We just finished up our all-school auction project. Last year I made a quilt with the kids, with the children each dyeing a piece of fabric. I paper pieced that quilt and it took many, many hours. So this year, we decided to try an art project instead. Since I’d always wanted to make a quilt of little houses, we decided to make a project with tiny wooden houses, each cut from balsa wood in varying shapes. The finished piece is 36″ x 48″, so each house had to be around 2″ wide and tall to allow 386 houses to fit on the wooden background.
Once I’d cut the houses, I passed them along to our school art teacher Kelley, who had each grade use a different technique to design their houses. Techniques included Pollack splatter painting for the youngest kids, Kandinsky houses with pastels for pre-K, Mondrian houses for kindergarten, plus pointillism, tissue paper overlays, paper mosaics, acrylic and sharpie, and black and white Zentangles. Some of the houses were representational and some abstract. Kelley did an amazing job with the kids and we were both surprised at how much detail they were able to get on these small houses. Then I painted the background with acrylic paint, glued each house on with wood glue and varnished the finished piece. I think that all of the individual and unique houses coming together in one project is such a sweet metaphor for our school community.
What a beautiful wooden quilt and such a lovely idea 😀
You really should do a quilt like this. It’s amazing.
It’s brilliant! It’s a work of art. I agree it would look great as a quilt. You could also make fabric using a photo of it!
Beautiful!
Awesome! What a great project for the kids to do! The result os fantastic, hope it gets a good price at your fundraiser.
Looks fantastic!
I hope who ever purchases it donates it to the school or townhall it is community spirit that needs to be shared well with the community! Amazing thank you so much for sharing – i look forward to your school projects!
I bet the families go crazy over this project. I want it and I don’t even go to your school. I would be very interested in hearing more about how the houses are mounted. Great job, Ellen!
Incredible! I bet the kids love seeing it 🙂
Oh what a wonderful idea. I love the quilt and the wood installation is brilliant. What a wonderful way to illustrate “inclusion”. I love it.
Totally awesome! Your school auction posts are among my favorites! Great job!
lovely and adorable idea of yours!!!
thank you for the sharing;-D
Fantastic! Your school is so lucky to have you as a collaborator.
What a fabulous idea. The little houses look great and would have been fun for the kids to decorate.
Valspierssews
That is such a great idea!
This is great. Heard about it and had to check it out.
This is stunning. What an incredible gift you have given those students and community. You are amazing.
Will you show us what became of your paper stampede project? I am still so envious of the guinea pig portrait you made a year or two ago. Maybe I will get around to having a go at it myself this summer. We have 4 very loved guinea pigs. I am sure I will steal (uh, I mean, be inspired) liberally of your design to create mine. Just awesome. This has been the first year any of my kids ever had a class pet (box turtle).
You did a fantastic job on this! Were the house easy to cut? any tips?
Is it possible that I can get your template for the houses?
Is it possible to get the templates for the houses?
How did you mount the houses?
Wood glue!