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.