First Friday Art Club enjoyed a special guest instructor for February 2017. Nuno Felting expert, Shannah Warwick of Blckbts sneaked out of her studio to provide a lesson in felting to excited tweens and teens, along with a couple of adults.
"Feel the difference between the fabrics."
After personal introductions and a little vocabulary building--- ie.knowing all of the items and terms used in this felting process, the ladies got rolling right along. And by rolling, I mean ROLLING! That action is almost the main activity required in nuno felting.---funny videos pending.
Wool Roving goes far
Learning the wonders of wool roving was step one. Merino wool is expensive and knowing how to make the most of your materials is important to an artist. Removing just wisps of the wool to use in your design is imperative for any felting student.
"Wisps of roving shrink in your final design"
Using too much roving in sections will cause uneven shrinkage of the final product and leave an awkward, somewhat unusable shape. This might be an effect someone wishes to achieve, but not in this class.
Wisp Away!
Students were instructed to find a partner and take turns placing the wool wisps in any pattern they chose, avoiding too much overlapping. If you look closer, you'll see there is bubble wrap as the first layer-bubbles up. The next layer is silk chiffon. The silk is the fabric foundation to the scarf being designed.
Tulle is the next layer after the design is complete.
Once the wisps are placed and the design is approved, the next layer is Tulle (sounds like "tool"). This netted fabric must be patted gently to meet the other layers and not move. Basically every layer becomes "friends" at this stage. Then a slight amount of warm, sudsy water is squeezed over the layers to prepare for the felting process.
Ball brauser is like a magic felting wand.
The final layer to this felted sandwich is another sheet of bubble wrap, this time bubble side down. The bubbles face inward toward the fabric and once the layers are rolled up, the bubbles, warm water, soap suds, and rolling action cause the fibers to interlock .
Pool noodles have meaning in the winter!
Who knew that pool noodles and bubble wrap were so imperative to the nuno felting process? Well, Mrs. Warwick was happy to share this knowledge with the First Friday Art Club. The mandatory therapy of bubble popping was momentarily allowed, but then the rolling had to commence. The rolling, as promised, was very exhaustive.....
The amount of rolling is a special "science" to this nuno felting process. Each piece needed to be rolled 800 times. That's right, 800! This gave a good upper body workout, but tired everyone out quickly. After 200 rolls, the layers are unrolled, then rerolled in the opposite direction. This gives every section equal friction, resulting in a uniform interlocked fibers.
800 rolls should have fuzzies poking through
Once everyone got their 800 Roll Workout, we needed to peak at the reverse side of the chiffon. If wool fuzzies were poking through the weave, rolling was complete and the chance to take out some aggression on the project had arrived.
Balling up the fabric, dipping it in warm, sudsy water and tossing it in a sink or tub several times shocks the fibers. This action might seem too abusive, but it is the final step to making a lovely nuno felted creation. Whoever said fiber work is just for wimps never put their muscles into this process.
It's like shrinky dinks!
Once the fibers are shocked and shriveled, it was time for the Big Reveal. Everyone was surprised how much the fabric shrunk. There is about a 30-50% shrinkage rate in this process. More shrinkage resulted if there was a lot of wool placed on the fabric. With less wool, there is less shrinkage.
Less surface wool = less shrinkage
Everyone loved their wearable art. Parents who were present requested an adult class to learn this process and have fun with their own peers. Adults just wanna have fun, too!
If you are interested in this process or have attempted nuno felting on your own, let me know! I love sharing experiences, but love seeing what else is happening in the world.
Next month we discover the expressive painting process of Pointillism. This process made famous by Georges Seurat and Paul Signac avoids paint strokes and prefers dabs and dots.
Let's call it the beginning of dot matrix!
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July is a big month for teens at the Southeast Steuben County Library. The Summer Reading Program takes over for six weeks, but we start with the First Friday Art Club. We ran our first ever Comic Con in 2015 called Library UnMasked. It was so much fun, we brought it back and planned other programs around it.
The Cape Quest Commences
"Cosplay Costumes" was a great theme to inspire young adults to design wearable art,
that could be worn to our Library UnMasked event.
We enticed teens to attend the comic con event with the prizes they could win, like weekend passes to T2C2, Twin Tiers Comic Con, and unusual library activities they could attempt after hours, but these bribes were not necessary. Creativity took over once the supplies were provided and a little guidance was given.
Slew of Supplies
Tetyana Buchholz (a.k.a. Tat, a.k.a. "FASHION SUPERSTAR") graciously donated her time to guide the design process. Tat brought a ton of materials sent to her by The Art Institute of Chicago, her alma matter. Our students appreciated the variety of textures, colors and items so much, the room was a chaotic creative cloud in moments.
Red and gold were popluar colors sought to make super hero design elements.
Gold + red + shields= super hero design palette.
One student took her art to a creepy level with dark colors, cobwebs and crows.
Crows and Cobwebs
Another student made an Olympic games inspired cuff, because she said, "cuffs are tough."
Cuffs = TOUGH!
Wale print yardage beckoned this student to create a warrior of the sea costume.
Wale Warrior
Textured scrapbook paper and duct tape made the most simple robot costume.
Gold-Bot
Capes and hoods were also popular.
Tat showed student simple techniques to cinch fabric and gather it. These simple suggestions allowed quick creation without the need of sewing machines.
Caped Crusader of the Night
This program was fun and easy to accomplish. Tat donated supplies, but many of these items are free to source from you local community. I saved lots of scraps from my home crafting collection and spread the word of need for particular items. With various donations, this program was free to host and there is still a TON of left-overs to plan an accessories project this Fall. The students enjoyed the freedom to create without worry of wrecking valuable supplies. I enjoyed seeing the variety of directions each student took to finish their project. Several of these designers attended Library UnMasked
and someone even won "Original Character" category!
Check out the latest Teen Tones blog entry to find our who won....
Stencils and etched glass were the focus of the SSC Library's First Friday Art Club in June. This project used clear glass plates, bottles and votive candle holders that I had in storage. Recycled jars from jams or sauces can easily be used to upcycle an object into a piece of art, in case you want to try this method. Re-usable stencils were purchased to show students the difference between a hand cut stencil and a purchased stencil. The library's Makerspace, the SSCL Creation Station has a Cricut Machine, which also aided in creating one-of-a-kind stencils with a professional appeal.
Feather stencils and Armour Etch cream
Glass artists etch with engraving tools or sandblasting machines, but the beginner approach is using an acid etching cream. We took advantage of Armour Etch, which works it's magic on the glass within 10-15 minutes. Engraving tools and sandblasting machines require lots of skill, time and practice.
Cricut cut stencil, weeded and placed on the glass
After cutting a stencil for my demonstration piece, I had to "weed" out the elements that were unnecessary to the design. Any space that reveals the glass and has the etching cream applied will turn a hazy, cloudy appearance--that's the acid etch cream doing it's job!
Armour Etch applies to the "open" spaces
Once the cream was applied with a tool (ie. very high tech cotton swab), the waiting game begins. If your surface is curved, like the bottle pictured, you need to keep a close watch that the cream stays in place and does not drip. As mentioned, any place the etching cream touches will have a hazy, cloudy appearance if allowed to sit for a few minutes. Students who took part in this class had their patience tested!
Flat surface and purchased stencils
The students naturally gravitated toward the plates, which helped them as beginners. (Curved surfaces test patience!) Although I cut several stencils on the Cricut machine (I had a lot of "Happy Father's Day" stencils prepped in consideration of the pending holiday), everyone wanted to get creative and set up their own designs.
Students creating stencils on the Cricut
One thing about designing in Cricut Design Space (and really any digital design work) is the time needed to train yourself in the software. Then there is the time needed to get your vision accomplished. Beside that bulk of time required, there is the cutting time taken by the Cricut machine. The process is much slower than printing a sheet of paper. This slowed our progress to a degree.
Luckily students became self sufficient and proficient with the "Gloopy Stuff" ("gloopy stuff" = Armour Etch!) and these are a few projects which were produced:
"Lobster" from the Armour Products stencils
Hand cut stencil with Armour stencils in the mix
The Crystal display for June
These projects are on display in the library for the month of June. Corning, New York is the "Crystal City," renowned for it's rich glass history. The Glass Art Society (G.A.S.) Conference met in Corning from June 9-11, 2016. The First Friday Art Club welcomed the G.A.S. Conference participants who visited the library with their own glass art.
YOU can make this with tools in our Creation Station
Teaching students how to create a hand cut stencil and how to proceed in the acid etching process is quite a challenge in under an hour and a half class, with 19 students on hand. Results were achieved, but I would prefer to split up this class into two sessions. Hind sight is always 20/20. Nonetheless, this project worked well and many visitors have stopped to enjoy the art on display. If you would like to create something like this, let us know! Our Creation Station is open to the public during library operating hours. Just a quick registration and tutorial will give you access to a world of creating. I hope to see you soon!
Check back in July for our Cosplay Costumes event recap. We are gearing up for another fabulous Library Unmasked on July 15, 6-8 pm.
Welcome to the first blog installment of First Friday Art Club for 2016. It's been a few months since we've had a chance to catch up on art instruction for teens at the Southeast Steuben County Library. I'm happy to see you again!
On February 5, we discovered the world of Mobile Sculpture. Wikipedia has a great definition of the term, which I shared with my students. Keeping instruction short and inspiring with several sides gave each student inspiration with room to use their own artistic license. I defined the term and showed a few images I took during my recent visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Calder at The Met
Shadows are equally important in this piece
After showing a few more images from an online search of "Mobile Sculpture," I let the students free to use any and all of the various materials compiled for this program. Aside from assistance with using hot glue guns, these results are from the hearts and minds of the students.
Triangle with layered paper
Well balance sculpture
Mobile Bling
Happy Student :)
Musical Mobile
Whovian Mobile--Tardis Included
There was a flurry of creative activity for over an hour before clean up was enforced. The students had a great time testing out the materials and having freedom to create without forced expectations. I love seeing their interests show in their artwork.
For March and April, we will be making ceramic creatures at The Rockwell Museum. If you wish to register, follow this link to join us, but space is limited. This is our first visit to The Rockwell and I am so excited to see what develops in these classes. Stay tuned for more art! Thanks for visiting.
