Mommio: Art Class

Today in art we looked at another famous tapestry series.  The Bayeux Tapestry depicts the story of William the Conqueror and the Norman invasion of England in 1066.

There are lots of really great websites to use to study this tapestry.  We read a brief kids version of the events of 1066, watched a really cool video that animates a portion of the tapestry to tell the story (the kids all loved this, especially the burping and the battle scene with the head being chopped off)-

And checked out this website to study it all a little closer.  We also took parts of the tapestry and matched them to their parts in the story to get an idea of the sequence of events.
The Bayeux Tapestry is different from the two unicorn series that we studied last week.  Those were true woven tapestries, while this one is not woven at all but instead it is made with embroidery stitches.  The kids made their own simple embroidery tapestries today.  We used the back stitch to embroider our names and then a simple drawing on a piece of felt.
Before we started the kids shared their finished tapestries from last week.  They all did a great job sewing borders on them and I love that they all turned out different.

 Then we moved on to today's project.  First, the kids drew the outline of their name and the drawing they chose with chalk on their felt.

 Next, they chose colors. And threaded their needles and knotted their floss at the end.

Then they set to work using the back stitch to embroider their names and drawings.  This takes a lot of patience and they did an excellent job and also helped each other a lot.  It was the first time Connor ever agreed to try any kind of hand sewing and he really enjoyed it- spent over two hours getting his just right.

 Here is how they all came out.  To finish these off  they will be sewing a fabric border onto their tapestries.  The kids enjoyed this project so much that they already started to make more!

Almost one year (and two great art shows later) we have completed the first book in the Artistic Pursuits series.  The kids have all tried a lot of new things and have become much more confident and interested in art, as well as art history.  All the new supplies are here (thanks Nana!) and in a few weeks we will be moving on to the second book- learning all about particular famous artists from the 13th to the 18th centuries and trying out their styles.