Workshop Overview

Available for Grades 3 and up.

Search the museum for textures and textiles! Students weave together fabric, paper, ribbons, and yarn to create original works of art, and leave with a reusable loom for future exploration.

Outcomes

• Identify woven fibers and fabrics.
• Understand the basic elements of weaving including warp and weft.
• Create an original artwork by weaving various fibers on a loom. 

Vocabulary

• Loom – a device used to hold warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of weft threads
• Textile – cloth or other material created by weaving or knitting fibers
• Texture – the physical feel of something: rough, smooth, bumpy, scratchy
• Warp – threads held under tension on a loom
• Weaving – the craft of forming fabric by interlacing threads.
• Weft – threads interlaced with the warp to create fabric

Pre-Workshop Activities

• Read about texture and weaving:
  • The Scraps Book: Notes from a Colorful Life by Lois Ehlert
  • Spiky, Slimy, Smooth: What is Texture? By Jane Brocket
  • Woven of the World by Katie Howes and Dinara Mirtalipova
  • Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett and Jon Glassen
• Go on a texture search! Tracking Down Texture Activity | Frye Art Museum

Post-Workshop Activities

• Write an artist’s statement about the weaving you created. What colors or materials did you choose? What do they mean to you? Was weaving easy or challenging?
• Continue weaving with your loom! Here is a video to help; it includes instructions for tying off the loom for reuse.
• Try weaving another way: Window Weaving with Paper | Carle Museum
• Explore texture with more artforms: The Elements of Art: Texture | National Gallery of Art