I can’t believe a month has gone by since my last entry to this blog. Actually, in truth, I CAN believe it’s been that long. I’ve been in the “thick of it” with my grant project. The presentation and first workshop are less than a month away (January 14, 2012). I’ve been photographing hundreds of samples and working on the Power Point. I’ve also been trying to squeeze in holiday shopping, wrapping (a whole day’s worth!), sending off gifts to various family members, birthday celebrations and baking Butterscotch brownies. Of course, I managed to throw a workshop at G Street Fabrics into the mix as well! Last Sunday, I taught an adult and child class called “Wrapped Wire Animals”. I’ve taught this for quite a number of years at G Street and at The Art League School’s summer camp. I was inspired by the brightly painted wooden animal carvings from Oaxaca, Mexico. The workshop is always a fun experience and one in which I always learn something new. I let the students create any animal that they wish. I’ve worked out the chenille stem “skeletons” for many animals, but there is always at least one student who introduces me to an animal that I haven’t done before. In this class, I had two new animals…a hippo and an otter!
Students start out by creating an armature (skeleton) for their animals.
Next, they add stuffing to fill out the shape.
Then they wrap with a special gauze wrap that clings to itself.
I bring ½” cotton fabric strips to class in bright colors to mimic the Oaxacan animal carvings. The students use glue sticks to cover one side of the strip and wrap it around the gauze.
Some students add colorful wool yarn to their animals
Here are the completed animals from the class.
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