DIY: Printmaking Made Easy

I mightah told y'all that when I was a kid, I was addicted to attending Vacation Bible Schools. I didn't care what the denomination, all I needed to know was: Will there be Barrel Drink and will there be Macaroni Art? 

The school I attended didn't have art class so my only experience in arts -n- craftin' came in the form of a lil Bible learning and a whole lotta popsicle stick art (you shoulda seen my popsicle stick Noah's Arc, y'all. Best o' Show.) As an adult (if that's what you wanna call me), this translates into me being addicted to taking art classes around town. Luckily for me, our local art museum The Frist always has the best of offerings...even if they forgot to serve Barrel Drank. 

The Frist doesn't have a permanent collection and I think that's pure genius because it means no stale art that's been hanging for years. It's an ever-changing canvas of art history, culture and contemporary art that keeps locals like me coming back. One exhibit they currently have is the work of Jaume Plensa (that's his surreal sculpture there) whose work is phe-nom-in-alll. 

The last class I took at The Frist was the awesome hat making workshop where I made my donut hat! And I'm excited that I'll be leading a workshop at The Frist on needle felting soon. But enough about that, let's talk about these two wild -n- crazy guyzzz: 

Meet Nieves Uhl and Chris Cheney, owners of the letterpress and design studio Sawtooth Print Shop! Both met at Hatch Print Show and opened their place about three years ago. Not only do they offer their design services and prints but they also offer classes (guess who is dying to sign up for that?! GUESS). Sadly, as you can tell by the photo above, they are both entirely too serious to be any ounce of fun. 

Bwaha, I kid! I loved 'em so! I mean, how could I not when what comes out of their studio are masterpieces like this: 

You better believe I whipped out my credit card and purchased this beauty. It now hangs proudly in the Masterpiece Gallery in the art room!

 So Chris and Nieves carve on linoleum blocks. Which is pretty hard to do for us newbies. So we worked on Softoleum which was like carving in butter. We began by copying our design onto our blocks. 

Graphite paper worked well for this but several attendants found that simply rubbing the back of our pencil design very firmly easily copied the design onto our surface. Who knew? Well, apparently several folks did. One of them NOT being me. 

I didn't take printmaking in college (a regret. One of the many.) so my only experience was a woodblock carving print-stint in high school. Which sucked. Wood carving is for beavers, y'all. But this stuff I loved because of the easy which you could carve into it. Not to mention that if you don't carve too deep can you flip it over and carve on the backside! So filling up my virtual shopping cart with these bad boys. 

I'm on this Tiki kick. So that was my inspo. I'm dying to print these Tiki blocks onto the bottom of a dress or a skirt kinda like I did here one million years ago. 

Tho, I gotta tell ya, I'm not as in love with this block. Hence the reason my virtual shopping cart is loaded down with s'more blocks. 

I did treat my paper before printing. Instead of using white paper, I rolled a lil gold and a lil blue onto several sheets before printing my blocks. 
I wanna host a Tiki Party just so's I can send these out as invites! But what does one DO at a Tiki Party? Aside from drink fancy barrel drinks with umbrellas? 

I attended this class with a coupla art teacherin' buddies who made the cutest of prints! Check out my friend Virginia's portrait of her dog and my buddy David's Mickey-inspired print as well as his sailor-themed print of his last name. I have smart artsy friends, y'all. 

But, seriously, what made the class so special was our awesome host Rosemary Brunton and our instructors Nieves and Chris! Can't wait til the next class, I'm already signed up (um. Actually, I think it's my class. So, never mind)!

In the Art Room: Teaching Line with Larry the Line!

Hi, friends! Well, it's been one of those Wild -n- Crazy art teacherin' weeks and I didn't manage to snap a single What the Art Teacher Wore photo (tho, if you follow me here, you'll see what I'm wearin', what I'm making and what's goin' down in the art room, daily). However, if YOU did, please be sure to send it my way at cassieart75@gmail.com for the What the Art Teacher Wore/Back to Art Teacherin' Contest! You're good-looking face will not only be featured here but, if chosen, also in School Arts Magazine. AND the winner-winner-chicken-dinner will get a free subscription to School Arts. So get dressed, snap a pic and send it to moi, s'il vous plait. Gracias! 

In other news, if you are an art teacher with other art teacherin' buds on Facebook, then I bet your feed is just blowing up with photos of back-to-school/freshly-deocrated art rooms. I absolutely love it because it is art teacherin' eye candy! I've shared several snaps of my art room (with a blog post about my first days here) and was asked about my Line poster. If you've been around this blog for a pinch then you know that I use this poster with my kindergarten friends in my unit on line. I created this and accompanying poem years ago. It's been a great tool for me to teach line with a bit of rhyme and a whole lotta fun. So, without further ado, here's the Larry the Line poem! 

So that you don't have to watch this video a million times, here's the Larry the Line poem in it's entirety. 

NOTE: This poster and poem were both created by me. Please feel free to share this with your students and colleagues (credit thrown my way would be greatly appreciated). This may not be reproduced by you for profit. I feel sad that I have to add this disclaimer...but I do. 

Larry the Line

Is a friend of mine

(creating a snake by opening the fingers of your hand, puppet style and there's your snake!)

He can make three

(hold up a three with your fingers)

Straight lines for me!

Ver-tickle

(create a vertical line with your forearm)

Diagonal and horizontal!

(pantomime each)

Any curve, he can learn

With a twist and a turn.

When he's out of his tangle

he makes a great...angle.

(created by placing your hand on your hip and pointing to your elbow)

Any line, he can make

After all, he's a snake!

And here's how I go about teaching the creation of line sculpture to the kids! 

From there, my kindergarten friends create line sculptures like this. I have a super silly way of teaching this which I will share on my youtube channel this week. By the way, if you subscribe to my channel, you'll see my videos before I share them here!

I'm not gonna lie, sometimes after the whole Larry thing, the kids are bananas. To bring them back down, I'll often do this activity called palming. It works magically! 

I love this unit on line and it's made so much more fun with this goofy poem and carnival snake! What poems and songs do you use when teaching? I'd love to have a whole collection! Too bad my songwriting skillz are seriously lacking. 

DIY: Artsy Sew Along Skirt, Completed!

Well, heyyyyy. Look who finally finished her Artsy Sew Along skirt! Actually, I shouldn't say "finally finished" because this lil number was completed a while back. I should say look who finally got around to editing and posting her how-to vid clips. Yikes, y'all! My apologies for the delay! I told my hubs, "I am never gonna do another sew along again, I'm terrible about making and posting all the videos!" and he was all, "Wait. You mean you didn't just make the skirt all in one day while recording it?" Um. No. That woulda been, like, the smart thing to do! And, y'all. There's not to much of that smart biznatch happening 'round here. Juuuust sayin'. 

But now it's done, the vids are complete and I've got this goofball lil number to show for it! 

So, stitchers, what have you thought of this pattern? I did some homework before cutting into the pattern and discovered that several folk said the waist sat low. I'm all about hitting-at-the-waist kind of vibe as I don't think the blow-the-waist looks good on me. So I did have to take the waist in a pinch while stitching. What did y'all think? Love it? Hate it? Ever make another one? I gotta be honest, this skirt pattern ended up being a lil "meh" for me. I don't know that I'll be making more. Tho I did love those pockets, y'all. And this was my first time making belt loops so that was cool. 

Now that the skirt is done, I gotta admit, I flipping hate that pop of yellow in the pocket. WHUUUUT was I thinking. It just looks...weird. Especially on the side. Although, I didn't even think twice about it until hubs said, "I don't like that yellow thing" and now that's all I hear when I wear the skirt! So, it's his fault. Tis the reason men should not be allowed in sewing rooms. 

And now, vid clips!

 

In this blog post, we about to do bunches of stuffs...

Like making a waistband! Remember, try this on after you make it to see if you like that dropped waist fit. 

Put in a zipper! Don't tell your home ec teacher you used tape to put in a zip, okay? Shhhhh, our secret!

Let's hem! I do love a sewing gauge for hemming tho it's not necessary. But they are cheap and I bet you have one laying around...you just didn't know what it was for (like me!).

And there you have it, the last of the Artsy Sew Along for now (or forever, talk to me in about a month). I'd LOVE to see your skirts, kids! You can share them on the ASA page or shoot me an email at cassieart75@gmail.com. 

For the rest of the ASA blog posts you can start here, then go here! 

What the Art Teacher Wore #145

 First Day Back to Art Teacherin' with Kidz!: So last week, we teachers returned to school for, ya know, teachery stuff but this week, the kids came back! I wanted to start the week with a BANG! and a POW! and most def a POP! so I wore this lil number. By the way, I share entirely too much on instagram as well, fyi-ness.  dress: made by me, influenced by Lichtensteiny; belt: Pin Up Girl Clothing; scarf: vintage, thrifted; shoes: Swedish Hasbeens

Happy end-o-the-week to you, my friends! This past week actually felt like two combined, it was so stinkin' full and busy. School starting back has meant many o' thing for me which I shall explain to you in Twin Peaks gifs:

1.  I can no longer stay up until midnight or beyond. The sadness, y'all. Donna knows how I feel, doncha Donna?

2. The only way I can be lured outta my comatose like state of sleep is the promise of a big fat brekkie. But seriously, tho, coffee would be so much better outta one of those cups. Hook a girl up, Agent Cooper!

3. Committing to leave school at a decent time so's to get on with my stretchy-pants time! Honestly, I'm only sharing this gif because Shelly is so stinkin' cute and I wanna be just like her. 

Anyone know of any diners hiring? Preferably ones with super cute uniforms, please.

In other news, I've heard from so many of you via email with photos of what YOU wore your first week back to school for my contest with School Arts Magazine! Thank you! I'm still accepting photos (it didn't HAVE to be your first day back, any ole time you look artsy and fun works for me) until Labor Day. Just send those photos on over to cassieart75@gmail.com. You'll be featured here in a blog post after Labor Day AND possibly featured in School Arts Magazine! So, get dolled up and send me a snap, would ya? 

AND, I'll be back tomorrow with the finale of the Artsy Sew Along! So, I'll chat with all y'all soon!

 I don't think I ever did a blog post on this jacket tho I made it at the same time as the dress. I did add those dots with bleach which was a super smelly good time. Nothing clears out the nasal passages and kills a handful of braincells like good ole bleach.

 Exhausted-Already Tuesday: Seriously?! Time to double down on some vitamins or start consuming triple shots of my Red Bull/espresso/Diet Coke cocktail (jk, y'all. I've actually never had a Red Bull and I kicked that nasty DC habit a coupla years ago when I realized that the saccharine was slowly eating away at my tiny brain). Suriouzly, tho. I need to build back up my up-and-at-'em endurance because by Tuez, I was down for the coutn. OH!! And thank you so much for all of the feedback for this Back to School blog post, I love y'all! dress: I love the Matisse-y print on this vintage number I found on etsy; belt: Amazon; shoes: Anthro

 Best Dress Evers Wednesday: I found this dress while doing my nightly trolling of art teacher garb and I just had to have it because, A. It has a pencil print! (see below for details) and B. It looks like a 1950's diner dress and, growing up, I loved watching Alice reruns. Flo was my fave, of course. You can find this lovely dress (and many more!) here. shoes: Shoe Carnival

 I mean, riiiiiight?! 

 Oh, Thursday, I thought you were Friday!: Yeah. So, that happened. Which, as you know, is never a good sign. By the way, whoever suggested putting tape around my demo table after this blog post, THANK YOU! I did it and it was magical. I just can't thank you enough. telephone blouse and skirt: both Anthro, both found at Buffalo Exchange; sweater: thrifted; shoes: Clarks

Helllllo, Friday!: I hope y'all have had the most magical weekend ever! Mine entailed everything I could ever ask for: staying in my pajamas until it was time to get fancy and go out to dinner. Ah, perfection! top: thrifted; skirt: Pin Up Girl Clothing; belt: amazon; shoes: Swedish Hasbeens

In the Art Room: My Fave Portrait Lessons

Hellllo, friendly faces! For my Back to Art Teacherin' feature today, I thought I'd share with you my very fave self-portrait projects! Last week you saw my fave landscape projects so I thought these fresh faces would be a nice follow up! So, without further ado-ness, let's get the self-portrait party started!

These first grade royal self-portraits are so stinking cute and were super fun! Not to mention, my wee ones learned so stinkin' much! Pattern-making, portrait drawing, relief-style crown design, whew! These artists are now in fourth grade and seeing these self-portraits just makes me so proud. They are still as awesomely artistic as ever! 

Last year, my third grade artists had the opportunity to sing and record a song to go along with the book A Beautiful Oops! In preparation, we sang and painted oops-es. We also learned how to draw a proportional self-portrait to be placed over our paintings. I loved how colorful and happy these turned out! More details about our recording session and the process of these pieces here. 

Love the splatter paint! 

Teaching kindergarten can be a wild and crazy ride. The key is to harness the crazy. This project was completed near the end of the year after we'd covered line painting (in the background), collage (for the clothing), rainbow order (see that palette?) and the proportions of the face. It was great to see all of their knowledge come together in one good looking project! All the details you could ever need on teaching portrait drawings to the littles, here. 

Y'all remember about 5-ish years ago when there was no Pinterest and we all had to use that gray squishy thing between our ears? WASN'T THAT A TERRIBLE TIME?! And y'all remember when that one genius art teacher did that one genius rainbow self-portrait project that I think just about every art teacher in the universe did (I know I did it!!). Well, this "We are the World" self-portrait number was a take on that. It was a big beautiful undertaking that you can read about here. 

Putting this together was a bit of a beast. Thankfully, I had some super amazing practicum kids from a local university put the thing together. Otherwise, it'd prolly still be sitting on my floor! 

Another big portrait-making undertakin' was this dealio:

The Gallery of Gratitude was one of those projects that just made everyone smile. Who doesn't love to see a child's drawing of them along with their words of appreciation? This was a great project do to before Thanksgiving. 

Not to mention we learned about portrait drawing, capturing someone's likeness and colored pencil usage.

When this display came down, I made sure everyone got their portrait and I've seen many teachers, faculty and staff have them hanging in their rooms and offices. How fun! 

My units are usually based on a culture. So many of our self-portraits give a lil nod do the culture we are studying. These second grade self-portraits were all about the kimono and the konichiwa! 

And these were all about Paris! First grade had a fun time flying high with this project! 

 I love teaching about Ancient Egypt as much as the kids love learning about it. This is one of those self-portrait projects I repeat each time we venture to Egypt because it covers so much! 

 We really got into the correct proportions of the face and shading. 

Last year, we were pinched for time in self-portrait-land for both kindergarten and first grade. Having eight snow days will do that to an art teacher! So we went the quick and easy route: we used multicultural colored contraction paper for the face which we drew in oil pastel. Then we cut that out and glued it to another sheet of paper that we painted hair and a background on. That took us two thirty minute art classes! Like I said, quick and easy. 

And happy as can be! Y'all have been so great about sharing your ideas...I'd love to know what your fave self-portrait projects are! Thank you in advance, kids.