Artist profile: Crocheted Flowers by @knotted.2020

Today I wanted to share the fiber art of one of my former students @knotted.2020   

For years, she has crocheted many items, including blankets and cute pumpkins for the fall. I supervised a crochet class she taught at my school and sadly, I was the only student who couldn't figure it out, lol. Knitting and crochet has always been so hard for me, I don't know why!

Currently, she is making and selling gorgeous flowers and flower bouquets. 

These make the perfect gift as they last forever! I want to promote her small business as she was such a wonderful student; she was always a very kind, helpful and hard working.

I'm so happy that she is currently in university studying to be a teacher :)

Her Instagram is  @ knotted.2020   

She is located in Calgary, Alberta.

She sent me some progress photos to show how she creates a tulip.

(she could also have a career as a hand model, am I right?!)

Some of her finished bouquets:

  

She also crochets pumpkins and pine cones for the autumn season! 

 

Observational Plant Drawings

I have a lot of plants in my classroom. They have proven to be very useful over the years for a spontaneous art projects. One of my favourites, that require no prep, are observational drawings. 

With this group, Grade 7-9, we practiced first directly drawing them with black markers. Afterwards, they could choose their own media- most chose watercolour. 

Observational drawing is an excellent way to help students learn to draw what they see. It is difficult at firs but the best way, in my opinion, to strengthen one's drawing skills and build confidence. 

 

Hoop Weaving

I saw some gorgeous hoop weaving in a fancy gift store one day and figured I could probably figure out how to make one. I enlisted the help of a colleague at work who also happens to be a master weaver!

See here work on Etsy HERE

https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/wanderingweaverstore

Or Instagram: @the_wandering_weaver

She bought bamboo embroidery hoops of various sizes. She taught the students (Grade 7-9) how to wrap cotton twine all around the hoop for the warp strings. 

Then she demonstrated how to start off weaving in the middle with the classic over-under-over-under method. Then she demonstrated the sumac weave. 

Students had the most fun choosing the colours for their weaving. Strangely enough, blue and cream were the most popular colours! Once they started, they quickly got the hang of it!  These take a long time to complete so it's best to start off with smaller hoops.

Here's some in-progress photos- most kids had to take their hoops home for the summer to finish. 

 

One Eyed Alien Art Project

This is a Grade 5 project I developed quite a few years ago. I was perusing my local Dollarama and found really big googly eyes (about 1" - 2" in diameter). I immediately thought of a cool one-eyed alien project. This lesson really challenges students' creative skills.

This project was published in SchoolArts Magazine a few years ago. 

You only need simple materials for this art project:

black construction paper
white paint or white paint pens (for stars)
markers
copy paper
large googly eyes (1- 1" diameter)

scissors and glue sticks

See all the steps to this project in my previous post HERE.