Thursday, January 8, 2015

In the Art Room: CD and Embroidery Hoop Loom Weaving

I hope this blog post finds you either A. Experiencing a Snow Day; B. Enjoying an electric blanket/hot chocolate combo or C. Somewhere other than the subzero temperature land the rest of us seem to be enduring. As for me, I'm enjoying myself a two-hour school delay with a cat on my lap and a cuppa hot tea. And weaving. Because that's what days like this are perfect for!

In case you didn't know, I've declared January the Wonderful World of Weaving month (or something like that). Here's what I've shared so far:

The Weaving Series: Paper Loom Weaving (perfect for first grade)
The Weaving Series: Straw Weaving (second grade and up)
The Weaving Series: Circle Loom Weaving (second grade and up)

In my last post, I shared with you Circle Loom Weaving which, if you go about it like I do by having the kids spend a couple of classes painting their plate, can be a long project. If you don't have that much time to invest in a project, then this CD weaving is just the thing for you and your kids. It's fast and fun and teaches the same weaving skills learned in circle loom weaving!

Now, I gotta tell you, everything I learned about CD loom weaving came from my friend Julie O'Brien who has the super fab art teacherin' blog Art Matters. In this particular post, she does a great job walking you through the steps of CD weaving. I'll be sharing with you a coupla short clips today but go to her post for detailed photos and printable step-by-steppies. 
Supplies:

CDs: Send out a school-wide email and you'll end up with more than you could ever image.

Yarn: A lil for warping and a lil more for weaving.

That's it! Let's get started:
In this short clip, I'l show you how to warp you loom. I always avoided CD weaving because I thought the warp strings would move around on the circle of the CD. Surprisingly, it doesn't! Well, not much anyway. And if it does, you can easily just slide it back into place. 
And there you go! Please feel free to ask any questions in the comments. I'd also love to hear some alternatives to teaching CD weaving you might have. Or what you've done with the finished result!
Another alternative to circle loom weaving would be weaving on an embroidery hoop! I shared this technique this summer if it looks kinda familiar to y'all. 
I think this project would be great for an art club since it would require each kid to have an embroidery hoop. Again, ask around. I bet you'll have embroidery hoops comin' out yer ears. 

I made a bunch of these guys this summer and currently have them hanging like a mobile in my art room. I'd love the kids to weave a collection of them and hang them in front of my school's large bank of windows. Wouldn't a bunch of these kind of weavings in a variety of sizes look great? Here's the method I use to create these weavings:
Very similar to circle and CD loom weaving, right?
And there you have it! Stay warm, kids. Looks like my two hour delay is just about up, time to get ready for the day. Enjoy yours!

 photo signature_zpsd10b3273.png

6 comments:

  1. Awesome Post! I planned weaving also for this month. My room looks like the yarn box exploded! I will post soon. I love the pom poms too! Did you make them or the kids?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm loving this weaving series - thanks so much! Can't wait to get the kiddos weaving again soon in class.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey, how do you do all those awesome loopy thingies on the embroidery hoop weavings?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I recognize that as loopy yarn-is that right Cassie? I love how many great textured yarns are available now, but I have my students start with smooth yarns until they get the hang of it. Sometimes all those loops and bumps can be frustrating for beginning weavers. :D

      Delete
  4. Hi! I started CD weaving a few years ago as an alternative to building looms with my Art Club kids. You can check out our museum installation over on my blog. We had over 500 weavings to begin, and then the community and museum visitors made many many more! It was a huge success. It's been gratifying to have people all over the world making them- I've heard from people in Brazil, Colombia, Israel, Finland, and also I've also heard from several teachers in the US too. I love that a women's shelter is having the women each make one as part of a community art piece for their facility. And it's been part of several upcycyle events too. (And a text book publisher is using a photo of my Art Club artist's CD weavings- the book is in Portuguese.) :D
    The project continues with a recent month's long installation at Antioch University Seattle. My Art Club kids have enjoyed hearing about the world-wide enjoyment of a project that started with them! :D

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for sharing this quality information with us. I really enjoyed reading. Will surely going to share this URL with my friends.
    Παράθυρα

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for your comments. I appreciate each and every one :)

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.