Woven Flowers and Butterflies

Sorry I haven't posted a lot lately...been trying to keep up with the kids!

This is a project I recently completed with Grade 1. 

It is a combination of a circle weaving project I first saw on "oodles of Art Projects" here.......

and a butterfly project from "The Artful Parent".

This is my version so let's get started.

We used small recycled paper plates which were cut with 9 notches. Just cut from the rim to where the flat plate begins.  You need an ODD number in order to weave.

Pierce a hole in the center with a knitting needle.

Cut 9 lengthes of yarn....mine were about 6 inches and put one end thru the hole..other thru the notch and tie the 2 ends into a knot on the other side.
Do this for all 9 notches.

Take some yarn in the color you want to weave with. Tie on at the back and then feed thru the hole in the center.

For the kids I used a large plastic needle to help with their weaving.  I tied the other end of the yarn to the needle to stop it from slipping out.

Start weaving around the center going under one of the pieces of yarn tied in the notch and then over the next one.  When it's time to change yarn just tie right onto the end of the last one.

One thing you have to be careful with is to get the kids to keep the weaving quite loose otherwise it starts to pop up in the center instead of fanning out to the edges of the plate.

Here is an example of the yarn bunching up in the center.

Each child was asked to use 3 colors.

When the kids were finished weaving (this took a while) tie the last end of the yarn off by pulling it to the back thru a notch and then knotting it onto one of the other yarn pieces.



The kids then painted the rest of the plate.  We used liquid tempera paint.  Tempera disks did not work so well as there was a coating on the plate that resisted the paint a bit.  Set aside to dry.

I traced a large circle for each child, about 4 inches larger in diameter than the paper plate.

They painted these in various colors and patterns using disk tempera.

Set aside to dry.

Glue the woven plate to the center of the painted circle for your flower.  You could cut petals into the painted circle if you want.

For the butterfly I traced a butterfly shape to heavy paper.

The kids were asked to draw some designs onto the butterfly with white pastel.  Lines, circles, stripes.....



They then painted on top of these designs with disk tempera.

The kids loved this part as their designs "magically" appeared.

After they painted their butterfly we put them into the rack to dry and I gave each of them a coffee filter to paint.

I decided to add the coffee filter to the design to help hold the clothespin in place at the end.

Set aside to dry.

While everything was drying I painted some old fashioned clothespins with black acrylic paint.

I had the kids cut out the butterfly....they picked out a pipe cleaner for the antennae....we put tacky glue on the back in the center and in the front....slide the clothespin in place and then scrunch in the coffee filter.

Let the glue dry and you're done.

Beautiful flowers and butterflies.

Woven Tree Wall Hanging

As part of Grade 1's weaving unit we will be making this Spring Tree wall hanging.  This is also a good project in the Fall using autumn colors.

As a child I remember a macrame version of these trees on a metal hoop but I could not find the instructions anywhere for the life of me so I came up with this version for the students.

Another reason why this project works well during the Spring and Fall seasons is that this is when you are pruning your trees and bushes.  You need a willow type branch, one that is flexible and will not break while "green".

Form a circular loop and tuck the ends in to hold the shape.  You want a nice 10 - 12 inch circle.

Now you could also do a nice weaving on the willow hoop like this.

For the tree I used wool roving...it works especially well at the top of the weaving where it is rounded...you then could add other materials in like bulky yarn or other natural fibers.

Now I dye my wool using kool aid or at this time of the year you can use easter egg dye.  Place the kool aid or dye in a glass jar,  add about 1 1/2 cups of boiling water, stir well, stuff your roving into the mixture and leave to cool.  Remove roving and rinse in cold water.

When you use Kool aid you'll find all the dye gets absorbed into the wool and you're left with clear water in the jar. COOL!

Tie and knot on 15 pieces of brown yarn positioned in an arc on the top of your twig hoop. You can add more if you wish just make sure you have an odd number.



I taped down my ends so they wouldn't bother me while weaving...this will be removed when finished.

Pulll the yarn pieces down and wrap around the bottom of the hoop.

Tie a knot.

And pull tight...you can always tighten this as you go if it loosens on you.

Taking a piece of roving start weaving on your hoop.

You don't have to weave all the way across...you can stop part way and just weave a section...then you can add a different color in another section.

Wool sticks well to itself when twisted...at the beginning and end of each weaving you do with the roving you want to twist the end back on itself. You can also tuck the ends into the back of your weaving as well.

Normally I would make a shuttle for the kids out of a piece of cardboard or a popsicle stick but I find with this project you just hold the roving in a ball in your hand.  With yarn you might want to use the shuttle. (I talk about making a shuttle in this post)

Continue weaving using different colors and textures if you wish.

I now want to seperate my first main branch...group 5 strands together from the middle section.

Now here I'm using brown roving but you could use brown yarn or even strips of brown felt or fabric.

Wrap around your 5 strands and tightly wind around going about 1 or 2 inches down...leave the loose tail of roving for now.

Add some more weaving in the other sections to bring them down a bit.  You are trying to make it look realistic so have one side come down farther than the other.

Wrap the branch on the one side in the same way as you did before...leave a tail....then wrap the other side.







Then wind them together bringing those 3 tails together.

See how the branches are not symmetrical...this looks more realistic.

Finally you can trim the knot ends and remove the tape.

And that's it....I'm looking forwrd to the Grade 1's versions.

We are also embroidering our names on burlap for our end of the year banners.   I just used a sharpie to write their names on the burlap and they will be doing a basic back stitch.

Here is the project Grade 5 is working on.  They are studying the Fur Trade so we are making headresses that have a beaded band and medallion.  The beads are drawn in but we are also making paper beads out of newspaper to decorate them with.  We should be finished tomorrow so I hope to have the how to and student work pictures for you soon.

We are having a bit of an art show for our Parent/Teacher interviews on Thursday night and Friday.  I hope to take some good pictures to show you next week.

Take care and I'll see you soon.

Spring Weaving Project

This is a project I'm currently doing with Grade One.  It's in conjunction with another teacher around a creative writing project.  We were currently in the middle of a weaving unit so I decided to combine it all together into one art project.

The kids spent some time discussing the return of birds at springtime as this is starting to happen right now in Calgary.  The first Robins are just returning.  The kids were then asked to write a Haiku poem about the return of the birds.

Now the kids had already done some paper weaving as part of their weaving unit...straight lines...then wiggly lines...getting used to the under and then over concept.

For this project I gave them all a piece of scrim or rug hooking mat.  You can buy it in bulk at some fabric stores they also carry it at Michael's.  I paid $12.00 for a 3ft by 5ft piece (double what I needed).  I then cut it into 5"x9" pieces.
Because this was to be a nest I painted each piece quickly with some brown acrylic paint.

I then gathered up a variety of materials for the kids to weave with...ribbon,  fabric strips (about 1 inch wide),  chenile yarn,  wool roving,  felt strips, etc.

We talked about how there are birds called weavers and that birds use a lot of different materials to make their nests.  I gave each child a large plastic needle and they got started weaving through the scrim.  Some changed colors every row,  some weaved it the short way instead of the long way...every one was different.

When finished it should look something like this...I made sure the kids skipped the top and bottom row when they started weaving.

 I then gave each student a 12" x 12" piece of cardboard.  (I'm notorious for keeping cardboard).


They then painted their piece a bright blue with some acrylic paint.

Set aside to dry.

When dry we sponged on some clouds with acrylic white paint.

We cut out a branch shape from some brown paper but you could easily paint this on as well.

Glue into place.

I took the weaving and trimmed off the top row.

I then used a glue gun and glued the bottom rows up and onto the back of the weaving.  GLUE GUNS SHOULD ONLY BE USED BY AN ADULT.

I then brought in each side in at an angle and glued in place at the back.

Do both sides.

When you turn it over it should look like this from the front.

Then glue into place on your background sitting on your branch.  I used a glue gun because I was in a rush but you could also use tacky glue.

Make sure you leave it open like a pocket.

Now each child needed an egg for their nest.  You could easily make this out of paper but I wanted it to have a 3D look to it so I bought these styrofoam eggs at the dollar store...6 eggs for $1.50...enough for 12 kids.

I cut each egg in half and pulled out the hanger.

Glue into place inside the nest with some tacky glue.

I then came up with a bird template....sketch out bird , you can use my Bird Template if you wish.

I traced it onto some cereal box cardboard for a sturdy template.  I gave the kids photocopied pages from a bird book.  We traced the Bird Template onto these pages and cut it out.

We added some of the titles from the bird pages onto the bird...glue in place.

Then using our tempera disks we added a bit of color.

We glued on an eye but you could paint one on or cut one out of paper if you wish.

Spread some glue on the back.....

...and secure in place.

Here I stamped out the words to my Haiku but the kids are doing theirs on the computer (part of their computer class).

We then cut out each individual word and glue into place on our project.





That's it...I'm hoping to get the display up by Friday so I hope to have some pictures of their efforts for you then.

Speaking of displays I have to show you some recent work by the students

Here are the penguins done by Grade One...sorry for the reflections but they are in the display case.

If you are interested in making these you can follow my tutorial here.

Here the Grade 4's have taken the Knights and Princesses from this lesson and added some castle backgrounds.

We are also working on a large mural as a backdrop for the rest of our Knights and Princesses.


Well that is all for now....I'll see you next time.