Woven Painting





This student chose to do a self portrait.

 

 It's no secret to my students that I love weaving projects.

There's something about the methodical over-and-under process that I find so relaxing and satisfying.

Here's a paper weaving project I did with a Grade 10/11 class. I've also done it with Grades 7 and 8.

They essentially did a drawing of the same image twice (they traced the first image onto the same sized paper) and then painted them slightly different colours. 

They could either go for opposite colours to create a high contrast checkerboard effect,

or go for similar colours to create a more subtle effect.

So here's a drawing of a falling over champagne glass- drawn exactly the same twice.

We used a tracing table- a window would work as well.

Then paint them both- we used acrylics and/or watercolours.

This student below chose a subtle colour change for her Egyptian piece.

Once both paintings are dry, you need to fold one in half and draw a line about one inch from the open end of the folded paper. This is the limit of cutting. Students could measure their cutting lines with a ruler or free hand cut them.  Most chose to measure.  The thinner the strips, the longer the weaving will take to finish. These strips are known as the 'warp'strips. The strips don't need to be straight but all my students made theirs straight.

For the second sheet of paper, cut the strips all the way through.  I suggest to students to measure and draw all the lines out first on the back, with a ruler, then number them, in case they fall down, or get mixed up.

You won't use the first couple of strips on both the top and bottom.

So here's the weaving at the beginning stages. The blue painting below has been folded vertically and cut into the 'warp' strips. Then the pink/purple painting is being cut across- the 'weft' strips (1 cm) and those strips are being woven into the blue painting.

So here's the back of the painting that's going to be cut into the 'weft' strips. Number them on the back just in case. You need to weave them in order so that the painted image lines up more or less. It won't be perfectly the same and that's ok.  Students stress over this part and try to get it all perfectly lined up and it just doesn't work. That's not the point of this project. So I found I had to continually emphasize that the drawings do not have to line up perfectly!!!



You can number the strips on the back to keep them in order.
Especially useful if a gust of wind enters the classroom and blows the strips onto the floor... yes, it's happened.



Over, under, over, under and so on.

Then start weaving- over, under, over, under- this takes time and patience. When you have a few strips in and it looks good, glue down the edges with dots of white glue to keep it all secure.  Students will find they don't need to use all the strips- the may take out some half-way through that don't line up and that's fine.

Here's a link to a very basic paper weaving lesson that may make more sense than mine did ;)

Here are some of the early finishers:

Ta da!



this student left a large, wide border which I quite like.

 

this student was going for a brocade look.