garden loom

I brought out some scraps of yarn for our garden loom the other day during my recess duty. Usually our garden loom is filled with earthy colored twigs, sticks, long grasses, and garden cuttings from work days but I like the splash of bright color here too!

The garden loom is wonderful Multiple Intelligence tool. It fosters the use interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences, and of course the spatial, naturalist, bodily-kinesthetic, and logical-mathematical intelligences.

If you want to find out more about how to build your own garden loom check out Weaving a Life and The Earth Loom Foundation. Our garden loom started as a hallway conversation "wouldn't it be great if..." and our wonderful NCS parents made it happen!

war weavings part 3

It was interesting to see how many of the third grade textile stories were related to war. Boys and girls created epic battle stories with ultimate destruction and rebirth, historical war references, or man versus some destructive element (robots, aliens, fires, etc).



Good versus evil is a part of any good storytelling, but I was struck by the number of stories dealing with death and destruction coming from my lovely third graders! I thought perhaps that this might be a way for some of them to process what they might be hearing or seeing on the news, in the media, etc. I thought of ways to relate these battle story weavings to the way another culture might retell their own battle stories in their textile art. While pondering these thoughts via a little googling, I found some interesting information. Athena is both the Greek goddess of war and weaving. Neith is the Egyptian goddess of war who wove all of existence with her loom. Or how about the Norse story of woman weaving on a warp of human guts and using arrows as a shuttle!



How amazing to think that this war and weaving relationship is so ingrained that it has become an intuitive part of human expression. These third grade war weaving stories are a primal retelling of our human story.

And one more connection to share, I found this video on the Penn Museum website featuring information about its show: Battleground: War Rugs from Afghanistan.

Notes from Afghanistan: War Rugs from Penn Museum on Vimeo.

third grade weaving part 2

The third graders have worked so hard on their weavings! I love when we get to take our time with a project- understanding, connections, and creativity are all intensified in a long process. It offers them the chance to persevere, to appreciate the time invested in making something, and to feel pride in a job well done.

I started using podcasts as a way for students to reflect on their art making process rather than just writing an artist statement. The kids LOVE doing this reflection piece! They are highly motivated to articulate their ideas in a meaningful way. Podcasting is a modern storytelling device and the perfect tool to share their textile art! I have some samples here but you can see them all on our vimeo page. Enjoy!

John from Shannah Burton on Vimeo.

third grade weaving part 1

Our third grade artists have created some beautiful textile pieces using the ancient art of weaving. The words "text" and "textile" come from the same Latin origin meaning, “to weave.” We have discussed how text implies a story or words and how storytelling is very much a part of textiles and weaving. With this in mind, our artists were asked to tell a story using color and pattern in their weavings. The third graders had some wonderful stories to tell!





I love this Doctor Who inspired weaving!






















Many students commented on how much they enjoyed the calm and quiet of weaving. This was the perfect project to take outside and enjoy in our school garden.










Shark Attack Ocean Story I'm glad this artist decided not to trim the edges of his weaving. It adds so much energy and movement- and looks like a jelly fish!








This artist did a beautiful job experimenting with the warp and weft.

kinder pinecone weavings

The kindergarten artists have been creating textile art! These pinecone weavings are a wonderful way to introduce the ancient art of weaving.



We talked about the spiral pattern found in the pinecone and how to use our "naturalist intelligence" in art. I showed them examples of weavings and talked about the warp and weft found in most of our clothes. They did a very simple up and down, over and under movement through the pinecone with their choice of different yarn plies and colors.





This was also a great way to observe each student's natural inclination to help me better understand what kind of artist they are- some pinecone weavings ended up being very technical, some wild and crazy, and all of them beautiful!



Becky of sweetiepie press introduced me to an amazing artist who uses a similar wrapping technique in her art. Take a look at the heart breaking beautiful art of Judith Scott and read more about her in this New York Times article.