Artist In Residence- North Prairie, WI

With a sign that inviting, you can't help but get excited about what new project awaits you when entering the threshold into Mrs. Engelking's elementary art room! Come peek with me into the project we created and the time I spent in south-eastern Wisconsin April 9-10th, 2018.

 I was approached in January about doing a school-wide felting project with her, and right away I began asking questions to start planning a proposal:

• How many students? A: 350 from K-6 grade
• What's your scheduling like/ do you have flexibility A: We're flexible in a day and a half timeframe
• What size/ scale are you thinking? A: Budget dependent, we decided 4' x 8' finished size nuno felt
• What are some themes or ideas you'd like to see incorporated? A: We're in North Prairie, WI so.... prairie? 

Typically when approached by elementary schools, I go straight away to wet felting. She wanted to do some needle felting, as her older kids had gotten lucky and been doing some in their classes already. I told her I would work on a proposal and a sketch. 

When I start brainstorming, all those factors from the questions and their answers will be building blocks in how we put together a fun, successful and inspiring cooperative fiber art project. Each one I've done is different than the other. I LOVE the challenge of that and the more I've done, the more I've learned and been able to apply to the next project. 

I broke down the design into components for each grades with a wet day (did I say wet! I mean WET!) followed by a blissful dry day of needle felting. 

• Kindergarten - Clouds and Sky
• 1st- Blending of colors for grass
• 2nd- Blending of colors for water 
• 3rd - Felted grasses 
• 4th- Rocks and Leaves 
• 5th- Flower petals and assembly (needle felting)
• 6th- Sparkly bugs and assembly (needle felting)

We arranged to have each grade rotate through the art room, divided into three, 12-minute stations. One station the kids got to watch our dvd about the animals, shearing and art made with the fiber. Then, they traveled to the teacher's station where they made an individual component for the art piece. Last, they came to my station, where we put those pieces on, did agitation, and talked about my art. It all ran very smoothly, thanks to engaged teacher support and assistance, and some wonderful volunteers and terrific kids. 

By the end of the wet day, we had used a BUNCH of towels which our awesome, helpful volunteer offered to take home and wash and we were wiped out! Despite it being very cold, I decided to trek around downtown Delafield, WI where I found some treasures...mostly window shopping...which I find equally enjoyable and far less dangerous! I also enjoyed a quiet dinner at The Seven Seas overlooking Lake Nagawicka. 

The second day began with a wonderful breakfast at the lovely B&B I stayed at, Ped'lars Inn in Wales, WI . The owners were very accommodating to my crazy schedule of arriving late and leaving early and it was very charming. I highly recommend it!  

The whole experience was terrific; wonderful people, beautiful creativity and breathtaking results! Here is the finished piece and a fabulous video about the entire project that Mrs. Engelking put together. Thank you Prairie Elementary for having me and for making beautiful art together!  

Big-Time Creativity!

This past week I had the exciting privilege of designing and coordinating a HUGE project at Central Elementary School in Riverside, IL. I was approached by the PTO in the fall, and asked to come up with a proposal to involve all the kids participating in an fiber arts enrichment. As always, I had to put on my thinking cap and come up with a custom design. 

"Beside the River", a 3' x 9' nuno felted mural was perfect. I broke down the design into three grade levels: first, second and third. Each grade would design a component of the piece. In this case, the first graders did the background colors, second grade did the trees and third grade did flowers, ripples in the stream and grasses. 

This part I worked with the kids on. We had classes about 50 minutes long, and after an intro, split the time into two stations, where they swapped half way through the class. You should have seen their eye light up when, to their surprise, they came into the art room and discovered this special project! 

Now one of the challenges was the fact that we had to do this one class at a time, over the course of four days. Typically, in nuno felting, one designs, wets and rolls to fuse the fibers right away. When I do projects like this, I might do a span of two days and we work back to front, just like a painting. 

My solution was that we work from one side to the other, essentially creating four panels that fused seamlessly into each other as we worked each day. And it worked! Now I know this is a solution and option for future projects. I just love how challenges can help us to grow and discover new bits of wisdom! 

The other component was for the kids to make wet felted balls and then with adult's help, to glue them into a real acorn top. This project went beautifully for all grades and we got a great teaching system down for this! I might have to do a video tutorial for it in the future because it is an amazingly successful, cheap and fun mess-minimal project! Woot! Woot! 

I loved the comments I heard from kids... one little boy who was having an especially hard week said this was the best day ever, and left with a huge smile from ear to ear. His teacher noticed a difference right away! I had another girl show me the piece of wool she stretched out to place on the sky and she said, "Isn't this wool lovely?" How precious is that! 

The older kids got a real treat.... 4th graders made needle felted owls and fifth grade made foxes, keeping with the woodland theme. To make it easier (and to keep Mrs. V's art room our wet-felting headquarters), we traveled to their classrooms and taught there. I had prepared a PowerPoint with step-by-step pictures which helped me a LOT, saving my voice from repeating the same thing 10,000 times over! They kids did an awesome job staying on task and getting their creatures made, having fun the whole time. 

Loved this little exchange in the 5th grade...

Mrs.Natasha: "Check out our video tutorials if you want to learn more about this art"

Boy 1: "Do you have a YouTube channel?" 

Mrs. Natasha: "Why yes I do!" (Pat myself on the back mentally for being "hip") 

{Small gasp of excitement fills room}

Boy 2: "How many subs do you have?"

{I look at teacher and mouth: WHAT ARE SUBS? to which she answers "SUBSCRIBERS" and light bulb lights above my head mentally}

Mrs. Natasha: "Over 400"

{Murmurs now ripple across room. Seeing this, I decide to add this bit of info}

Mrs. Natasha: "I have over 14,000 views on one of my videos."

Everyone: "Whoa! You're famous!"

{Totally awesome in the fifth graders' eyes now. My coolness status just went waaaay up}

One especially rewarding story was how one of the girls went home and discovered she had a felting kit laying around and went to work right away making things. She was so excited to show me, I had to take pictures of course, of her Kermit finger puppet and baby fox. Another classroom spent all their free lunch time adding to their foxes and embellishing them. It captured the hearts and creativity of everyone it touched. 

Central Elementary's staff was so kind, so close-knit, that it really felt like a family. I appreciated my time there with them, and even got a chance to explore the area a little. I went to Brookfield Zoo one afternoon and enjoyed some great dining in downtown La Grange, IL. 

Their piece will be hanging in the school and I know the kids are going to be so proud of it, because they each have a little bit of themselves in it. These sorts of projects are the kind I get really passionate about, because there are challenges to meet, building on the skills and creativity I already have and stretching me just a little beyond myself. When I come back from these artist-in-residencies, I am energized and exhausted and glowing with the feeling of joy. Joy in their little hands and huge hearts, and how we can all make the world more beautiful together. That's big-time creativity my friends!!!

Mississippi Adventures!

I was approached to teach at the Mississippi Art's Commission's Winter Institute  where 160 educators would gather for art enrichment. I was thrilled! Their theme was Elvis Presley, as it was held in Tupelo, MS, his birthplace. 

The experience was incredible, with a stunning nuno felt piece created by the educators themselves, great food and people and sweet Southern hospitality. What a privilege and joy to share my passion for fiber art with the folks down South! 

I've put together memoirs of the trip along with my reflections. It shows the preparation and thought process behind the piece, the place I went and people I met, and stories galore. Check out the photo album and memoirs!

Up North

It's been a fun month traveling to different places spreading our love of fiber arts. I got to enjoy a wonderful time with my husband at the Wisconsin Art Educators Conference in Lacrosse, WI. I had never been to Lacrosse, which is on the Mississippi River, so I enjoyed the beautiful fall drive there. I think that Wisconsin always picks the most perfect time of the year for their conference, when the leaves are at their peak of color. It was spectacular. We saw bluffs and rolling fields and forests ablaze. Such a feast for the eyes. 

When we were there, we discovered Grandad's Bluff, which was pretty unique. A natural limestone bluff that had been preserved since its' limestone was quarried in the early 1900's, it's a stunning 600 feet above Lacrosse. Equally stunning was the fact that I had a donut burger there the first night. Yes. It was delicious. 

The town was cute, with lots of bars and eateries. The little ice cream and candy store was adorable and the ice cream was homemade and wonderful. A fun place to explore during the conference! 

We had a fabulous time making candy corn at the demo table at our booth. We had some darn creative folks who even added faces to their candy corn! Jonathan was a delight, reminding me just how much I enjoy working with him. He's a pretty great felter and a superb fiber sales man. In fact, he's even got a sense of humor. When someone was adoring a blended sparkly batt in soft pastel colors, they commented that it looked like unicorns. To this he answered that it was unicorn fiber indeed, as we curry comb our flock and then make the batts from that fiber. Gotta love it! 

I had two back to back filled classes in which we made little "leapfrogs" with needle felting and wet felted flowers. Everyone had a fabulous time. We actually for the first time sold out of fibers! I felt like Macy's on Black Friday... I had people waiting, arms weighed down with fiber in our checkout lines! What a great feeling. 

So thank you fabulous Wisconsin Art teachers! Do keep felting, and share your creations with us. It's so inspiring! We look forward to seeing you next year in Fort Atkinson, WI! 

Trekking East

To another place AND another time zone this weekend! Well it wasn't far from home, but our neighbors Indiana, for their art educator's conference. Held in a suburb of Indianapolis, at a high school (great idea by the way!), we had the treat of sharing fiber with a bunch of excited Hoosier folks. 

After a three and a half hour drive, it makes you feel pretty good when you start unloading your things and teachers walk by and literally start cheering that Esther's Place is here. I mean clapping, hootin' and hollerin', and everything! What a welcome wagon. 

The day started out with my class first thing, which I really liked. We made leapfrogs and trumpet flowers to demonstrate wet and needle felting techniques. What an awesome feeling when you keep watching people trickle in and you run out of seats. I had standing room only and I think almost 30 teachers in the class. I was very pleased to have three male teachers attend. I strive to minimize the genderization that sometimes subconsciously occurs with fiber art, and having confident male teachers helps that cause out! 

The class was great but my favorite part of class is when we do introductions. I really like to get a group of people to learn about each other and find common ground that gets them sharing. In this instance, they share their name, where they teach and what ages, and I ask them to share their passion. Art teachers are artists first, and their insatiable desire to create sometimes gets pushed aside for the practical. Hearing about their passion, whether it was blacksmithing, stained glass, mixed media, etc, was inspiring. We really needed a session or social media platform just to share pictures and ideas and interact about what we do, and learn from one another (hint, hint!).  

The booth was hopping, of course, and thanks to my dear friend Amber, lots of folks were making super cute candy corns! I know there will be lots of creativity going on, because lots of fibers went home with new felters. I did enjoy seeing one gal, Kendra, who shared with us the picture of her felt rooster she created. She won a grand champion for it at the fair! How exciting to see what can happen in a year. 

The show was a great success and I now have lots of things I want to offer for art educators- resources, lesson plans, video tutorials, that I will be working on in the weeks to come. In the meantime, check out how to make the leapfrog and flowers here! 

Well, a trip isn't complete without a little fun, so we did enjoy some local sushi and I visited my favorite Indy attraction, Saddleup Saloon and Dancehall,  where I enjoyed my pastime of line-dancing with some boot-scootin' fun. I love dancing, have danced my whole life in some form or another, and dance at Saddleup near us.  It's been a great trip! 

A Vote for the Underdogs

I will admit it. I am a bandwagon fan. My brother has been a true Cubs fan, the one who through the most major sports drought in history, kept believing. Kept cheering. Kept watching. It's admirable. Really! He's got the jersey, he's got the lingo, he's genuine. 

Me, on the other hand, I just like to see the underdog get a chance. When I heard the Cubs were going on to greatness, I was kind of doubtful. But when they kept pushing forward, proving their strength and dedication, I jumped on the bandwagon full force! Why, I even learned the "Go Cubs Go" song (I'm a little ashamed that I didn't know it, but believe you me, it's etched into my memory forever now. Like it's never gonna leave. It's stuck permanently. LOL)

As I watched the team rally together, and watched the fans join in harmonic support, it was truly inspiring. In light of the current political environment of slander and negativity, the fact there was something we could all believe in together felt surreal. It felt patriotic! There was a feeling of unity as we saw the impossible becoming a reality.

And then there was that 7th game! What a nail-biter! What a victory! And we all celebrated with them. Why? Because when an underdog wins, all of us other underdogs feel a fire stir within us. I feel like I am an underdog at times. Art teachers. Farmers. Small Business Owners. Even the lowly sheep. Those who swim upstream in the river of societal culture. 

We're all underdogs. Yet watching the Cubs, I realized so many things. Deep life lessons. Teamwork. Dedication. Belief and faith. Talent. Persistence. Discipline. Passion. Here are the traits of success. The Chicago Cubs have reminded us how to dream and with all those attributes, how to dream big. Congratulations on making history! 

We celebrated their win at the Illinois Art Educator's Conference in Normal, IL . Here art teachers gathered from around the state to learn, share, inspire and engage in their passion of art education. For me, art teacher conferences are like the World Series of my year. Something I look forward to, something where we can all celebrate together what we love doing. Where we get support and a shot in the arm to keep going. Art teachers are really the best!

It was fun hanging out with all of you and getting to celebrate our victory together. And especially fun was creating and crafting with you, Cassie Stephens, another kindred spirit who loves life, fun, fiber just as much as me. She's a great resource with her art teacher blog and an awesome person to know.

So on behalf of all the underdogs of the world, we congratulate the Chicago Cubs on winning the World Series after 108 years! If this is possible, ANYTHING IS! Dream big my friends!