In the Art Room: Those First Days of Art Class, 2

Oh dear Lawd. Please don't ask me what is happening here as I've no explanation. 

Well this here blog post is just a pinch delayed! I do believe we're heading into the second MONTH of the school year in my neck of the woodz. Howevers, since I did post a First Days of Art Class last year, I thought I'd share another this year. Some things have changed (with some influence from Teach like a Pirate by Dave Burgess, one of our Artsy Book Club choices) while some have remained the same. I thought I could best explain myself (complete with odd hand motions, apparently) in a coupla short vid clips. One thing I forgot to mention in the clip are the flashcards I used on that very first couple of days. You can see 'em here...

I like to use flashcards at the door as the kids enter. To get them into this routine, I flashed 'em these as they entered. Once everyone was in and on that red line, I told them that this group of words they read had two things in common: they were words that described them and words that described art class. 

Just a lil close-up of our Word of the Week. I actually see my kids on a 6 day rotation so this is more of a Word of the Every Six Day Rotation. Which wouldn't fit on my sign so I took some liberties. Since we are in our 3rd rotation of the year, we've thus far chatted about the words "artist", "unique" and "creative".  As far as artist inspirations go, we've looked at Kandinsky, Hundertwasser (boy, that was a fun name to teach the kids) and and Rizzi. We've yet to use the phone to Dial-an-Artist...I'll let you know when we do.

That Spring Drum was pretty rad, amiright? I know you want one. They are made by Remo and if you google "spring drum" for a hot minute, you'll find tons of retailers with 'em for cheap. Mine is a larger size but I'm willing to guess a smaller one would work just as well. Lookie here.

What?! Rules are SUPER FUN to go on and on and ON about, riiiiight? That Sound Machine can be found here.

My rules with some Haring illustrations. I'll eventually post these permanently somewheres in the art room. By the way, those questions I ask the kids can be just about anything. I just wanna get them talking and feeling comfortable. I also wanna keep it kinda short for those long winded friends of mine.

In all honesty, I've yet to use this routine. I can't seem to break myself of my normal habit of getting the kids attention which is either playing my Energy Chime (thanks, hubs!) or saying, "Point to the ceiling. Point to the floor. Point to your nose. Point to your toes." That usually does the trick. But I'm gonna keep trying.

Um-hmm, y'all better behave. Less you wanna look at this. 

Oh, I did mention The Smartest Artist in that clip. More deets here. AND Dot Day! We're closing in on the big day! I'd love to hear what you are up to. I just hope my genius artists can finish in time, agh!

Oh! And in case you missed my Virtual Room Tour posted a coupla weeks ago, here you go!

Chat with y'all soon.

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DIY: A Kandinsky-Inspired Dress, Part 2

'Kay, so when I decide to quit art teacherin' and become a Big Time News Anchor, this will be my promo shot. My tag line will be sumpin like, "Cassie Stephens...where there's news, she'll find it (especially if it's celebrity gossip as she's exceptionally shallow). Where there's sports, she'll report it (for example, the fine sport of sniffing out sales at Anthropologie). And where there's unfortunate fashion choices, She'll. Be. There." Eh, whatevers. Maybe I'll just stick to art teacherin'. 

I may or may not be a totes glutton for punishment. Just when I was No Where NEAR the finish line with my first Kandinsky frock, I up and started a second one. You know, because needle felting for hours on end totally wasn't to blame of the pain in my neck (erm, no, that'd be the hubs) and the  reason I couldn't turn my head without rotating my whole body. You know, classic Terminator style. Every time I turned in such a way in art class, I'd widen my eyes and say in my worst Austrian accent, "I'll be back." To which my humorless students just replied, "huh?!" It's so sad when a comic genius like myself goes unappreciated on a daily basis. But I digress.

In case you missed it, that's last week's Kandinsky can-can on the left. Both were made from Target dresses. I scooped up the white one from the clearance rack along with the hot pink belt. The LBD was a thrift store/Target label find. Personally, I'm more of a fitted bodice, puffy skirt kind of girl so I like the fit and finish of the one on the left better. Howevers, I do love how they look side by side, such a contrast of crazy.

I mightah mentioned that Kandinsky is coming to our local art museum The Frist Center for Visual Arts. Where I will be taking some kids field trippin and where I will be wearing one of these crazies. Or both. Every good field trip deserves an outfit change, amiright? "Excuse me, Mrs. Museum Docent, mind if I leave you with all 80 of these angelic children whilst I slip into Kandinsky Can-can Number 2? And by "Number 2", I don't mean I'll be, like, number 2-ing, I'm just going to change. Into my second dress. OH FORGET WHAT I JUST SAID...[slow turn of entire body toward docent] I'LL. BE. BACK."

To which the docent will laugh uproariously because she will have a perfectly wonderful sense of humor. Unlike some under-10-ers I know. Humph.

Color Study: Squares with Concentric Circles, 1913. While I was working on this dress, I definitely had a "favorite square". I'm in love with the one in the second row, second from the left. That sea foam-y turquoise color is my fave...as you can tell from the painting in the background behind these snapshots. Is there one that you are drawn to? 

So in my sewing room, I actually have a stash of thrifted clothing that is just waiting to be DIY'ed. Some of it is tattered and some of it is boring (by my tacky standards). And I can't seem to part with 'em because for me, they're like blank canvases. Which makes me sound artsy and uppity when I'm really closer to fartsy and shluppity (I've no idea what that means and yet it describes me perfectly). What I'm trying to say is that I'm a hoarder with benefits. The benefit being that when I get an wild and wacky idea, I usually have the crapola on hand to make it happen. 

Like this Lil Black Dress. Or Lil BLANK Dress as I like to call it. It's a funky little number with a peebled pleather neck and cap sleeve and a rectangular panel of fabric down the front. I'd originally bought it cuz I thought it looked classy. And then promptly never wore it because, well, it looked classy. When I pulled it outta the hoarder heap, I realized that the rectangular line of fabric down the front would be just the place for me to felt those concentric circles. Which, by the way, I'm hoping come across as concentric circles and not a dress of colorful nipples. Pretty please lie to me and tell me it doesn't. Puh-leeeeeease!

To start the dress, I did a lil bit of math to make it so my dress was divided into equalish squares. Then I proceeded to watch back-to-back episodes of old Project Runways and felted away. Okay, I guess I should go into a pinch more detail. I use wool roving and place a cushion inside my dress. With my little needle felting tool, I commence stabbing the roving until it came through to the other side of the fabric.

Once that color was felted in place, more was added and felted. If you're kinda new to this blog, I'm not trying to be vague about this process...it's just that I do it a lot. And I've blogged about it a lot. And made a handful of short video clips. I've also made One Million felted sweaters, dresses, even a hat. If you troll this blog for a hot minute, you'll find a million plus. 

Do ya see how simple this is? Even still, because of the translucentness (look! I invented a word!) of the roving, I did have to layer the crap outta it thus taking forever. Like everything I do. I function at a drunken and demented snail's pace, so there's that. 

Yay! Rainbow Brite Areola!

Oh, look, here you can see that faux leather detail at the top. I like that it gives the dress a tough edge.   

And there you have it! I'm saving this number not only for the art museum but also for Dot Day week. Fingers crossed I'll have at least one kid remember what a concentric circle is! Otherwise, I'LL BE BACK to teaching it. Again. 

Later, cats!

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What the Art Teacher Wore #112 and a Winner!

Muumuu Monday: Alright, so I know it's not fitted like a muumuu but it's a horrifying vintage number from Hawaii, so it's close. You know, sometimes, I look back on these What I Wore photos and I think "never again. Never EVER again." Oui. vintage dress: thrifted; shoes: Anthro, gift from a friend.

Happy Three Day Weekend to my friends in the states! I hope everyone has made the most of their time off. I know I've devoted the majority of my time occupying my pajamas and crafting. In fact, I done needle-felted so much I've a crick in my neck. It's been awesome having this extra day to relax and rest up for what's sure to be a wild and wacky week.

Just a coupla thingies before I go any further. Firstly, I have LOVED seeing everyone's finished aprons on the Apron Sew-Along Facebook page and in my email mail box (remember, you can send your photos to cassieart75@gmail.com)! I plan to share the finished aprons right here in an official blog post within the next coupla weeks. So you've got plenty of time to start stitchin' if you've not yet. I enjoyed this sew along so much that I was thinking...should we do another? If so, whatcha wanna sew?

And now I'd like to announce the WINNER of the Spiral Art Giveaway! Congrats to TROUTGIRL! 

 If you recall, I tossed the idea of a giveaway out there a couple weeks ago. To enter all you had to do was share your story of how you became the person you are today. What people inspired you? Who influenced you? How were you motivated? If you've not read the comments, you really should. As a teacher, I found them to be so inspiring not to mention tear-jerk-er-y (which is nothing like beef jerky, in care you are wondering). THANK YOU so much to all of you that shared your personal story. I loved every one! As promised, I put everyone's name in a bowl and randomly drew one. I told y'all I'd share the winner's story...as well as send the prize. So, without further chitty-chat, here's Troutgirl's tale: 

I grew up in rural West Virginia where my art studio was the woods and the creek in the back of our house. I used to make early versions of Andy Goldsworthy sculptures out of sticks, ferns, and rocks in-between throwing them at my 2 older brothers who destroyed them as soon as I made them. From there I moved on to trying new mediums such as putting crayons in the toaster oven to make "candles". It didn't end well. I also had The Sunshine Family which were like Barbies but hippies with a vanagon and I used to make all sorts of things for them.I was into deconstructing and recreating most all my toys including painting my green banana seat bike purple with house paint I found. I am just wondering where my parents were? But the real influence was my 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Pence. She moved to our small WV town from the exotic land of Michigan and we all loved her. She was always very tan and had hair that flipped up. One day Mrs. Pence brought in barn wood and Mod Podge for us to make collages! To this day I LOVE the smell of Mod Podge. It makes me happy. We also make a quilt about our town, did a play, and painted landscapes. It was the first time I loved school. Being an artist wasn't even an option where I grew up but luckily I am super stubborn and always found a way to use art as a classroom teacher then jumped at the chance to just focus on arts education. My art studio still is the woods of the Pacitic Northwest and I finally learned how to make candles the right way.

Rainbows and Unicorns Tuesday: I hosted what I hope will become an annual Donuts with the Art Teacher for parents interested in volunteering in the art room. It went really well and I now have a wee army of moms and dads that are willing to help a crazy art teacher out. More details on how I worked my bribery magic to come. top: thrifted; skirt: vintage, etsy; shoes: Target, last summer; necklace: Paper Source; hair palette: made by me

Speaking of spirograph...I did a lil googling to find that there actually is a HUMAN SPIROGRAPH. His name is Tony Orrico and he's a self proclaimed "artist, performer and choreographer." A former dancer, Orrico performs for up to four hours at a time to create his designs. Armed with a Sharpie in each hand, he works meticulously to create these spirograph-inspired drawings. When the Sharpies start to squeak and run out of ink, the drops them, grabs another set and resumes his work with his nose to the floor or wall.

Watching him is fascinating. I loved hearing about his inspiration. I plan to share his work with the kids this week as apart of our celebration of Dot Day.

Wild Wacky and Always Tacky Wednesday: I love this ridiculously tacky outfit. It's a lifetime goal of mine to look like a middle-aged Rainbow Brite. top: vintage, thrifted; skirt and shoes: thrifted

I think this series of his is my favorite. But, really. Can you imagine working like this? He works by pivoting around on his stomach using his feet to direct him and his arms to create the work. What would that be like, to lay on your stomach for hours, not being able to see your creation? When he stands up and sees what he's made, is he surprised? 

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Backwards Thursday: So I spied this dress on the sale rack at Anthro while out shopping with some art teacher buddies this week. I lurved it's bold Andy Warhol-esque but didn't like how it was designed. You see, I'm actually wearing the dress backwards. Which means, when worn correctly, that cape thingie is in the back and it TOTALLY looks like a miniature superhero cape but not in a good way. But, when worn this way, I think it's adorbs. So just seam-ripped out the tag and wore it backwards. In true crazy lady fashion. dress and belt: Anthro

Looking here, I wonder if he purposefully changes the value of his markings or if that's unintentional. On another note, this photo cracks me up. He looks like a kindergartener having a fit on the floor, "argh! I'm so angry Ima gonna just scribble all over the place!". Sorry, Orrico. 

 Half a Day Friday: Well, the kids had a half day, we had a whole one. You teachers know how that goes. I find 'em to be more exhausting than a whole day. But the thought of a three day weekend made it pretty painless. top and skirt: vintage; shoes: Frye, Marshall's

While the ones on the walls look like hairy brains to me (which I like as I often feel fuzzy-headed), I'm in love with the piece on the floor. 

After watching the youtube clip, I really thing that Orrico needs to start is own workout DVD series as this looks like the most insane arm and ab workout I've seen. Seriously. I wanna try this! Who's up for a little Sprio-Body-Graph wit me?! In all seriousness, I love Tony Orrico's work and I'm currently trolling the interwebs for more. 

I do hope you all have a super fab SHORT week! I'll be back shortly with a DIY and a coupla video clips of what life is like on the first couple days of my art class. Until then!

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DIY: Apron Sew-Along, Putting It All Together

As I type up this here blog post, I've got my feets up, my hair down and my Brand New Reversible Apron with Ginormous Pockets on. Yay, it's finished! As I was finishing up my apron this past weekend, I was suspiciously surprised by how smoothly everything was going. I mean, my seam ripper was actually collecting dust! I remember looking at it, flipping my hair and thinking, "Humph! I don't need that old thing anymore, I'm BEYOND mistakes," which, of course, was like The Kiss of Sewing Death. As you'll find out in the following clips, it didn't take me but a hot minute to make a big-fat-hairy omg, my apron is practically hanging down to my ankles mistake. But don't you worry, I'll fill you in on the oops-deets so the same won't happen to you.

Now, if you've not started on your apron yet, lemme direct you here. In this post, I'll introduce you to pattern and pocket making. 

In this here post, I'll share with ya how to do the following:

*  Make your neck strap (which, for some reason, in the vid clip I refer to it as a "necktie". Der.)

*  Make your tie ends

*  Assemble the neck strap and ties ends to the apron

*  Finish off the apron and call it a day!

I'd also like to invite you to share your completed aprons on this here blog!

I mean, you've already been sharing 'em on the Apron Sew-Along Facebook page (which totes makes my day when I see 'em) so why not show 'em off here? I'd love to put 'em all together in one big ole apron-tastic blog post. I know several of you made children's aprons and/or went a totally different apron-sewing route. I think it'd be a blast to see 'em all! To make that happen, I do hafta set a deadline. If you haven't started yet, no worries! You still have plenty of time. Just to give you a deadline, please email me (cassieart75@gmail.com) or share on the Apron Sew-Along page a snapshot of you in your apron by Sunday, September 7th. I'd love a brief description on your fabric choices and where you plan to wear your apron. 

But before we can do that, we gotta finish this thing! So, without further ado, let's get to work!

Neck strap and tie ends. Because I like to have a bow in the front of my apron, I decided to make my tie ends 4" X 30". You could adjust that length, of course. You might wanna cut out a couple different lengths with your wrapping paper, pin them to your apron and see how that length suits you before cutting into your fabric.

If you plan to tie your apron in the back, you could use the same pattern piece for your neck strap and tie ends, thus cutting three pieces of fabric from one pattern.

To stitch, pin those right sides together. As I mentioned, I like the ends of my pins to face my sewing needle. I don't wanna chance running over a ball with my sewing machine. No one likes squished balls. 

For the neck strap, simply stitch the long edge, flip inside out and iron. I have a tool for flipping fabric but you could just as easily use a safety pin or maybe a pencil. Youtube can help you out with tips and tricks on that.

For the tie ends, you'll not only sew the long end but also one short end. To do that, stitch the length of the long end, stop about 1/2" away from the end, lift the presser foot, rotate the fabric, lower the presser foot and stitch the short end. If that run-on sentence has left you confused, see the gif below. 

Make more sense?

To put the apron together, you'll need to pin your neck strap and tie ends on the right side of the apron (it doesn't matter which side). Now, my mistake was pinning everything in and stitching before I tried it on and checked the fit. Go ahead and pin your neck strap on and try the apron on so you can see if adjustments need to be made. Once you've got the fit where you want it, pin the neck strap 5/8" (or whatever your seam allowance is...mine is always 5/8") from the left and right ends (as seen below). For the tie ends, pin them 5/8" from the curve of the apron. 

You'll want to pin the tie ends to the apron body just to keep them out of the way as you stitch. Now, lay the other half of your apron on top of this with right sides together. Pin the top, curved side and sides. Stitch everything except the bottom.

Here I've got my right sides together and I'm ready to stitch everything except the bottom edge.

"I lay mah hands on ya apron and you'll be healed!" (said in my sad attempt to impersonate an evangelist. And that apron needed some healin' as you'll find out in that thar clip.

Here I'll talk making adjustments to my mistake and finishing the thing off.

Because my apron straps were too long, I went about fixing it by seam ripping out just the top of the apron, pulling those straps up, repinning and stitching again.

I snipped off the excess before flipping it right side out.

I finished off the bottom of the apron the same way I did the bottom of the pocket from the last apron post. I simply tucked the bottom inside, ironed and stitched. 

And, there you have it! There are definitely some things I might do differently on my next apron. I think I'd like the length longer and the pockets less tight. But I'm happy with the outcome and the kids have loved the print. I've been wearing it all week and feel kinda naked without it on when I'm in the art room!

Looking forward to see in your creations, kids!

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DIY: A Kandinsky-Inspired Dress, Part 1

I have officially gone off the DIY deep-end. I mean, I always knew I had a lil bit of trouble with focus  (if you read any of my posts for more than five minutes AND are able to follow the three different tangents I have constantly running, you deserve some sorta metal. Although metals are overrated, doncha think? You deserve a lifetime of chocolate. Or maybe a chocolate metal! Which, by the way, I don't recommend wearing on a hot day. Cuz people look at you real funny like when you're caught licking melty brown stains off your clothes. Not that THAT'S ever happened to ME. Ahem.) Er, wait. What was I talking about?! Oh, yeah. Focus. Or lack thereof, in this case.

At last count, I had about a dozen DIY's in progress. I keep starting another one then another one then, you guessed er, another-freakin-one. It's pretty much ridiculous. But when I get an idea, especially one that I'm excited about, I get this urge to start it right away. You know, before the excitement fades and I never get around to creating. So, like, I've got 99 craft projects but a completed one ain't 1. Well, that is, until this weekend when I forced myself to sit down, focus for more than five minutes and finish this Kandinsky-inspired number.

I was inspired to make a Kandinsky-dress for a coupla reasons. Our local art museum, The Frist Center for Visual Arts is having a great big exhibit of dude's work this fall/winter and I plan to take the kids field trippin'. Ole Kan's also been one of our weekly Artist Inspirations and an influence on some of our Dot Day projects. He's, like, kinda a big deal in my art room. So, despite a kindergartener telling me today, "Mrs. Stephens, you have too many art dresses!", I decided to make Kandinsky's Composition VIII into a dress.

Now, y'all might recall that last school year, I got it in my big-fat-Bump-it-wearing-head that I should make an artist-inspired dress a month. Before I go any further with this Kandinsky-can-can, I thought I'd (re)share these lil numbers with ya. 

My very first ever art-inspired dress was that Hokusai Great Wave number. Then I scored some splatter-tastic fabric online and stitched up that Jackson-Pollock frock on the right.

One of my fave ways to alter a dress is with appliqué. For both of these dresses, I cut out the letters/shapes, attached them to the fabric with a wee bit of Stitch Witchery (which is like iron-on glue for fabric) and then used an appliqué stitch around the edges. I'm not gonna lie, stitching the Warhol dress was a huge drag but the Magritte birds were a snap. 

These two dresses, like the one I'm sharing today, were needle felted. And I think that spending a coupla back to back hours hunched my Kandinsky dress could explain the unpleasant pain I've had in my neck all day (hello and thank you, Advil). That Starry Night light up number took a while but The Scream took For-Eve-RRR. I really was screamin' for mercy in the end.

But enough about all that, let's talk about this wackiness, ermkay? So I'm kinda on this 80's revival kick right now. All the fun and funky florescent clothing and accessories I've been seeing around lately have really been makin' me happy. Not to mention inspiring me. So when I got the sudden notion that I needed a Composition VIII dress, I drug the hubs down to ole Target, snagged this dress and that belt from the clearance rack and set to work. 

Now, usually, I just create what I like to refer to as "Reverse Mullet Dress"es. You know, party in the front, all biznatch in the back. Howevers, with this dress, I had to make it 360 crazy. I mean, there's just so much happening in that Kandinsky painting...and I wanted to include it all. However, when doing so, I had to be very careful with what shapes I placed near the rear. I mean, I didn't want some huge target on my tush. I don't need to tempt the kids to take aim on me anymore than they might be inclined to, know-what-I'm-sayin?

Oh, that Kandinsky. Do you know the guy didn't take up painting until he was, like, 30? That's about the same time I took up sewing. And look! He became "the Father of Abstract Painting" and I became, um, "that Crazy Lady who Dresses Weird." 

Oh! Here's a lil look at the dress before. It is a lil on the short side so that's part of the reason I'm wearing the crinoline underneath. I'll probably wear a black t-shirt under the dress when I wear it to school so as not to frighten the children with my bat wings.

Now I've shared with ya all the deets of needle felting before (and if you need a refresher, you can visit here) so I won't go into it too much. I did my usual trick of sketching out my design in chalk before attaching with the wool roving.

Hubs walked in and was all, "why are you using such a small tool? Don't they make bigger ones?" I told him yes AND that they also make a needle-felting-MACHINE! "Why don't you have one?!"...um, because you've not bought it for me yet, I replied while batting my eyes. All I got was a "huh". So much for that idea! I really do need to upgrade my needle tool though. Geesh.

So much for following my lines. I mean, I really coulda gone without drawing them. It is abstract. I don't know why I was trying to be such a stickler. 

Yay! Kandinsky-ness, complete! But, even before this dress was done, I got the grand idea for THIS NEXT Kandinsky dress:

That's right. In true "oh, look, squirrel!" fashion, I got the idea for this dress, shoved Composition VIII to the floor and dove into felting this guy. I just happened to have this little black thrifted dress in the back of my closet waiting to be DIY'ed. Now, the only prob I've found with felting this dress is making it so it doesn't look like a dress of areolas, ya know? Like, ew.

And there you have it! Another artist dress complete. I cannot wait to be the giant dork that I am and wear this to the Kandinsky exhibit. Cuz you know I totally will. Until next time, y'all!

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