DIY: A Waterlilies Dress (and Jacket Refurb!) after Monet

 

Y'all know those people who go on vacations and come back and wanna show you their One Million Photos of One Million Boring Thangs? Well, this here post is kinda like that in that I've got One Million Photos for y'all. Hopefully they won't be as much of a snoozefest as yo mama's trip to Vegas to play the slots complete with pictures of the buffet bars and awkward drunken middle-aged lady dancing in rando fountains. Ahem. 

But when you spend what feels like One Million Years on a dress, you kinda wanna share the daylights outta it, you know? Therefore, I present to you A Water Lilies Dress after Monet in a gazillion pics or less.

By now, if you've hung around this here blog for a wee while (and for that, I thank you kindly), you know I kinda have a thing for creating dresses after famous artists and their works. My most recent one was this Mondrian number but then there's also been a Starry Night, a Warhol frock, a couple of Kandinsky's, a Great Wave,  a The Scream number, this Keith Haring jacket and skirt, and a Lichtenstein dealio. There are still a ton of artist-inspired dress ideas rolling around in my itty bitty head. 

However, when I saw that watery print fabric, seen on the skirt portion of the dress, I immediately thought of Monet's water lilies. Now, I picked up two yards of that fabric and the violet and chartreuse well over a year ago. It wasn't until the last couple of weeks, when I've had One Million Snow Days (have you noticed that One Million is a theme in this here post?) that I had time to dive in and start stitchin'. One of the reasons I hesitated for so long was cuz I knew I'd not only have to stitch up the dress but then do some needle felting after the fact. That's a whole lotta work and I'm a whole lotta lazy. But with endless hours of free time on my hands, I decided to jump right in. 

By the way, I used that lovely vintage Butterick for the dress. The pattern was super simple, especially the bodice as it had raglan sleeves, my personal fave. I also thought the wrapped waistband was clever and fun. 

Once the dress was created, I started sketching the water lilies in chalk and commenced needle felting. If you've no clue what needle felting is all about, might I suggest you take a visit here and here. 

Because there was so much color in the ensemble, I decided not to go with Monet's pink water lilies but the white ones. I was particularly inspired by this lovely painting of his. 

I found that needle felting was a great medium for recreating the same look and feel as Monet's works. Sadly, my style is much too tight. I wish I could better immolate the looseness of Monet's work. Although, wasn't dude like near blind when he was painting these works? Note to self: next time, take out contacts. Except I'm using a tool with three razor sharp serrated needles and I'm near blind. SoooooOOOooo scratch that. 

 Most frequently asked question about Needle Felting: 

How do you wash your clothing?

I don't. Hence the smell.

Okay, so sometimes I do. Since it's wool, which shrinks when agitated (that's how you do wet felting. And why your 100% wool sweater shrunk in the wash), I wash by hand in cold water with Woolite. 

 I dunno if I was successful or not but what I was trying to do was not simply place one million water lilies all over the skirt portion but to create a composition. That's why I started with the one lone flower and lily off to the (viewer) right and gradually angled upward toward your left. Make sense? Can you tell I had a plan in mind? I dunno if it worked or not. I do know that I'm so over needle felting that Ima gonna pretend it's just right.

I love a good wide belt. I thought I'd give you a sneak peak at the side view and the back of this dress. I think that band is one of my fave things about this pattern. I can't decide if I love the neckline curve detail. It's kinda growing on me.

 With the art teacherin' conference coming at the end of this month (OMG, so soon! Yikes! I've got four presentations that I'd love you to attend, y'all. More details on those dates and times coming soon. This blog post has enough going on already), I knew I'd wanna wear this dress. However, I'm kinda cold natured so I thought I'd want a jacket to go with this number. 

 In the "re-do me" portion of my closet (Yes there is such a thing. No, I never ever get rid of anything.), I found this Target jacket that I'd scooped up on super sale a while back. Like, I'm talking 4 years ago a while back. I'd never worn the the thing because it looked like this:

I loved the buttons, the gathered fabric at the collar and opening and those presh sleeves. I have ALWAYS HATED that length. Every time I put it on, I found it so unflattering. But the color matched my dress's bodice perfectly. So I decided to make a bolero outta the thing. (P.S. Welcome to my uber messy sewing room! There's so much fabric, books and crapola in that room that I'm just waiting for the day that the weight of all my stuff sends me crashing thru to the dining room). 

 Using a beautiful platter that a sweet teacher buddy bought for me (thank you, Heather!), I traced the curve of the plate. The other bolero I made had a similar curve to the edge and I really liked that. It was the inspiration for the bottom edge of this bad boy. 

I absolutely LOVE short jackets because they look so vintage. And they still showcase your outfit underneath. So I was pretty stinkin' happy with how this simple lil alteration turned out.

And I totally dig it with my dress! It matches those shadows in the water lilies pretty well, says me. Ima totally gonna rock this out in New Orleans at the art teacherin' conference where I plan to hang with my brand new buddy...Tim Gunn!

 So, sadly, I've been keeping secrets from you. A while back, I had the incredible opportunity to spend a lovely hour on the phone just chatting it up with the one and only Tim Gunn. I interviewed him for SchoolArts Magazine (thank you, Nancy Walkup!) and you can read the article here. There's actually much more to the interview so you can bet I'll be sharing the entire interview right here just for you very soon. I'm super excited to attend Tim's sessions at the conference. Ima be all like...

"Hey, Tim! 'Member me?" And y'all know dude's much to nice to say no. Let's just hope he doesn't secretly file for a restraining order. Again. 

And das all, folks! A Monet's Water Lilies Dress and a Jacket Refurb. 

By the way, if you need some AMAZING Monet art lessons, check out my buddy Laura's blog over at Painted Paper. So much Monet goodness, ya'll!

In the Art Room: Beautiful Oops Self-Portraits with Third Grade

Ah, self-portrait drawing. Call me an art teacherin' criminal, but 'tis not my most fave thing to teach. One of the reasons I don't love it is because I dislike seeing my students frustrated. I teach children at that perfect age where they think they can do anything and that everything is possible. However, I've noticed that when they inch on up into 3rd and 4th grade, that lovely thought begins to fade and self-doubt creeps in and settles for life. Such a bummer.

So when I came across these self-portraits on pinterest (I know, I know, I said "found it on pinterest" but I really did! And there's no further link than the one provided. However, if you happen to know this art teacher, I'd love to give credit where it's due. Thanks!). I loved this lesson for a coupla reasons: first of all, the kids only have to draw half of the face. This makes me happy because one of the biggest struggles I've found with children drawing a self-portrait is symmetry. They become fixated on drawing both sides of the face exactly the same (even though they're not!) and just work themselves up into an eraserin' tizzy. 

The other thing I loved about this lesson was that it provided a space for a big colorful background. And we had JUST the paintings for that!

Dunno if you recall, but my 3rd graders are the ones who had the incredible opportunity to sing a song for the book Beautiful Oops. Before hitting the recording studio in Nashville, we re-read the book and did some fun "oops" paintings. More details on that awesome fun here. 

For the creation of the Oops paintings, the kids were told that we were going to make a painting with no planned outcome in mind. We weren't going to worry about "mistakes" or "messing up". We were going to enjoy the painting experience and let our Oops'es speak to us. It was so much fun! To start, I showed the kids a technique of putting blobs of paint at the top of the paper and using old credit cards to drag the paint down. 

After that, we played a game where I drew a number and a line/shape name (like, for zample, zigzag/five) and the kids painted those. I've played this game with the kids before (deets here) and it's a great way to introduce abstract/non-objective painting. 

Once our paintings were complete, we hit the road and headed into Nashville for our session. We were surprised and thrilled to be able to Skye with the author of Beautiful Oops, Barney Saltzberg.

To ease the pain of the Perfectionist Portrait, I provided my students with a sheet to slide under their drawing paper. Using a clip board, they joined me on the floor with their two sheets and a pencil. Lightly the kids traced the guide lines provided under the sheet. Then we had a big long chat about facial proportions, features and what makes our faces so uniquely different from our friends. As we chatted our way through these topics, we drew our faces together. 

 I told the kids that this was just their basic steps. Once finished, they were to return to their seats with mirrors in hand and create their own individual likeness. They made changes to the expressions, added glasses, details for hair, freckles, you name it. 

Another thing...I'm always telling the kids, "Please color like my favorite band. In ONE DIRECTION." Which gets plenty of eye rolls from the kids.

The following art class, we read about Rembrant and I kinda introduced shading. I do believe it's a tough concept for 3rd grade. However, I like to throw stuff out there to see what lil fish are gonna bite. You can't go wrong over estimating kids, says me.

"I'm adding makeup to myself portrait." You know, with the amount of eyeliner I wear, who am I to judge? Love the variety of colors in her hair.

To set their delicate portraits apart from their bold paintings, the kids traced the edge of their drawings on a piece of black paper and glued it to their portraits to create a shadow. This was then thoughtfully glued to their paintings.

This kiddo nailed her hair and expression. NAILED IT. 

 Love everything about this one. 

In the original lesson I borrowed this idea from, the students wrote their names in the background. So I gave the students the opportunity to print their names with small pieces of cardboard.

 Or paint their names, in the case of this lovely lil artist.

 I love cardboard printing because of the bold exact lines it creates. I did ask the kids to attempt printing their names on scrap paper first before giving it a go on their paintings.

The kids were so stinkin' proud of these works of art! And I'm excited to jump back into the self-portrait pool with my other grades. What are some of y'all's most fave portrait lessons? I'd love to know. Til then!

In the Art Room: Kid/Artist Interview, Charles Keiger

The Celebration, oil on canvas, 25" X 28", Charles Keiger

You would think that looking at surrealistic art with children would make perfect sense as most of them live in the land of surrealism. “Look, Mrs. Stephens, I drew a self-portrait,” said one kindergartener, handing me a drawing of a purple poodle. “Wow! Look at you! A striking resemblance.”

Conjurer, oil on panel, 16" X 18", Charles Keiger

However, children are also very literal and their world is often black and white, hold the gray. Independently creating a landscape, children will often begin with a blue stipe at the top, green stripe at the bottom and a bright yellow corner sun. Because, well, that’s what a landscape looks like to the under-ten set.

When Nashville Arts Magazine asked if my students would like to interview the surrealist artist Charles Keiger, I jumped at the chance. I spent time pouring over Keiger's work (which is like entering into a delightfully dreamlike fantasy world) and created this prezi to share with my students (please feel free to borrow, change and use in your art room if you wanna). The kids were so engaged examining the work of Keiger that we nearly spent an entire art class chatting about his work. 

The Dreaming Cat, oil on canvas, 22" X 24", Charles Keiger

Showing children the surrealistic and imaginative world of Charles Keiger both piqued their playful mind and annoyed their analytical one. Which was wonderful because it got them asking questions. Here’s our third grade interview with Charles Keiger.

 Roam, oil on canvas, 18" X 20", Charles Keiger

Why is the background and floor the same? It looks like the people are on a stage. Is your painting like a play?

I don't see the paintings as illustrations for a play but they are definitely theatrical. The stage like setting, with the curtains, floors, and backdrops, helps to open up my imagination. Since it is an illusory world being presented, the choices of what I can paint are expanded, in other words, you can get away with anything.

A friend said recently,“your paintings are like poetry and theater on canvas”, I like that.


Tidal Adult, oil on canvas, 25" X 28", Charles Keiger

Your paintings look very 3-D and realistic. But then you mixed everything up and got us confused. Why?

Painting from real life has never been my forte. “Mixing everything up” suits my temperament and skills. If I am enjoying myself while painting and engaged as I create these scenes then hopefully the viewer will also be intrigued.  As an artist you want people to look and this is my way of trying to hold your attention and thus, my own.


Distant Planet, oil on canvas, 29" X 38", Charles Keiger

You have so many ideas. Is it hard to think of these ideas? Where do your ideas come from?

This is the question I am most often asked and the one that can be difficult to explain. The short answer is, everywhere and everything, the long answer can get complicated and mysterious but let's see.... I keep a journal where I sketch out ideas as they come to me, these are quick, small thumbnail drawings. As I go about my day I might hear a phrase or see an object that will spark my imagination and this gives me a starting point to build a picture. Then there are times when the painting I am working on will inspire ideas for the next one. I must admit however, that some paintings I look at when completed and wonder, “Where did that come from?”. 


Still Life, oil on canvas, 40" X 35", Charles Keiger

I like to make a lot of things at once. Do you ever make a bunch of paintings all at the same time?

I know many artists that prefer to have multiple paintings in the works, but for me it's best to focus on one till it is complete. Each of my pictures has a specific mood or spirit and if I stay immersed in that world for the duration, it makes for a better painting.

If y'all live local (that'd be the Nashville, Tennessee area) and wanna get your kitten mittens on this kid-lead interview with Charles Keiger, here's a sneak peak at the beautiful Nashville Arts Magazine. Riiiiight?! It's a positively beautiful publication and totally free. 

And here's my article that, unless you have ant-sized eyes, I know you can't read. But have no fear, the entire article can be viewed right here, kids. Until next time, I hope your day is as delightfully dreamy as a Charles Keiger painting!