Monday, September 30, 2024

Encyclopedia of Artists

A local library donated a 6 volume Encyclopedia of Artists to our school, and I love it! It's an excellent reading level for my middle school students. Each artist entry is presented as a two page spread, so it's a perfect backdrop to my Art History display of books about the artist of the month.

The one downside is that every single month, when I switch out the display to a new artist, I have to stop and look through an entire volume to see if our featured artist is included!

(The artist list inside the front cover has only the last name... and I thought there was an entry for Sonia Delaunay but it was her husband Robert.)

list of artists for 2022-2023
Alexander Calder, Barbara Hepworth, Mary Blair, Jackson Pollock, Ruth Asawa, John Chamberlain, Helen Frankenthaler, Dale Chihuly

list of artists for 2023-2024
Piet Mondrian, Louise Bourgeois, Corita Kent, Yves Klein, Faith Ringgold, Zaha Hadid, Andy Goldsworthy, Marianthe Loucataris

list of artists for 2024-2025
Sonia Delaunay, Marc Chagall, Joseph Cornell, Arshile Gorky, Romare Bearden, Tove Jansson, Leonora Carrington, Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Banksy


I'm finalizing my lesson plans for October's study of Marc Chagall, and I decided this was the last time I'd spend forever looking through the pages. So, to help myself out in the future, here is the complete list of artists!

Volume 1

    ANDREA DEL SARTO

    ANGELICO Fra

    ANTONELLO DA MESSINA

    ARCHIMBOLDO Giuseppe

    AUDUBON John James

    BACON Francis

    BALLA Giacomo

    BARTOLOMMEO Fra

    BEARDEN Romare (Jan 2025)

    BECCAFUMI Domenico

    BECKMANN Max

    BELLINI Gentile

    BELLINI Giovanni

    BELLOWS George

    BENTON Thomas Hart

    BERNINI Gianlorenzo

    BLAKE William

    BONNARD Pierre

    BOSCH Hieronymus

    BOTTICELLI Sandro

    BOUCHER François

    BOURGEOIS Louise (Oct 2023)

    BRANCUSI Constantin

    BRAQUE Georges

    BRONZINO Agnolo

    BRUEGEL Pieter

    BURNE-JONES Edward

    CALDER Alexander (Sep 2022)

    CAMPIN Robert

    CANALETTO

    CANOVA Antonio

    CARAVAGGIO

    CARPACCIO Vittore

    CARRACCI Annibale

    CASSATT Mary

    CATLIN George

    CÉZANNE Paul

    CHAGALL Marc (Oct 2024)

    CHARDIN Jean-Baptiste-Siméon

    CHIRICO Giorgio de

    CIMABUE


Volume 2

    COLE Thomas

    CONSTABLE John

    COPLEY John Singleton

    COROT Camille

    CORREGGIO Antonio

    COSSA Francesco del

    COURBET Gustave

    CRIVELLI Carlo

    DALÍ Salvador

    DAUMIER Honoré

    DAVID Jacques-Louis

    DAVIS Stuart

    DEGAS Edgar

    DE KOONING Willem

    DELACROIX Eugène

    DELAUNAY Robert

    DEMUTH Charles

    DERAIN André

    DINE Jim

    DONATELLO

    DOVE Arthur

    DUCCIO di Buoninsegna

    DUCHAMP Marcel

    DUFY Raoul

    DÜRER Albrecht

    EAKINS Thomas

    ELSHEIMER Adam

    ENSOR James

    ERNST Max

    FOUQUET Jean

    FRAGONARD Jean-Honoré

    FRANKENTHALER Helen (Mar 2023)

    FREUD Lucian

    FRIEDRICH Caspar David

    GAINSBOROUGH Thomas

    GAUGUIN Paul

    GEERTGEN tot Sint Jans

    GENTILE da Fabriano

    GENTILESCHI Artemisia

    GÉRICAULT Théodore

    GHIBERTI Lorenzo

    GHIRLANDAIO Domenico

    GIACOMETTI Alberto

    GIAMBOLOGNA

    GIORGIONE


Volume 3

    GIOTTO di Bondone

    GIOVANNI di Paolo

    GONCHAROVA Natalia

    GORKY Arshile (Dec 2024)

    GOYA Francisco

    GOZZOLI Benozzo

    GRECO El

    GRIS Juan

    GROSZ George

    GRÜNEWALD Mathis

    HALS Frans

    HASSAM Childe Frederick

    HENRI Robert

    HESSE Eva

    HICKS Edward

    HILLIARD Nicholas

    HOCKNEY David

    HOGARTH William

    HOLBEIN Hans

    HOMER Winslow

    HOPPER Edward

    INGRES Jean Auguste Dominique

    INNESS George

    JOHNS Jasper

    KAHLO Frida

    KANDINSKY Wassily

    KAUFFMANN Angelica

    KIRCHNER Ernst Ludwig

    KLEE Paul

    KLIMT Gustav

    KOKOSCHKA Oskar

    KRASNER Lee

    LA TOUR Georges de

    LAWRENCE Thomas

    LÉGER Fernand

    LEONARDO da Vinci

    LICHTENSTEIN Roy

    LIMBOURG BROTHERS

    LIPPI Fra Filippo

    LORRAINE Claude

    LOTTO Lorenzo

    LOWRY L. S.

    MACKE August

    MAGRITTE René

    MALEVICH Kasimir


Volume 4

    MANET Edouard

    MANTEGNA Andrea

    MARC Franz

    MARIN John

    MARTINI Simone

    MASACCIO

    MATISSE Henri

    MEMLING Hans

    MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI

    MILLET Jean-François

    MIRÓ Joan

    MODERSOHN-BECKER Paula

    MODIGLIANI Amedeo

    MONDRIAN Piet (Sep 2023)

    MONET Claude

    MOORE Henry

    MOREAU Gustave

    MORISOT Berthe

    MORRIS William

    MOTHERWELL Robert

    MUNCH Edvard

    MURILLO Bartolomé

    NEWMAN Barnett

    NOLAN Sidney

    NOLDE Emil

    O'KEEFFE Georgia

    OLDENBURG Claes

    OROZCO José

    PERUGINO Pietro

    PICASSO Pablo

    PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA

    PIPPIN Horace

    PISANO Andrea

    PISSARRO Camille

    POLLOCK Jackson (Dec 2022)

    PONTORMO

    POUSSIN Nicolas

    RAPHAEL

    RAUSCHENBERG Robert

    REDON Odilon

    REGO Paula

    REMBRANDT

    RENOIR Pierre Auguste

    REYNOLDS Joshua

    RIVERA Diego


Volume 5

    ROBBIA Luca della

    ROCKWELL Norman

    RODIN Auguste

    ROSSETTI Dante Gabriel

    ROTHKO Mark

    ROUAULT Georges

    ROUSSEAU Henri

    RUBENS Peter Paul

    RUBLEV Andrei

    RYDER Albert Pinkham

    SARGENT John Singer

    SASSETTA Stefano

    SCHIELE Egon

    SEGAL George

    SEURAT Georges

    SHAHN Ben

    SISLEY Alfred

    SLUTER Claus

    SOUTINE Chaïm

    SPENCER Stanley

    STUBBS George

    TIEPOLO Giambattista

    TINTORETTO

    TITIAN

    TOULOUSE-LAUTREC Henri de

    TURNER J. M. W.

    UCCELLO Paolo

    UTRILLO Maurice

    VAN DER WEYDEN Rogier

    VAN DYCK Anthony

    VAN EYCK Jan

    VAN GOGH Vincent

    VAN HONTHORST Gerrit

    VAN RUISDAEL Jacob

    VELÁZQUEZ Diego

    VERMEER Jan

    VERONESE Paolo

    VUILLARD Edouard

    WARHOL Andy

    WATTEAU Antoine

    WEST Benjamin

    WHISTLER James Abbott McNeill

    WOOD Grant

    WYETH Andrew

    ZURBARÁN Francisco de


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Sunday, September 29, 2024

Dye Recipes 2024

It's the end of September and I just want to share my dye notes so far!
I'll keep adding to this as we play around more during the school year...


My previous blog posts on dyeing wool & wool yarn:


Note that there is no blog post called "30 Days of Dyeing: Days 16-30." That's because I ran out of steam. Didn't we all think we'd have oodles of free time during COVID?

Now, as part of Fibers & Clothing 2024, I'm once again taking a crack at natural dyeing, and the plan is that the children and I will dye ALL OUR YARN for the school year. Here are photos and my notes on making colors!

PLANT DYEING DIRECTORY - ACID DYES, METAL MORDANTS OR SOY MILK



Patons Classic Wool Roving Yarn, Aran
our bulky weight yarn


Lion Brand Fishermen's Wool Yarn, Natural
our worsted weight yarn


For saving a dyebath to use again later, I like these 1 gallon kombucha jars.


LIGHT YELLOW

    Turmeric (Curcuma longa)

    turmeric root, thawed from frozen
    + white vinegar

    ratio dyestuff:fiber
    1:1

    crockpot

    chop turmeric root and add to pot along with yarn, put crockpot on Low for 4 hours, then turn off and let cool overnight

    turmeric makes a lovely clear light yellow but is not lightfast (we put our yarn in the sun to dry and it immediately began to lose its color)

    this is called a fugitive dye

    Turmeric

    the side of the yarn facing the sun is on the bottom; the underside (closer to the original color) is on the top


    Goldenrod (Solidago)

    fresh flowers gathered in September

    yarn mordanted with alum & cream of tartar vs. unmordanted yarn

    ratio dyestuff:fiber
    10:1

    stovetop

    in the morning put flowers in a mesh bag and simmer 1 hour, let cool until late afternoon, remove dye bag and add fiber, simmer 1/2 hour

    Goldenrod

    this was the perfect dye bath to demonstrate the difference between mordanted and unmordanted yarn; it's a very dramatic difference!


    other things we could try:
    carrot tops
    fresh pomegranate peels


GOLDEN YELLOW

    Goldenrod (Solidago)

    yarn mordanted with alum (12% WOF) & cream of tartar (6% WOF)

    227 g Fishermen's Wool Yarn, 28 g alum, 14 g cream of tartar

    180 degrees F for 45 minutes (I used an old candy thermometer)

    How to Mordant Animal Fibers
    botanicalcolors.com

    Goldenrod

    unmordanted yarn on left, mordanted yarn on right

    I'm going to use the unmordanted yarn as my Light Yellow and the mordanted as my Golden Yellow


    other things we could try:
    annatto seed


ORANGE

    Beet (Beta vulgaris)

    fresh chopped beetroot
    + white vinegar

    ratio dyestuff:fiber
    10:1

    crockpot

    chop beetroot and add to pot along with yarn, put crockpot on Low for 3 1/2 hours, then turn off and let cool overnight

    Beet

    2nd round with the "used" water (this is called an exhaust bath)

    we had so much potency still left in the beets that this yarn came out almost the exact same color! the exhaust bath yarn is on the right


    Yellow Onion (Allium cepa)

    yellow onion skins
    + white vinegar

    no mordant is needed for onion

    ratio dyestuff:fiber
    I forgot to weigh this! but the recommendation is 2:1

    crockpot

    the onion skin gave a very different orange -- a kind of tawny tan -- and had a mottled look where the onion skins lay directly on the yarn

    Onion Skin

    the children very much liked this effect, and thought this yarn would be very good for a lion (they suggested in the future to use less water in the crockpot, and to make a sandwich of onion skins / yarn / onion skins so that there would be a lot of variation in the yarn color)


    other things we could try:
    sassafras bark
    osage orange


RED


LIGHT PINK

    Avocado (Persea americana)

    avocado pits, thawed from frozen and quartered

    no mordant is needed for avocado

    ratio dyestuff:fiber
    4:1

    stovetop

    an avocado pit weighs approx. 25 grams

    simmer 1 hour, do not let boil, let cool overnight (repeat 3x for a total of 4 days of heating/cooling), add washing soda to the dyebath to make it more alkaline, pH of 9, test with pH paper strips

    let the dyebath stand overnight to cure (we found that this gives a more even dye color), prewet wool yarn in warm water, add to pot, heat over VERY low heat for an hour then remove yarn, cool

    Avocado

    plain avocado dyebath on left (peach), washing soda added on right (pink)

    rinse avocado yarn thoroughly and immediately or the avocado pits will leave a strong residue that gets darker and darker over time


HOT PINK


PURPLE

    Blueberry (Vaccinium Sect. Cyanococcus)

    frozen blueberries
    + white vinegar

    ratio dyestuff:fiber
    4:1

    crockpot

    put bluebrries in a fine mesh bag, cook on Low 4 hours in crockpot and let cool overnight

    Blueberry

    blueberries on left (purple), exhaust bath on right (lavender)

    I also tried overdyeing some of the avocado yarn in the blueberry exhaust bath, for a more pinky-purple


    other things we could try:
    logwood (do not use cream of tartar in mordant)


DARK BLUE


LIGHT BLUE

    experiments with corn


    woad


    alkanet

      resources:

      http://www.wildcolours.co.uk/html/alkanet.html


GREEN

    Pomegranate + Iron (Punica granatum)

    whole pomegranate peel, thawed from frozen

    iron afterbath

    no mordant is needed for pomegranate

    ratio dyestuff:fiber
    5:1

    stovetop

    simmer pomegranate peels in water for 1 hour until broken down, add wet yarn to pot, leave overnight to cool

    I wasn't happy with the dull color I got from the frozen peels, so in the future I will be sure to use fresh! We used this yarn as a chance to practice color shifting with iron (Earthues Natural Dye Starter Kit)

    Pomegranate + Iron

    place a tiny pinch of iron powder in dyepot, add hot water, stir to dissolve, submerge pomegrante dyed fiber, takes only a few minutes

    original pomegranate color is on the left, pom + iron is on the right

    note: you can also use pomegranate peels as a mordant (30% WOF)


    other things we could try:
    fresh mint + iron
    carrot tops, iron afterbath
    privet berries (pick when ripe and store in freezer)


BROWN

    Acorn (Quercus)

    fresh acorns & caps gathered in September

    no mordant is needed for acorn

    ratio dyestuff:fiber
    6:1

    stovetop

    bring pot to a boil in the morning, turn off heat and let stand, return pot to a boil the next morning, turn off heat and let stand all day

    this gave us a really strong deep brown that we can also shift to grey with ferrous sulphate crystals

    we could also strain the dyebath and simmer it longer and add some tragacanth gum to thicken it and make ink for stamping on textiles

    Acorn


    other things we could try:
    brewed coffee
    black walnut


GREY

    Acorn + Iron (Quercus)

    acorns, iron afterbath (6%)

    measure 6% WOF (weight of fiber) in ferrous sulfate crystals and add them to a large glass canning jar, pour in some of the warm acorn dyebath plus the acorn wool, leave for 5-15 minutes, remove & rinse

    acorn on bottom, acorn + iron on top

    do not leave your yarn with iron for too long or it will get crunchy!

    Acorn + Iron



Not all dyes are sun-fast, so I came up with a way to safely store a sample of the yarn colors we got along with their recipes. I got a 4x6 card file box and white 4x6 tabbed index cards.

I like to tie the hanks with the same yarn that I'm dyeing, and then save those little ties as the sample of the color I got from the dye bath. I simply staple those yarn scraps to an index card and then write on it what we did.

I can write the name of the dyestuff on the tab (different mordants will give different results for the same dyestuff). The file box also keeps sunlight from getting to the yarn and affecting the color swatches. It works really well!

Do Natural Dyes Fade? Try This Simple Test


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Wednesday, September 25, 2024

Gelli Arts Gelatin Printing Plates

This week in Art History, we turned some of Sonia Delaunay's color combinations into gelatin-plate monoprinted textiles!

The children in our homeschool co-op (ages 5-13) all loved it. This activity was inspired by both Sonia Delaunay (our current artist of the month) and the "Gel print colour play" lesson from Jayne Emerson's wonderful course, Gel Printing on and with Textiles).


We first read the Greek myth Orpheus and Eurydice, as retold by Sybil Grafin Schonfeldt, and talked about Orphism. I told them that Sonia Delaunay listened to colors, and put them by other colors that they wanted to sing and dance with. The students each chose 3 paint colors that were side-by-side in one of her pieces and did this activity.

detail from Market at Minho


It was so lovely and helped them to look at those colors in a new way. It took all worries about "form" out of the artwork, especially because you can't be too detail-obsessed with a brayer (which can have a mind of its own), and just turned it into playing with colors. And we had never printed onto fabric before, so that was exciting too.

Gelatin plate printing is absolutely addictive, and now I want more plates (even though I have six already 😂). So I popped onto Amazon to see what sizes and shapes are available. I like the brand Gelli Arts. Here goes!

Circle

4 inch

8 inch


Square

4 x 4 inch classroom set (20 plates)

5 x 5 inch classroom set (10 plates)

6 x 6 inch


Rectangle

5 x 7 inch

8 x 10 inch

9 x 12 inch

12 x 14 inch


You will also need acrylic paint and a hard rubber brayer. Lay the plate on wax paper while printing to protect it. Clean the plate off with baby wipes.


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Friday, September 20, 2024

Persimmon Recipes

This post joins others about foraging like Chestnut Recipes I Want To Try (Sep 2023), Pawpaw Recipes (Sep 2022), and Tapping Sugar Maple Trees (Feb 2023).

All those other posts are about Megan teaching me to find food in the forest, but the persimmon tree is in my yard so that's exquisitely easy!

Diospyros virginiana

It is absolutely jam-packed with fruit.

You just walk outside and there they are on the ground!

And we just pop them right in the freezer until we have enough for a recipe!

It works best for me to spend a lot of time looking up recipe links and saving them here and then, when it is persimmon season, it's all in one place, ready to go. We just thaw the fruit and push the pulp through a food mill. Yum!


Persimmons for Breakfast


Persimmons for Dinner


Persimmons for Dessert


How to Eat a Persimmon—and How to Know if Yours Is Ripe (Fuyu, Hachiya, Rojo Brillante)


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Wednesday, September 18, 2024

In the Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World

In my school year plan, I had to choose between 5 weeks in Sep and 5 weeks in Oct. Of course, I'd love to do Fibers & Clothing forever, but there's no need to. We have Handwork as an ongoing special subject anyway, so we can always dye yarn and sew on our own time.

Having a Handwork basket works really well for when people need a fidget during a long story, or they have just a few minutes to kill before lunch.

I think the better plan is to give five weeks to Virginia Hamilton's amazing book, In the Beginning: Creation Stories from Around the World. It's beautifully written (it was a Newbery honor)! If we do five weeks, we can do two stories per week, and that way they don't run together and blur.

So now I have to pick which chapters we will do! Only 10 from a list of 25...


The Pea-Pod Man
Raven the Creator

Finding Night
Quat the Creator

An Endless Sea of Mud
Death the Creator

Bursting from the Hen's Egg
Phan Ku the Creator

Traveling to Form the World
Old Man the Creator

First Man Becomes the Devil
Ulgen the Creator

Turtle Dives to the Bottom of the Sea
Earth Starter the Creator

Moon and Sun
Mawu-Lisa the Creators

Bandicoots Come from His Body
Karora the Creator

Spider Ananse Finds Something
Wulbari the Creator

The Woman Who Fell from the Sky
Divine Woman the Creator

Man Copies God
Nyambi the Creator

The Frost Giant
Imir the Creator

Owner of the Sky
Olorun the Creator

Marduk, God of Gods
Apsu and Tiamat the Creators

Four Creators to Make Man
Maker and Feathered Serpent the Creators

The Angry Gods
Ta-aroa the Creator

Sun, Life, Wind, and Death
God Lowa the Creator

The Sun-God and the Dragon
God Ra the Creator

Separation of Earth and Sky
Sedi and Melo the Creators

First Man, First Woman
Yahweh the Creator

The Coming of All Things
The Greek Creators

The God Brings Fire to Man
Prometheus the Creator

Pandora
Zeus the Creator

In the Beginning
Elohim the Creator


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Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Pippa Mouse

Love this little series by Betty D. Boegehold! There are four titles:


Pippa Mouse (1973)



Here's Pippa Again! (1975)



Pippa Pops Out! (1979)



Hurray for Pippa! (1980)


Perfect for children who love animal stories and are looking for easy-to-read chapter books! I also suggest The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark by Jill Tomlinson and The Garden Adventures of Griswald the Gnome by Daniela Drescher for this type of reader. Let me know if you have recommendations!


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Thursday, September 12, 2024

Spy Science!

Our first Science Club topic of the year is Spy Science! Here are my notes:


Spy Science: 40 Secret-Sleuthing, Code-Cracking,
Spy-Catching Activities for Kids
by Jim Wiese


Spy Science #1 - Who Touched the Mirror?
Sep 12

    Fingerprint Activity (pp.2-3 of PDF) using Ranger Archival Ink Pads

    pass out small mirrors, brainstorm homemade fingerprint powders

    test what substance and method worked best to get a clear print

      paint brush, makeup brush, cotton ball

      powdered blush, crushed charcoal (mortar & pestle, sandpaper), baking soda, tapioca starch, crushed rabbit food

    divide kids into four teams of three children each

    one person from your group leaves their prints on the mirror, trade, can the other team figure out who touched the mirror?


Spy Science #2 - Invisible Ink (homemade)
Sep 19


Spy Science #3 - Invisible Ink (store bought)
Sep 26

    make homemade cards using cardstock & scrapbooking supplies

    write a joke inside the card in regular ink with the answer written in invisible ink!

    we used my list of Jokes for Reluctant Readers

    Pilot FriXion Erasable Gel Pens were our store bought invisible ink

    this thermosensitive ink becomes invisible when you erase it using heavy pressure -- due to the heat caused by friction -- but the writing is revealed when you put the letter in the freezer for 5 min

    according to the pen packaging, if you heat the entire pen to 140 degrees F it will write in invisible ink, and you need to cool the pen in the freezer to 14 degrees F or below for it to write in visible ink again


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