Seasonal and Festivals

This is a fun exercise to do before putting needle and thread to cloth. Students gain confidence as fiber artists using familiar materials and creating their own design. The quality of a crayon mark often foretells the quality of a stitch.

First, students practice making even, rhythmic, colorful dashes with stick crayons on strips of watercolor paper. They copy how the teacher carefully makes small, equal-size marks, while thoughtfully leaving equal-size spaces in between the marks.

Outdoors and in-person classes watch from an appropriate social distance as the teacher demonstrates on a large piece of paper with block crayons. They see how to build up the beeswax by going over each mark a few times to create a thick resist for the watercolor paint. The paint rolls off the areas where the crayon marks are placed.

Make good use of watercolor paper scraps by turning them into bookmarks, gift tags, name tags, and small cards. For this bookmark, I asked students to close their eyes and think of a beloved place in nature. They remembered the warmth of the sun, the touch of the breeze, the movement of grass and leaves, the presence of water, and how it made them feel. Everyone had a beautiful picture in their minds, and enjoyed putting it on paper.

Next, students applied a watercolor wash to the drawing. Not much paint was needed to get this art work done, and everything was cleaned up before the end of class. Designs will be showcased later beside their finished fiber pieces in a virtual art show for parents.

I‘ll share some of their work with you next time, and later, their sewing projects.