part 2

The photos in this post and the one below are from this semester's Middle School students. We wove functional bags (the boys don't like me to call them purses) in the 6th grade (some are photographed with flaps open) and the 7-8th graders went completely crazy making sculptural figures from wire, masking tape and newspaper. I'll add more of those tomorrow, my school computer has no way to rotate images. (hard as that is to believe!) The bag to the right shows blending, egyptian knot, vertical stripes, and joining (the triangle), all required patterns, but of course they can make those patterns do whatever they want. This boy created his own pattern, using the yellow black and green in a very interesting way between the stripes and the triangle. I especially like the skull bag. The red eyes are a nice touch.

As for the figures below, there is a Sumo champion and a moment of drama between a smurf and a giant caterpillar that is attacking the smurf's toadstool home.

A few good pieces

Furoshiki

It have been an entire week since I last posted, so I may have some catching up to do. My 6th grade students are happily weaving purses, and I will post some of their work later. I haven't let them take the looms home until today, they were very frustrated with me. They are doing a great job. The 7-8th graders are making people out of wire. We used our thumbprint as a standard measure, and it worked great. They are building up the forms with newspaper and masking tape, and they completely wiped me (and the store room) out of tape. Some of the boys get so involved up in playing with their figures that they forget to work on them! One figure in particular has such grace and elegant proportions that I have been taking photographs of it. It will be an elfin archer when finished. It is gorgeous in a way that only something made of worthless materials but a beautiful form can be. Today the student paper mached brown paper towels all over it, which will give it a nice overall tan color, and then next week we will dress it. Of course, I liked it the way it was, but won't say so.

A couple of weekends ago friend Kelly held her annual tie-dye party, and I dyed a few things. I never quite know what to do with the large silk square that I sometimes dpaint or dye. There is no possible way for them to look good on me, and I'm not a "little tablecloth" sort. Then today I found this on You Tube - perfect! This is a Japanese carrying bag made from a square of cloth