So it looks like I’m working on a school auction project again this year. Don’t know how this happens. Anyway, the kids in my daughter’s third grade class had already started with a glue batik project and I made some additional squares with them last week, as you can see above. We started with this tutorial. Thinking of putting these on a neutral linen background so that the colors would be appealing to most people, but not sure. I tried this glue batik technique a couple of years ago, and decided it would be better to limit the color palette. I do think that worked better and as you can see this time I went with blues and greens. I’d also suggest having the kids focus their designs and possibly even trace something. Although I love for kids to be creative and make their own work, when it’s auction time, you need to get something good from every kid and it’s not easy. It’s a time when art really is about the finished product and not the process, which kind of takes the fun out of it.
Anyway, I’ll keep you posted on this one. They have asked me to sew the kids’ designs into a quilt, so we’ll see how it comes out.
ellen – i did the same thing for our school auction last year. i just sewed the squares together without any framing. for the quilting i used a variegated thread in the same tones as the paint. it looked fantastic! one quilt brought in $1250, the other $850! you can catch a glimpse here: http://www.houseonhillroad.com/my_weblog/2011/02/four-seams-shy-of-two-quilt-tops.html
and again here: http://www.houseonhillroad.com/my_weblog/2011/03/school-auction-project-info.html
Great idea for an auction project! Thanks for sharing. I’m going to give it a try (next year!) Our school does an auction every other, thank goodness!
Love it. And I agree w/you on the color pallette, makes things much more appealing. Also maybe giving them just 2 or 3 choices on subject matter? Making a theme? Like fern, flower or leaf?
That palette is so lovely – it looks like vintage sheets. you could have the kids glue-draw a simple shape that is all the same like a star, a house, or a flower. I think it would be something that would have enough individual variation to be interesting but themed enough to be cohesive. The way they get colored in would also add variety.
Thanks for all your comments! We did have an Indian theme with a cross-cultural connection with some girls in a sewing program in India. They had previously drawn pictures with the glue, but the details didn’t come out so well. I did give the kids some images of mandalas and Indian motifs for inspiration and a few of the kids worked from those, which turned out really well.
That looks so beautiful. Would love to see the finished product, I’m sure it will raise a lot of money!