weaving,
originally uploaded by Snippety Gibbet.

Weaving is a part of my county’s kindergarten curriculum. It is a tricky skill for kindergartners. Most of the get the idea of “over, under, over, under” pretty easily. It’s the next row of weaving that gets them. They have to do the opposite of what they did in the first row. Usually I save the lesson for the end of the year when they have had a year of learning under their belts.

Since they are studying ants in their classrooms, I combine the two areas. We weave a picnic tablecloth; make a sculptural lunch; and print the whole thing with fingerprint ants.

Last week my kiddies wove the cloth. Today they made the food and ants. Before they even started, we watched the video from Sesame Street of The Count having a picnic. He counts as the ants carry away his food. The kids loved it! They were excited too when I showed them the examples of work done by kids in past years.

This lesson filled up the entire hour of their art time today and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Assemblage 2,
originally uploaded by Snippety Gibbet.

Today was the last day of Art Club for the year. The group I worked with this semester was pretty motivated. Last semester I had more kids who were more interested in the social part of the club. The current group was more fun to work with.

I had the kids look at art made from found objects. (Flickr was a rich resource for this.) Then they used egg cartons, cardboard boxes, cardboard strips, and odd cardboard packing materials.

Some kids made machine constructions like this “air jet.”