DIY: Felted Bead Necklace

 Hey, kids! If you follow me here, then you know I've been sharing all things felted (including video tutorials). I'm getting super excited about our Craft Night this Wednesday, April 5th at 8pm CST right over here. If you'd like to hear more about our craft nights and how you can join (it's free, my favorite price!) just pop over here and read more. 

Now, I've put in my time with two-dimensional needle felting and feel like I have that got that down pat (check out this blog post of all my needle felted wares). Wet felting...well, that's another story. But I'm determined to get better at this craft. One project I did recently was create this felted bead necklace!

 I own many an item with wee felted balls on them: a handbag, coasters, a necklace and even a pillow. But I'd never learned how to make them. After doing some homework, I discovered how...and then put my own spin on it by adding spots to my dots. Here's a 3 minute how-to just for you!

Easy, right? For real, the hardest part was the time...but I just worked on them over the course of a couple evenings and then I was done!

Full disclosure: these balls are hairy (ahem) and wooly (double ahem) and therefore, slightly itchy. If you have skin that is akin to a delicate flower, as I do, then you'll probably find yourself scratching like a dog with fleas after a few hours of wear. That's why you'll often see me wearing my felted necklaces over a top.

Yes, I'm completely aware that I have the aesthetic of a twelve year old girl who occasionally drops acid. I grew up with Lisa Frank, what can I say?

 These are all of my favorite colors! 

I happened to have a necklace clasp in my stash (hoarding does have it's benefits) and I used a waxy string for it's strength. But you could totally use regular thread. Just make sure it's strong. If it breaks when you try to pull it, then find yourself something stronger. 

Have fun, y'all! Love to see your felted items as you create them. Tag me here or shoot me an email at cassieart75@gmail.com. 

In the Art Room: Clay Chameleons!

If you follow me on Instagram, then you've seen me over-sharing all of the clay projects that my kiddos will be creating during Clay Week. I like to go with a theme when it comes to clay as that makes the art show seem cohesive. Last year, we went with the clay theme of a 1950's Diner where all the kids created clay food. It was a big hit and a whole lot of fun. 

This year, I decided to go with a Pet Shop theme! You can actually view all of the clay videos I've created for my students right here (and feel free to use them). I add new art teacherin' videos every week so if it's something that you are interested in, you might want to subscribe.

Today, my third grade students watched this video in bite-sized pieces and were able to create their chameleon from start to finish. We did use up more than our normal hour long art class...thankfully, I have a plan time after this class and the teachers were kind enough to let me use some of their instructional time for the kids to finish. I work with some super supportive folks, y'all! Otherwise, this project would have taken us about an hour and a half.

I get a lot of questions on how I show my students my videos because they are pretty long. I don't show the video in it's entirety as that would be too much information for the kids to process. Instead, I show bite-sized portions. Then I send the kids to their seats to work. When a handful of them have finished and trickled back to the floor, then I call all of them to join us, finished or not, and we watch the next portion. For these guys that meant they learned how to make a leaf and then created it; came back to learn about how to make the body and legs of the chameleon and created it; and finally, they learned how to create the head and attach to the leaf. This keeps us up, active, busy and working the entire time. 

Have I told y'all lately that I wrote a clay book? You can scoop it up for preorder right here. When I first became an art teacher some 18 odd years ago, I'd never even taken a ceramics class. And yet...my first year teaching, clay was in my curriculum. With no kiln and a small budget, I had to create clay for my kids to use. Without much info online at the time, I scoured the public library for recipes and ideas. I learned many recipes and included them in the book. In fact, all of the projects in the book are made with no-kiln clays...but have been tested out with kiln fire clay. So it's for everyone!

Working on a book filled with 52 projects meant that I had to dream up, snap photos of and write about, well, 52 projects. Y'all, that's a lot! I learned many a thing working on that book...and I believe it has made me a better clay teacher. 

If you find clay to be intimidating as I once did, I have a surprise for you! I'm going to be offering a Crash Course in Clay here during the month of May! Follow me on Facebook and I'll keep you posted on the details. Here's a peek at how I set my tables up for clay: doggie bowls for water (from the Dollar Tree and they NEVER spill!), toothbrushes for scoring, skewers for carving, cutting and creating design, clay mats (which I have had for well over 10 years) from my friend Danielle McDanielle, aka The Clay Lady, usually lots of texture tools and sponges for wiping hands when they start to feel too dry. What do you keep on hand during clay time?

Oh! And I busted out the marker caps to make these fun eyes for the chameleons.

I'm thinking we will glaze these after firing. I hope I have some room in my budget to splurge on the glaze with the flecks of glass in it. I think that would be perfect for these little guys. I'll be sure to do a follow-up post once complete. 

I've tried many a thing when it comes to finishing clay projects: gouache, oil pastel and dip in black tempera and glaze. Which is your preferred method? 

By the way, this clay project could just as easily be done with air dry clay! You'll have to keep me posted if you give it a go. 

Field Trip! Doris Wasserman

I'm so excited to share the latest artist in my Field Trip! series, Doris Wasserman. Doris is a Canadian artist who lives in Nashville. I discovered her when I was searching for local artists and her beautiful paintings popped up. I absolutely love the air, space, color and radiating light that seems to shine thru her work. On a whim, I sent her an email to see if she'd be interested in taking part in this series. Not only did she agree, but she hosted me both at her showing and invited me back to her beautiful home studio. How wonderful is that? Below, you'll find the video. Art teachers, feel free to share this with your students. Doris does a wonderful job of explaining her process and sharing her journey as an abstract painter. 

Doris was originally a medical illustrator. She decided to take an abstract painting class...and the rest is history. Well, that makes it sound like the journey was an easy one. If you've ever tried your hand at abstract painting, you know that it really is a journey full of ups, downs, self-doubt and discovery. Doris likens getting into the grove of painting like meditation. When I look at her work, I can sense that peace and calm that comes from mindful breath. 

Doris and I share similar painting backgrounds in that I was once a representational artist. In fact, my degree is in painting (which got me real far working at Pizza Hut, lemme tell you). Over time, I found that style of painting to be very constrictive and I lost interest. During my college years, abstract painting was looked down upon by my professors and it was ingrained that the only real painting was realistic painting. What a pity that I missed out on learning just how incredibly rich abstract painting can be. 

Listening to Doris talk and witnessing her process was very eye-opening to me. I love her method of hanging a wall of canvases in varying shapes and sizes. How fun would this be for our students? How freeing would it be for our kids who struggle to get things "just right" as I used to do? Would't it also be great for our wiggly friends? 

Doris' method is to put a color on her palette, a heap of white and some medium that give the paint more viscosity. Working in acrylic, she applies paint with one hand and scrubs with the other, using inexpensive house paint brushes. 

As she works, Doris also will collage bits of paper into her work. Sometimes the paper is so subtle, you have to look for it and other times, it has more of a voice in her work. As Doris paints, she also uses the back of her brush to scribble and sometimes write onto her canvases.

 Over time, the paintings take on layers of color and texture. As the paintings draw closer to completion, Doris adds delicate lines and designs in a deep gray. 

Her process and her work inspired me to look more closely at abstract paintings. When I was in her studio, Doris asked me if I miss painting and if I think I'd ever get back to it. Y'all know that I piddle with painting and create silly pieces to hang around the house. At the time I told her no...but after visiting her studio, chatting with her and editing this video, I have to say, I'm feeling very inspired. 

Thank you so much, Doris, for allowing me (and my students) to get to know you, your artwork and learn about your process. You are an inspiration! 

DIY: All Things Needle Felted!

Hey, y'all! I'm currently on this magical thing called Spring Break. It's divine. Everyone should try a week off to unwind and unplug. One of the perks of being a teacher, y'all! I've decided to take this evening off from Facebook LIVE (I do hope you'll forgive me) to drown myself in clay project prep. I'm going full blown Clay Week next week with the kiddos and I need to wrap my mind around just what it is we will be creating. I'll be certain to share. Until then, I thought we could talk about All Things Needle Felted!

In case you've not heard I'm offering a FREE felting class right here! During my Facebook LIVE chats, I'll be walking you through several weeks of felting. Check the project listing below. With my friend Sue Bunch over at Back to Back Fiber, I've created a felting kit that contains all of the supplies you will need for four weeks of felting. Sue is offering the kit at $24.95 with free shipping for friends in the continental U.S. You can pick you kit up here.

Here's a little listing of what we'll be creating as well as the supplies included. 

And here's a little peak of what you'll receive. 

Just a reminder: You don't have to purchase the kit to participate! If you have the supplies at home then feel free to join the fun and use what you have. Also, you can purchase the supplies at any time, there is no deadline.

All videos will be archived! If you can't make the felting sessions LIVE, no worries. They will be archived on my Facebook page as well as my YouTube channel. 

I do hope you'll join the fun. Until then, I thought I'd take y'all on a walk down my Needle Felting Memory Lane (it's a long walk...I didn't realize I'd created so much).

My very first needle felted attempt was this sweater. I was so excited by the results that I quickly started stabbing just about all of my sweaters! 

Next up was this Put a Bird(s) on It sweater. Again, this was just a thrift shop sweater that I decided to bird-dazzle. 

I do recall this one taking FOREVER. All those little bits of flowers and things, whew! This was my first time to use yarn and I was really pleased with the results. You don't have to use 100% wool yarn for needle felting as I had originally thought. This sweater was inspired by an Anthropologie one that was way outta my budget. 

My sweet cat Asha was the inspo behind this sweater. Again, I just used an old sweater from my closet for this one. 

I had a dude awkwardly ask if he could join the "Naughty Kitty Club". Um, no. Needle felting on this lace material proved to be no more difficult than stabbing away on this jacket...

I'd had this jacket in my closet for some time...I thought it needed an artsy update. 

One of my favorite sweaters is this one...and it was so easy to make! In other news, when is Crayola gonna ask me to be an endorser? Between this sweater and that bag, I'm a walking advertisement! 

 Not all of my needle felting projects take hours. These quickies were made in a matter of hours over a weekend. I wore them during test taking week. 

I forgot about this sweater! This is how you know you've needle felted one too many items in your closet. 

I always feel foxy when wearing this faux fox sweater. See what I did there? I know, you don't have to tell me how punny I am. 

This sweater was another one inspired by Anthro. For the first time, I included wet felting (the buttons) and felted applique with the flowers. I also used yarn to create words for the first time. Check this post to see what is written on the back of this sweater. 

This sweater also included felted pieces from a sweater!

Now y'all know that I do get a lot of inspiration from artwork. Check out these fascinators inspired by famous works of art. 

One of the first dresses I needle felted was this van Gogh inspired one. Sadly, the lights have gone out on Starry Night as the lights no longer work but it was fun while it lasted! 

Oh, yes, the dress that MADE me wanna scream. This one took forever and turned me off to all things needle felting for a couple of months. It was worth it tho, I love this dress! 

The Kandinsky-inspired dresses were created when our local art museum, The Frist had a big showing of his work. I was so inspired that I made two dresses after his paintings.

My dream is to wear this dress to Giverny one day, how fun would that be? 

Jim Dine was a fun artist to explore when creating this simple dress after his heart-themed artwork. 

When el hubbo got me a needle felting MACHINE, that changed everything. Suddenly I could work on bigger projects with even thicker fabrics like this splatter paint coat. 

And this number. I love this coat but it was rather boring to create. I was glad to have the machine to help me tack everything in place. 

Whew! Believe it or not, I actually left a handful of other needle felted pieces off this here post just to save your fingers from scrolling. They're gonna need all the energy they can get for your own needle felting adventure. I'll be starting that free needle felting series here in April...and you can pick up your kit full of supplies right here. Thank you for letting me share (just about) all of my needle felted faves with you!