More Paper Weaving

Here are some more student paper weaving projects from the end of the year. I love how some are really stretching and trying new things! The projects in this post are from 1st-5th grade.

 Some are even starting to make paintings or drawings with the intention of turning them into weaving projects instead of resorting to it as a solution. We're thinking steps ahead!

Paper Weaving: Beyond the Checkerboard Part 3

In Beyond the Checkerboard parts 2 and 3, I wrote about options for making paper weaving projects more interesting to students. Beyond the Checkerboard Part 1 was about stacking warp strips to make more interesting patterns. Beyond the Checkerboard Part 2 was about using weaving as a background by stamping or embellishing with collage. In Part 3, I will write about using paint to make paper weaving more interesting.

Two ways my students used paint to enhance their weaving efforts were to first paint paper and later weave with it, and to paint on top of woven paper. In the example above, the student had experimented with turning a leaf rubbing into a wax resist painting and wasn't satisfied with the result. She decided to use the wax resist painting as a paper loom.

Some students worked in several layers. The student working on the artwork above wove paper, painted on the weaving, then layered in more weft strips.

Students asked about making turkeys around Thanksgiving. There is a certain novelty involved with handprint turkeys but I always think of stereotypes of "hand turkeys and macaroni necklaces" so I just asked the students not to make a plain turkey if they were going to use their hands. I thought doing it on top of a paper weaving was a nice solution.

This student added translucent paint  over his tempera handprints on top of the paper weaving.

 Some students decided to add even more patterns to their weaving projects. The red, white, and blue weaving has stars added to it to make the American flag reference even more obvious. The other has doodles of hearts and stars added.

Well, that's all my paper weaving tricks for now. I think it could also be interesting to use magazine pages or something with more of an image as a paper loom. Have you or your students tried any other fun paper weaving techniques?

Paper Weaving: Beyond the Checkerboard Part 2

In Beyond the Checkerboard Part 1, I wrote about stacking warp strips in paper weaving to make more interesting patterns. Part 2 is all about embellishing weavings with "stamps" and collage. The most popular stamps in my classroom are the students' hands!

Students LOOOVE an excuse to get paint on their hands without getting in trouble for being messy. When it's done with permission, they are allowed to experience the cold/slimy/squishy/slippery feeling of wet paint and enjoy describing it to their classmates. I've found the fastest way to get an even coat of paint on hands is to use a brayer and just roll it on.

Some students were also attracted to some simple foam stamps that were donated to me and previously unused. Texture stamps were also available.

 

A few students started to add collage elements around their handprints. "Random things I like" pictures look much more finished when they are on an interesting background.

 My students now want to put handprints on everything! Ok, maybe not everything, but most want their turn after seeing the handprinted weaving projects in the hallway. I really don't mind. It doesn't get too messy, the students really enjoy it, and I know that parents will find their artwork even more special when there is a record of those special little hands that won't be little for long.

Paper Weaving: Beyond the Checkerboard Part 1

 Paper is a great medium to use when introducing weaving. It's a good way to practice over, under, over, under and the in-process projects don't take up much space. The product, however, can sometimes end up a little plain. Paper weaving had never been a big hit with my students before we started using choice based art and showing some different options for pushing the projects beyond the checkerboard. The artwork in this post was created by 2nd and 3rd grade students.

I will be writing a few posts about ways my students have enjoyed expanding their paper weaving projects. The method in this post is cutting skinnier strips of paper which are stacked when weaving the weft. This is so simple and so fun! I precut 1 inch thick strips that students use for the weft. If the students want to stack, they simply take a regular strip and cut it down the middle to yield two skinnier strips. The edges aren't perfectly straight but we don't mind- I actually love the look of it not being perfect. I figure if something is going to be handmade, it might as well look handmade!

Some students want the strips to be even skinnier to make more patterns so they just cut them smaller.

 A few students have even tried creating new patterns. Instead of just using an AB pattern, they might try ABB, like the student below. Over, under, under, over, under, under.

I think that having really nice construction paper, in addition to the new techniques, has helped make paper weaving so popular. I only order Pacon Tru-Ray construction paper and lately my favorite "packs" to order are warm colors, cool colors, and brights. This gives you a lot more variety than traditional assortments.

CYOA- Weaving

I wanted my 5th graders to learn about Fibers during their last lesson of the year, but I wanted to give them choices, so I designed sort of a Choose Your Own Adventure lesson! I thought about all the supplies we had available and the time that was left and came up with 3 "explorations" the students could choose from: Weaving, Quilting, and Textile/Clothing Design. Within each, there were more options. I used my big classroom bulletin board to post information about each category and the options within each. I took a cue from TAB and created "menus" to display for each option that would allow students to work fairly independently. Unfortunately, I forgot to photograph my menus so you'll have to use your imagination.

 I only had a couple takers on the quilting exploration and neither finished. I'll write about the weaving exploration now and later post about the textile exploration. Weaving was pretty much broken down into paper, cardboard loom, and radial.

 Within paper weaving, students could use regular construction paper, magazine images, paint their own paper, or come up with another option on their own. All my paper weavers chose to use solid construction paper. Some layered strips to create interest, some made patterns with their colors, and one drew a picture over the top when she had finished.

This student showed an interest in color theory. He told me about choosing complementary colors and trying to make the illusion of blue fading to white.

 Loom weaving was a pretty popular choice. I had honestly never woven with students using anything other than paper before so it was a learning experience for me. I had a bunch of cereal boxes and other thin cardboard pieces that we cut apart to be used  for making looms. This worked ok, but a thicker cardboard would be much sturdier. I didn't expect the cardboard to curl so much. It wasn't really a problem other than not being able to store them flat. I'm hoping to order some more of the sturdy chipboard looms I know a lot of teachers have success with for next school year. Some students didn't have any trouble making their looms and threading the warp before the end of the first class but others took almost two whole classes because no matter how many times they've been shown, they struggle with rulers. 

Making our own looms

Pros= free, students get to keep the looms, measuring practice. 

Cons= time consuming, curled up, not super sturdy, ends of finished weavings tend to flare out instead of staying straight.

 Most of the students eventually got their looms constructed and loaded correctly before beginning to weave with yarn. There was a lot of peer tutoring happening naturally as the students were allowed to sit in groups with those working on similar projects. Some students, however, sort of slipped through the cracks and ended up with less than successful products. This is in part due to me learning how to manage a "studio", partly due to students missing classes and not having time to make it up, and partly due to minds focused on other things than technique at the end of the school year.

Whoops!

Common issues with loom weaving for students not paying attention confused students: 

• Thinking that over-under-over-under is just an option/skipping all over the place
• Looping the yarn around the back of the loom at the end of a row instead of flipping back the other direction
• Not pushing the weft close enough together
• Cutting the warp threads too short

 The student whose loom weaving is posted at the top of this section was a rock star. She really took to the process and enjoyed herself. She constructed her loom and picked everything up really quickly. She came in to work during extra time (and would have spent even more time in the art room if allowed) and finished early. When she was done with a class period to spare, she decided to work on some finger knitting. She also helped others who were struggling with weaving and started teaching some friends to finger knit.

The last weaving option, and by far the most popular fibers exploration in 5th grade, was making radial weavings on old CDs. Our music teacher just retired and gave me a shoebox full of old CDs as she was sorting through her classroom. It was another new process for me and the students but we got the hang of it. Since there were so many students interested in weaving on CDs and because there was a general level of confusion, I ended up having all the students working on that project in each class come around a table so I could demo and make sure they at least got started ok.

Here are the basics steps we took on our CD radial weavings

1. Loop and knot a long piece of yarn through the center of the CD (from the outside edge through the hole in the middle). Tie a knot on whichever side will be the back. 
2. Continue looping the yarn from the outside through the hole, working in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction. Several students (all boys, conincidentally) forgot that their "spokes" needed to go in one direction and kind of wrapped all over the place, skipping around to different sides and back again. This made it really messy and confusing when they started to weave.
3. Stop looping when there is an odd number of "spokes" on the front. If your students are anything like mine, you'll have to repeat the words in bold a LOT. When there is an odd number on the front, tie a knot and put a piece of masking tape over both knots. This adds security and gives the students a place to write their name with sharpie. It is very important to have an odd number of your warp threads when working on radial weaving. If there is an even number of spokes, the yarn just sort of stacks up. To fix this, I had students just scoot two spokes close together and act as if they were one thread every time around. For some reason I also had students trying to weave on the back of their CDs, which causes trouble when you run into the knots.
4. Get a "wingspan" of yarn and start weaving on the front moving in one direction the whole time in an over-under manner. The students struggled with tucking one end of the yarn under the spokes and then starting to weave with the other end so I eventually started having them use a small piece of masking tape to secure the end. Before taping, I had students trying to weave with both ends going in different directions. It works best to go over-under a few spokes then pull tight and repeat. If students try to go all the way around the CD before they pull the yarn tight, they tend to get weird loops that tangle.
5. When you run out of one piece of yarn or want to switch colors, tie the ends together and keep weaving. There are probably other methods than tying the ends of the yarn together but this was the easiest for my students.
6. Continue weaving until the front of the CD is full or the design is complete! Tie a knot to secure the end.

This student started off with an even number of spokes- note how the rings of green in the center are stacked. After the green, I showed him how to combine two threads into one to correct the problem.