Children's Fiber Art Classes have begun!

The ball is rolling now! The first week of children's classes has begun and I'm so excited about the success of registration this term!

Children's options began on Sunday with a mom & child fiber class. Children range in age from 6 to 11 and our first project was to felt a vessel. All of the children and some of the moms' already had some felting experience. I think the mom's who had never felted before may have found a new respect for their children's efforts:-) It's hard work to felt!

My monday class is for 5-7 yr olds and I have a large class for this type of work. I usually have a cut of of 8 children so that I can give them the attention they need but somehow a ninth one got under my radar. I have boys this term! Three of the nine in this group are boys. That's great but will keep me challenged for two reasons. Fiber arts projects tend to lend themselves to girlie things and boys have a lot of energy! They keep me hopping! In the end, we managed to get some beads felted that were made from a roll of felt and sliced into discs. I had some Harrisville batts that I used so they could avoid laying out fibers for a first project but it took a bit longer to felt so would not use it again in this situation. Good old Merino felts so fast and the children have a hard time concentrating when they have to work the fiber for too long to get it to felt. Everything is relative of course but it's important to make it as quick and painless for them as possible.

Tuesdays I have a group of 6, 5 yr olds and 4 of them are boys!!! I am so surprised! Most of them had participated in workshops at the Bermuda fiber festival and wanted to return! The atmosphere in my classrooms this year is definitely different with all of that energy from the boys. We'll see how it goes and if I can keep their interest. It was slow going but all students managed to felt one small ball that either got strung as a necklace or on a loop for a key ring. Success was had by all:-)

Today, Wednesday, I have a smaller group with only one boy. WE will do roll beads in this class but this time I will use my reliable merino. I'll let you know how we do!