DIY: A Felted Foxy Wallhanging

This past Sunday I co-hosted a Pee-Wee's Big Adventure-themed Baby Shower (so much more on that to come ya'll. It was, like, the cutest thing everrrr, if I do say so myself. AND I do) for one of my most favorite friends in the universe, Mallory. Mama Mal's going with a fox-theme for her nursery (she's a big Wes Anderson fan with Fantastic Mr. Fox being the inspiration) so I created this here Felted Foxy Wallhanging for her and baby Lydia Dot!

Now ya'll might recall that I've been down this felted-foxy road before with that What Does the Fox Say? sweater from a wee bit ago. This piece was more involved because I wasn't working on a sweater but creating a background from scratch (ya'll, what does that mean, "from scratch"? People be scratchin' stuff up to work with? Are they developing a scratchy rash? They make cream for that ya know. Just sayin'.) 

But before we get to that, lemme show you what I was workin' with. I found this frame on a thrifting adventure with this sad artwork inside. Okay, I get it, they're praying...or are they?! Let's look closely at this illustration and do a lil rewrite shall we? Here's the scenario, the police have busted in and shouted, "Alright, kid and all your toys, put those hands up and keep 'em where I can see 'em! TEDDY BEAR! No peaking! Dolly-on-the-chair, DID I STUTTER?! Get those hands up! We're not leaving until we find My Little Pony. Horse! We know you've had it out for her since she got to town. Cuff 'em!"

Okay, I admit, that story line is a little weak. Since I couldn't make it work, I ripped it out and eventually used it as the backing for the piece.

For the background, I decided to play around with this assortment of fabrics. As I went, I threw the fabric I didn't intend to use on the floor (because that's where things go when you are a slob, ya'll). When I saw that pile of fabric on the floor MOVE, I nearly had an unfortunate accident that woulda required an outfit change. Gingerly, I picked up the fabric...

To find this sweet baby underneath. Since my buddy Mallory is allergic to cats, I was glad Asha had decided to settle on the fabric I wasn't intending to use! By the way, you can see a sweater I felted dedicated to this lil girl here. 

Once I had my pieces picked, I either stitched or appliquéd them together. This went together pretty quickly. Which was good because I was making this present the day before the shower. You know. Cuz Procrastination is my Middle Name (actually, that's not true. It's actually B*tch Face but I only tell my closest of friends that secret. Keep it on the down low, would ya?).

From that point, I drew out my design, traced it in Sharpie, cut it out and pinned it in place. 

When felting, I often begin by creating an outline. For this you have to use 100% wool yarn. As I needle punched, I did puncture the paper quite a bit but that didn't harm the needles or the design. As far as supplies goes, I use a Clover Needle and felting mat. 

Once my outline is complete, I filled it with wool roving. I did post some short clips on the you tubes a while back of a simple felting tutorial. You can check it out here if you can handle my aforementioned B&tch Face.

I didn't want to outline the muzzle so for that I simply traced the pattern in chalk. I like to use chalk because you can erase it pretty easily. I filled that space with white roving. By the way, amazon also sells a whole lotta roving...but I think buying from an independent supplier might be a better. I kinda feel like amazon is becoming the internet version of Walmart, it's taking over the world. But I digress.

 A little cheek and a wool yarn mouth.

For the eye, I decided to try stenciling. I know you can buy felting stencils so I thought I'd give it a try. It worked great! Def gonna be doin' that again.

See? Cake.

For the hankie, I used the same process I had for the white fur muzzle: trace with chalk and fill in. I did attempt some shading with a couple different values of that sea foam green. I thought that complimented the flatness of the fox.

Speakin' of fox, it was about that time that hubs popped in my sewing room to ask if I was planning on changing outta my pajamas. Ever. Answer: NO. It's called Summer Vacay. Pajama-Changing is optional.

Once the fox was finished, the rest went off without a hitch. Or should I say b#tch? Regardless, 'twas easy cakes. 

My fave part was probably the lettering. I simply laid the yarn out and commenced punching it in place. 

Complete, yippie! NOW, I'll change outta my pajamas and slip into something less Goin'-to-the-Walmarts-esque.

I was super nervous when Mallory opened her gift...gift-making folks, you know what that's like. What if she hates it? What if she throws in on the floor and projectile vomits on it? These are the thoughts that run through my head. Like, all the time.

Yay! She likey!

Now, this wallhanging puts me in the mind of what I'll be up to this weekend: I'm teaching a Felted Pet Portrait class in Nashville! There are still a coupla spots left if you are interested. Deets here, ya'll. Hope to see some of ya'll there!

What the Art Teacher Wore #103

Movie Makin' Monday: Well, trying to anyway. I spent my Monday working on and taping my presentation for The Art of Education's summer conference. I don't know why I get nervous taking to a video camera when there's no one around but when I saw that blinking record button, my hands got sweaty every time! crayon clip: made by me; felted art supplies blouse: made by me, DIY here; skirt and sandals: Anthropologie, old; belt: Pin Up Girl Clothing

Whut is UP, party people?! I hope these summer days of yours have been super fun, filled with relaxation and lemonade. Relax-monade. Tis my favorite drink.

This week, I poured a whole lotta thought and time into my presentation for The Art of Education's summer conference. Who out there is planning to attend? If you've no earthy idea what I'm talking about (don't worry, happens to me a lot), lemme break it down for ya: Jessica Balsley, the genius behind the Art of Education, hosts a biannual online all-art-teachin' conference that features about twenty 10 - 15 minute presentations by art educators from all over the world. I was fortunate enough to attend and present at the last conference and it was fantastical. 

This go-round, my topic is something I'm passionate about: Why my Students are Tech-Free in the Art Room. I've thought long and hard about this and it's a topic that's sure to rub a coupla folks the wrong way. You can read a lil more about this topic here, if you wanna.

I have a lot of scattered thoughts on this topic so it took me some time to put them together in a presentable presentation (and whether or not it's actually presentable is still up for debate). Once I'd prepped my thoughts and dialog, I was set to record...unfortunately, a certain furry friend of mine wasn't making that easy for me. Get outta my chair, kitty! (said in my best Cartman from South Park voice).

Totally Bright Tuesday: While I was in Charleston, I went to their evening City Market which was super cool and way more interesting than the daytime. The evening event seems to have more genuine crafters and less flea-market faire. Case in point: the artists behind that bright pink necklace of mine. They are created from polymer clay where the artist dyes the beads with pigment. I loved 'em so much, I had to get two! necklace: ; dress: Anthropologie; shoes: Shoe Carnival; belt: made by me

Now, I can't tell ya too much about my presentation cuz that'd spoil the fun. But I do wanna share with you what technology looked like when I was a kid: meet Speak & Spell and Speak & Math. Anybody else have these super amazingly fun toys as a kid?  I mean, what crummy parent buys their kids educational toys for Christmas when all she ever asked for was a Rainbow Bright and a Love-a-Lot CareBear (my therapist says I need to let this go. I fired her a%%.).  Can you believe I still have these guys? The Speak & Math still works and I do a fun demo of the toy during my chat. 

As a kid, technology never really did it for me. My school had one Apple computer that we all scratched each other's eyes out to play Oregon Trail on (only to die of diphtheria 3 minutes in). On the home front, aside from the Speak & Bros, I had a big a## Commodore 64 ('member them?) that I'd spend HOURS typing codes into just to watch it bounce a lil green dot across the screen. Yeah, good times. It didn't take me long to realize that I'd much rather spend time with my calligraphy set (my handwriting is super cute because of it) and my embroidery kit cuz the results where actually tangible and awesome.

Dinner Out Wednesday: Not gonna lie, after spending a coupla solid days working at home, I was super stoked to leave the house and go to dinner with the hubs. It's been a million degrees outside...but what I HATE is how all shops and restaurants keep their thermostat at sub-zero temps. WHY?! dress: Forever 39; sandals: straps made by me

Speaking of technology, I recently came across this sweet book and I've been pouring over it's amazingly retro pages.

Take a look at this first page. You can prolly click on it to get a bigger view. Let's count all the technology that we see in this here photo that is currently antiquated, shall we?

1. Rotary Phone. My grannie used to have one. One false move and you had to dial that number allll over again. Argh, so annoying! Not to mention that cord wasn't long enough -- how'm I suppose to multi-task (i.e. go to the bathroom and talk on the phone) when the cord won't reach?! Oh! Speaking of bathroom phone calls (which I don't do, that was a joke, ya'll! That noise you hear in the background is, uh, totally not coming from me) my baby sitter as a kid had a phone attached to her toilet paper dispenser. Like a rockstar.

2. Wall Clock. Okay, so that's not really outta style...or is it? I've got three hanging in my house and when the battery dies, well, game over. I've yet to change 'em out. The magical microwave and my phone always have the correct time.

3. Sewing Machine. Back in the day, every woman had one. And she made just about everything with it. The whole notion of DIY is definitely making a comeback...but I'm willing to put money down that more people have a laptop than a sewing machine. 

4. Fan. Okay, this I'm happy with, buh-bye fan, hello Central Air. My Rotary Phone Granny had no A.C. I lived in front of that fan (and the open refrigerator) all summer long. 

5. Camera. Even if people still have one, they don't use 'em. Phone photos have taken over.

6. Typewriter. I had to write papers in high school on one. Not gonna lie, happy to see that gone.

7. Record Player. My sweet librarian gave me an old school record player, I love that thing!

8. Big Box Television. Um. We still have one of those. Sigh.

Wow, isn't it funny to think of all that "top of the line" stuff that is now considered vintage? Do you think that in 20 plus years kids will recall all that stuff they used to spend so much time on (i.e. laptops, tablets, smartphones) and laugh at it's antiquated-ness? I'd hate to think of spending my students art time on technology that will be a thing of the past in the near future. You know what doesn't go outta style? Painting. Drawing. Sculpting. Weaving. 

Plotting and Planning Thursday: Not only have I been working hard on my presentation but I've also been prepping for a baby shower I'm hosting TODAY (Sunday!). My favorite art teacher buddy is having a baby and we (another art teacher friend of mine and I) are throwing her a PEE WEE HERMAN BABY SHOW! Holy crappola, ya'll, it's gonna be amazing. On Thursday my friend and I worked hard on preparing. I can't wait to share photos with ya'll. dress, belt and purse: vintage; shoes: Anthropologie

Now, maybe cuz I'm into all things retro, I do like to introduce my students to that technology of the past. One reason is because it's apart of our history that they'll probably never see again. Another is that with older technology, like this record player, you can actually see how it works. It's not just the magical rectangle that can do all this magical stuff. Older technology is big and clunky and functions before your very eyes. I found out the power of this when I brought out that record player in art class.

This little dude was just fascinated. 

Estate Saling/Thai Fooding/ Fabric Shopping Friday: The estate sale gods were good to me and my friends not this day. Oh, the lovelies I scored! I'll have to share 'em with ya. dress: vintage

This week I found out for certain that I'M GETTNG MY THRID AND FOURTH GRADE KIDS FOR AN HOUR! Yes I'm shouting because I'm so totes excited, ya'll! My plan is to introduce them to the world of sewing a skill I longed to learn as a kid.

I'm fortunate to have about 10 sewing machines in my art room (for an after school sewing class I taught last school year). I cannot wait to introduce my students to THAT technology. They get enough of the other kind, I say.

Now for the rest of my ranting and raving, ya'll will have to attend the AOE Conference! I hope to see you there. During my presentation, there's a live chat so all you tech folks can tell me what I'm missing. In the meantime, Ima get this cat outta my chair...

And go chill in front of that fan. 

Do ya'll have your kids use technology in your art room? How so? Love to hear from ya'll!

In the Art Room: The Best Dressed Art Teacher!

Hey, kids! That super cute art teacher you see before you (who I think could totally pass as a younger, cuter kid sis of mine), you've actually seen before on this here blog. You might have even voted for her during a lil Best Dressed Art Teacher Contest I hosted I while back. Face not ringing a bell? 

How abouts now? She looks just a pinch different, doncha think? It's amazing what a good eyebrow pluckin' will do.  Meet Natalie Friedl, Best Dressed Art Teacher extraordinaire! I was lucky enough to interview Natalie about her all-around art-teaching-awesomeness and I'm so excited to share her words of wisdom with ya'll today. So, without further jibber-jabber, take it away, Natalie!

Hi, guys! I'm Natalie Friedl and I've been teaching elementary art for 10 years, 9 of these glorious years have been at the wonderful Torrence Creek Elementary school in Huntersville, NC (right outside of Charlotte).  I am originally from NE Ohio where I graduated with an Art Ed. And Studio Arts degree from Kent State University.

I'm also married to the hunky Alan Friedl and we have a beautiful 5 year old princess named Felicity.

Me and the check we gave to Second Harvest Food Bank from our very first Empty Bowls night.

I teach the wonderful world of ART to Kindergarten through 5th grade artists at Torrence Creek Elementary School and have since the doors opened in 2005.  We are a Charlotte Mecklenburg School.  For the last eight years our population has been about 1200 students and this is our first year with half of that.  This year was very busy: in the fall I presented a workshop called "Hooray for Clay" with my partner-in-art, Alicia Waters, at the North Carolina Art Education Conference.  And in the spring, I presented our school's first Empty Bowls success at the NAEA conference along side 5 other wonderful CMS art educators. Whew...it's been a whirlwind of fun and art! I wouldn't have it any other way!

One of my favorite pics of a students empty bowl with her artist statement. To find out more about the Empty Bowls project and have your students participate, visit their website. 

  I love being an Art Teacher and have two important pieces of advice to other art educators:

Make like minded friends.
Don't get me wrong non-artsy people are good folks too but artsy-smartsy peeps just get our craziness! The best thing I ever did was to become friends with my BFF Sarah Beirne (http://faithloveart.blogspot.com/) while in art ed classes at Kent State University and then meet Wade Cox at the NAEA convention in New Orleans and help to hire Ms. Alicia Waters (http://teachartteachsmart.edublogs.org/).  These 3 amazing art educators are my ART TEACHER BFFs!  They are my support system for great ideas, new lessons, CRAZY talk, venting, NAEA and NCAEA travel buddies but most importantly my friends.

My team is a WONDERFUL support system too! Mrs. Joyce Mutter, our technology teacher and Beth Smiley, our media specialist help me to carry out my ideas into real life success along with being the best co-workers and friends a girl could ask for.

They get my crazy and we all need that.

Get involved.

Become a NAEA member, go to the conferences, become a state art ed association member and travel to their conferences or if you are lucky like me your district has art education professional developments. Shout out to Cheryl Maney - Visual Arts and Dance curriculum specialist!

By joining these organizations and attending their functions you become knowledgeable on what's new and you meet important people!

 Just like I did when I met my new friend, Cassie Stephens!

 Now, about Natalie's Frida Kahlo look...

I love teaching art to the little artists of TCES and this Halloween I decided to take a sick day to enjoy my favorite holiday. Well, I was so happy to find that Frida Kahlo herself had recently become a substitute in our system.  I quickly called her and she agreed to sub for me on Halloween!

I was sad to miss the fun but my students filled me in on her life, stories she told, new Spanish words they learned and completed the class with an oil pastel drawing of her including her pets, colorful tissue paper flowers and glitter galore! Most TCES artists loved her thick Spanish accent too!

To this day the kids mix my name up with Frida by calling me "Frida Friedl" and it cracks me up because I remind them that I was absent that day. So FUN! 

The amazing artwork that resulted in Frida's substituting stint.

Frida Kahlo has always been one of my favorite artists because of the vibrant colors she uses and her Mexican culture. Not to mentions, she was an amazingly creative and strong woman. After I traveled to Mexico several times I was under Frida's spell.  She is a colorful person to look at herself from studying many of her self-portraits.  It was a no-brainer for me to dress up as her.

 I drove to school with a black wig tied up with flowers, a large uni-brow and bright red lipstick. As I entered the school my Spanish began to flow and Frida Kahlo was in full force for the rest of the day.  We learned about Frida's life, studied many of her self-portraits and created a portrait of her with one of her pets using oil pastels, tissue paper flowers and GLITTER.  We even listened to Mariachi folk music as we created and also learned about El Dia de Los Muertos.  It was a fun and an exhausting day that left the art room floor very messy yet sparkly.

This was my first time--but not my last time-- dressing up in full costume as a famous artist. I have a lot more up my sleeve for next school year! I do enjoy wearing art themed shirts such as Warhol's soup cans, crayon shirts, Make Art Not War, Keep Calm and Teach Art.  I am not a stranger to crazy hats, crazy hair or crazy socks days either.  There have also been many a time where I have worn complementary colors and had reindeer antlers coming out of my head.

I urge all ART TEACHERS to dress up! The kids EAT IT UP and will remember more from you teaching with a unibrow than your paint-splattered apron!

(OMG, yous guys, don't you LOVE Natalie?! Can I puh-lease adopt her as my kid sister??)

I have tried a variety of super fun activities but the art making projects that mean the most are the ones in which we create art to help others.  Most recently our school participated in students rebuild in which we created enough magazine beads to give clean drinking water to over 40 people in Tanzania (studentsrebuild.org). This year was also our first Empty Bowls night in which the entire school created or helped create a bowl and then they were sold and auctioned off.  We raised over $2,000 for Second Harvest Food Bank!!!

 Some other very meaningful art experiences that we have participated in are cards for Vietnam Veterans and The Memory Project's - books for Africa.The first picture is of the magazine beads my students made for students rebuild.org. 

Thank you SO MUCH, Natalie! You are truly an art-teachin' inspiration! Her students and colleagues   are so lucky to have her, doncha think?! Unibrow and all. 

Now, this isn't the last you'll be seeing of Natalie and some other folks from the Best Dressed Contest -- oh no! They'll be featured in non-other than SchoolArts Magazine thanks to the editor Nancy Walkup. How exciting! I'll be sure to share that with you in the near future. Oh and if you need more art-teacher-dressin'-craziness, go here, ya'll. It's like a Starter Kit to Crazy Town. Until next time, ya'll!

In the Art Room: I Scream, You Scream

Ima gonna tell you a dirty lil secret of mine: during the summer months, I seek out and devour ice cream on a daily basis. I mean, I'm like some sort of rabid dog. Think Cujo but with eyeliner and a sailor's mouth if anyone should cross my whipped-cream-cherry-on-top path. There is no screaming for ice cream with me cuz that would be too easy. Oh no. If I'm refused my daily dip, I can be reduced to ugly-crying like that time at the McDonald's drive-thru when I was nightmarishly informed that their soft-serve machine was down. Hot, grimy, ugly tears.

Tell me, what kids don't love the ice creams as well? During our annual art show (deets here and here, ya'll), we also host an Ice Cream Social. So, the day before the art show, with all artwork complete and hung in the halls, I got the crazy notion that we should do one more masterpiece in honor of our said social. And, in 30 minutes or less, my 3rd and 4th grade kiddos busted out these bad boys. They really were the cherry on top of our art show.

So just how did the kids create these super delish paintings in 30 minutes? Well, Ima bout to tell ya. Let's start with my sad list of end-of-the-school-year/we've-just-about-used-everything-up supplies:

*  Rectangular white paper. I had actually run out of normal sized white paper and was reduced to using rando odd sizes found in my storage closet. These were about 5" X 9".

*  Broken crayons. I never buy crayons because we rarely use them and I'm always donated bags of 'em at the end of the school year by classroom teachers. Although, this upcoming school year, I think I'll invest in some construction paper crayons.

*  Watercolor paint. What's left of it, anyway. At the end of the school year, my trays were empty. So I busted out these odd bottles of watercolor I'd found at the back of my closet and they worked great. The kids knew they were working with a limited palette and to make the best of it.

*  Paint brushes. Duh.

For directions, I chatted with the kids for a hot minute on the whole crayon resist thing (they've been down that road before so they knew the routine) and how a whole lotta pressure was going to be needed to "put a raincoat on your paper" to help it repell the paint. Then we chatted about ice cream flavors and background designs. I really kept the chat short as they only had 30 minutes to create these 'creams.

I suppose a good art teacher woulda chatted about Wayne Thiebaud but I've never claimed to be a good art teacher. 

The kids spent a lot of time in watercolor land this school year. I loved seeing them using all the skills they had learned like this wet-on-wet background.

And this splatter-painted one.

Once complete, I mounted the kids' work on whatever construction paper I had left before hanging up this display outside the cafeteria where the ice cream social was hosted. 

Dude, this painting reminds me of the time my mom bought me an ice cream cone at Orange Julius ('member them?) at the mall after relentless begging. The moment she handed it to me, I took one lick and shoved all those neat spheres of ice cream to the floor (notice I said "spheres" instead of "balls". Who else has learned the hard way never to use the word "balls" around 10 year old boys?). My mom just gave me a "Really?" while the angst-ridden dressed-like-Madonna (it was the 80's, ya'll. Girls were either on Team Madonna or Team Lauper) rolled her eyes and yelled: I NEED ANOTHER ICE CREAM CONE! to her cohorts. To this very day, I prefer non-tongue-push-over-soft-serve for that very reason.

Wait, where was I again? Geesh, sounds like someone needs therapy (who am I kidding, sounds like someone needs more therapy). Back to the paintings: there you have it! A super easy and quick painting that's just as delightfully fun to create as it looks. Happy Ice Scream Painting, ya'll!