I finished this book a couple months ago, and am just now getting photos posted! This customer wanted a 12 x 14" book in which employees could adhere letters to their retiring coworker. The cover is handmade gampi paper that has been walnut stained, the pages are Canson Mi-Teintes in Azure, and the closure is a found twig. I had a hard time giving this album away.
I am incredibly behind with my blog posts! But better late than never, right? I'm beginning to give in to and be okay with my artist-tendencies, which often means things will be last-minute or late or not done to the full extent I would ideally want, but sometimes it just doesn't matter! We worked on this project the entire month of April, with an opening reception held the first Friday of May.
To recap, I was very blessed to be able to do this project through the Nebraska Arts Council's Artists in Schools/Communities program with the help of the Lincoln Arts Council and Riley Elementary School. Each third and fourth grade class designed and created a nuno felted tree for a total of five trees which now hang in the Riley Media Center.
Mollie Magnuson with the LAC helped me prepare for the project in the images below:
Cutting down 175' of bubble wrap and duct taping to make pieces wide enough to cover each tree.
Onion dyeing silk chiffon to prepare the fabric for the kids to nuno felt.
Drying 40 yards of onion and coffee dyed silk chiffon.
Explaining how I connect journaling, drawings, and tree imagery into my own work.
Students are adding their drawings to the silk using dye crayons. We decided to only use the crayons on two of the five trees, a huge relief because you have to iron every inch of the crayon drawings before they can get wet!
Cutting silk chiffon so the pieces can be laid onto the main tree fabric.
Students are helping one another keep their skeins of wool yarn from getting tangled as they "draw" with the yarns onto silk.
Just about every student used their handful of wool roving to make a Santa Claus beard. This boy was extra creative with his unibrow.
A single tree with wool roving and yarn drawings, waiting to be felted.
Wetting down the piece after tulle is laid over everything to keep the wool in place. The days it was nice enough to go outside were the best.
Bubble wrap laid on top to help with agitation. Amazing, the excitement that ripples through the crowd when they see bubble wrap, and the shared disappointment when its explained that the bubbles need to remain unpopped for the felting to work.
Rolling up the package. Layers from the bottom up: plastic, silk, wool drawings, nylon tulle (mesh), bubble wrap.
Tying up the package with nylon stockings to hold everything together.
Everyone wants to be the first to roll the package. Such hard little workers: you can come to my studio anytime with that enthusiasm!
Each class helped with the rolling of all 5 trees. This Steelers fan is helping one group of rollers by counting the number of times they've rolled their package. Each tree had to be rolled approximately 1000-2000 times (little arms produced huge variation in how fast the trees felted).
Happy Messy Rollers!
Adding hot water to three trees laying out on the cafeteria floor.
Some days we had to work in the cafeteria because of the weather. Thank you janitors for helping us with our wet & soapy mess!
Each of the five classes spent two class periods rolling the trees. Surprisingly, their spirits were high the entire time! I'm never this happy after rolling for an hour.
I really do wish I had these felters as my studio assistants!
Demonstrating the "pinch test", how to tell that the wool is beginning to wiggle through the weave of the fabric.
Explaining the Fulling Stage: the step after a successful pinch test when you're ready to begin shrinking the wool further.
Students made posters to invite their family and the public to the opening reception. I love that they think I'm more awesome than I really am!
At the moment, these trees are temporarily hung, but will be permanently installed as a forest within the school's Media Center. From what I hear, the trees were hanging on the Lied Center stage during the Lincoln Arts Council Mayor's Awards. Sadly I had to miss the event, but I'm so excited these young fiber artists got to share their installation pieces with a larger audience. Here, students are explaining the project to their principal.
At the opening reception, students were excited to see how their hard work transformed the wool & silk into art pieces.
Adults who made it happen: Riley Art Teacher, Jessica Northup; Me; Lincoln Arts Council Staff Member, Mollie Magnuson.
Below is a video made by Emily Bulling of the Lincoln Arts Council. I can't thank the LAC enough for all of their hard work!
I have much more to post, so stay tuned to read about my trips to the Surface Design Association Conference in Minneapolis and the Cottonwood Festival in Hastings, NE, as well as some custom books I've been working on recently!
