A Year End Letter to Friends

Dear Friends,

I am writing to tell you about something wonderful that began last year. With generous support from the Craft Yarn Council of America, the Arts Ashore Legacy Foundation and a groundswell of hope for more positive activity and unity in our city, the Loop It Up Savannah Project was launched at the West Broad Street YMCA.

At first, a few Savannah College of Art and Design Fibers Department volunteers began teaching a small group of children to knit and crochet. As we got to know the children better, we began to develop a curriculum starting a few steps before the specific crafts of knitting and crocheting. We now offer independent and collaborative Fiber Art Projects ranging from exploration of materials and development of fine motor skills to such traditional crafts as spinning, weaving, embroidery, knitting, sewing and crochet.

These crafts are relevant and accessible to all of us, including the low income children of Savannah because they are easy to learn and have played a traditional part in community building. As the children grow into skilled artists and makers, they develop a stronger sense of themselves and experience a safer, more exciting community. Currently funded by the Hodge Foundation of Savannah Georgia, we work with about fifty children on a weekly basis. This number will more than double as we offer programming at additional locations.

I am creating an artist book about Loop It Up Savannah which will be displayed at the American Craft Council’s National Art and Craft Show this February. The book will include curriculum, documentation of students’ work and information about how we collect and work with a variety of materials. It will be a recipe book for our project, a memento of the work that we’re doing and a tool for others interested in joining out project, or starting a similar program in their community.

All successful community endeavors depend on each member of the community offering what they can. We have built this program through generous and selfless donations of time, art materials, space, funding and ideas. Now I invite you to join our community and contribute what you can – suggestions, ideas, stories, materials or a financial donation that feels appropriate.

Be warm, be well, and join the excitement!

Molly Green Lieberman
The Loop It Up Savannah Project
c/o the West Broad Street YMCA
1110 May Street Savannah GA, 31415
www.loopitupsavannah.blogspot.com

ingredients

Page one in our Recipe Book! Coming soon!!!!

Knitta Please please please please

Knitta Please is an international "Textile Graffiti" Project. In recent years people around the world have left their mark via knitting, crocheting, wrapping...
Soon, a book will be published which will showcase 275 of these projects!
We decided to try our hand at it..... thanks you Jeremy Noonon for letting us know!

WEAVING!

We've been a little eaten up by oh, you know, real life happening... so here is a little of the last few weeks!

Some of the returning students from last year have been begging to knit! To make this a fun and accessible process for everyone, we are easing into it with a period of Yarn exploration. this included learning to roll a ball, finger weaving and weaving on small card board looms. Eventually, we'll make our way to knitting and crocheting.

Becoming familiar with a material and learning how to work with it and to classify it somewhere in your brain makes learning a concrete skill with that material more natural.

We went from playing to weaving...








(Faith and Jasonay practice their weaving on Gabby's hands....!)

Building Ourselves

After painting and drawing self portraits, we moved along to BUILDING ourselves!
This was the first try at free-for-all material exploration. It went Superbly!



After looking a pictures of sculpture people by Alexander Calder, Dajana carefully scelects her materials.


"My big legs are very long. My neck isn't actually this tall, but that's the kind of wood that we made, so it's okay to be taller."


Dajana worked hard with Gabby to secure all the pieces of herself!

(we have the most WONDERFUL group of teacher this year!)

scary scary halloween faces....

I promised I would put these "on the internet"....

Right Back Into It!!

What a SWELL first week!!
We began by asking in small groups, "what is a self portrait"? Answers ranged from "a really bad poison," to "a thing that you probably paint..." Finally, everyone came round and understood that we would be making pictures of ourselves.




Maurice, a returning student, informed me that he was "going to want everything to be blue. It's my favorite." This is his picture.



Tajae decided to do a picture of his sister, Taji...




Here is Taji's painting of herself



On the second day of classes with each group, we brought out the materials. It is very important for the kids to get a chance to play, to explore and begin to understand different materials and how we can use them. Before, we get into specific tecniques, there will be a period of playing and, like my beloved art teacher Cathy Topal often talks about-- the development of a fluency with materials.



James was quick to fill up his box with items that he liked.
"This is all good and at my seat I guess that it makes my eyes and legs and front."

... which it certainly did!!



Vandell made this one



*** We are building up a wonderful collection of materials!
Thank you, enormously, to everyone who has donated time and supplies!

Join the Savannah Community Materials Center on FACEBOOK!

LET THE WILD RUMPUS BEGIN!!!!!

We are so excited to announce, that after WEEKS of preparing and organizing, Loop It Up Savannah will start up again on MONDAY!!!

This is the Plan:

Who Are We?
Developing a sense of ourselves thru making

Project One: 2-d Visual Self Portrait

Materials: Pencil and paper, followed by markers, paint, crayons, pastels…

Discussion: What do you look like?
- What shapes make your body – long short round small big?
- what textures make you?
- what colors make you?
-What are you wearing?
- How do you feel, are you happy sad confused tired excited? How can you draw that feeling into your picture?
- Would you like a mirror or a photograph of yourself? Would you rather work from memory and how you feel that you look?

Process: Begin by drawing with pencil, each child can move onto other mediums when they are ready.

Teachers can become acquainted with each child’s working style by observing this process—do they do a quick sketch and then move into the colorful media? Do they spend a long time creating a detailed drawing? What are the primary components of their picture? Is it the face? Clothing? Something in the background – is there a setting? Do they seem comfortable? It is fun or hard? Are they interested or disengaged? Do they talk to other children or work quietly?

All of these possibilities are FINE! We are working to understand each child, to know them for who they are and the experiences which have had effect on them. Depending on previous experience or perhaps lack there of, will determine how a child relates to the concept of making – particularly making something which relates to them! We want to learn all that we can about them and give relevant support to help each child find a comfortable place as an artist. There is not a singular good result that we are striving for, and we need to make this as apparent as possible. The goal in doing a self portrait is not necessarily to draw something that looks exactly like us. It is important for teachers to give equal support to realistic and abstract drawings. It is important to build a studio where each artist feels free to make and isn’t worried about doing it “right”.

I told Shynaya Hyman (who is 8) about this projet and she said, "oh good. we gonna be knitting. painting, i love painting. monday's gonna be good. we'll be ready"....

So, LET THE WILD RUMPUS BEGIN!!!

email looplinktangle@gmail.com to join in the fun!

work small. repeat big.

Get in touch to teach!
Next week is self portrait week!

Monday- Thursday 4:30-5:30!
At the West Broad Street YMCA!

Interest meeting this FRIDAY at 1 pm. PEPE HALL.

WE WANT YOU!!

Email looplinktangle@gmail.com for a volunteer form!

Savannah Community Materials Co-op!

been thinking a lot lately about the need for a community materials co-op. There is such a wealth of art supplies and recycled materials in Savannah, sometimes their original owners don't need them anymore. We need to set up a place to house and display these materials so that they can be shared with other members of our community.

In the coming year, we will be working to spread the Loop It UP program! I would love to be able to supply any school or organization with the supplies that they will need to participate!

This is the very beginning! We need your help. If you would like to become involved, please join the Facebook Group or email fibersforce@scad.edu -- this way we can keep you in the loop!!!!!

One Day in Savannah GA

Greetings All!!
Finally, after a busy month, here are some of the fabulous pictures which were taken at the LOOP IT UP art show!

On May 15th, we had a very special day! Mary Calucci of the Warm Up America Foundation and Kathleen Sams of Red Heart Yarn, came down for the event! We spent the day displaying all of the beautiful work that the kids at the Y and from the Boy's and Girls Club have made over the past few months.






At 5:30 the guests started arriving!!






We had some very special guests, including Jamison Field Murphy, who is 11 years old and a wonderful musician! He performed throughout the night...




We were so excited that Mr. and Mrs. Howard Morrison also stopped by! They have been great supporters of Loop It Up from the very start! Here they are with Peter Doliber, of the West Broad Street YMCA and Cayewah Easley, chair of the SCAD Fibers Department



Thank you, a million times over, to everyone who has helped with this project! None of it could have happened without the many volunteers, donations and the enthusiasts in our community! We plan to continue Loop It Up! and try to grow and spread it as much as we can in the coming year. We need your help! If you are interested in teaching, prepping classes, donating or organizing materials please get in touch!

You can email Molly Lieberman (SCAD Fibers) at fibersforce@scad.edu
or call Deborah Enoch, director of Childcare at the West Broad Street YMCA 912-233-1951

We hope to hear from you soon!