Wearable Art- Inspired by Delina White

I'm so excited to share this fun lesson I did with my 3rd grade. I was inspired by the work of Delina White. Mrs. White is a Minnesota Anishinaabe Artist who I had the privilege to be taught by in a workshop about a year ago. Delina is known for her blend of traditional and modern design in her Wearable Art. Using mediums such as leather, beads, birch bark and other fibers, Delina has created an amazing collection of work that she shares on her website, I Am Anishinaabe.  My love for her style was reenergized as Billy Kheel, our recent Artist in Residence included a little work of Art in his installation inspired by the Minnesota Native. When I started to connect this lesson with our experience with Billy Kheel, I ran across Delina White's TEDxBemidji talk on Fashion, Compassion, Identity, and Unity. WOW... talk about relevant and powerful. I knew this Artist MUST be brought into my classroom as an inspiration. 

Along with the Artist in Residence... I just happen to have a lot of felt around my room. I decided I would use put together a way for my students to learn about the Artist Delina White as well as the concept of Organic Shapes while using fibers.  Yep, I was excited! 

In this lesson, I started the kids out with pre-planning in their sketchbook.  In my lesson, I broke down how each color was a shape that we would be making putting back together like a puzzle. Students used subjects from Minnesota's Nature. 

Then we created our patterns and cut out our felt. I was shocked at the ease my 3rd grade had when cutting felt. They were very motivated. We used Aleene's Tacky Glue to connect the felt. Then we used puffy paints to add the extra details. Again, I expected a lot of difficulty with the fabric paints, but the kids rocked it!

The fun part was modeling our Wearable Artwork! We did a photo shoot of our art to share with parents and our followers on Instagram. I even let the kids be part of the fun playing both the photographer and model. 

I am offering this lesson on Teachers Pay Teachers. I put a ton of effort in this lesson researching Delina, organizing the flow, recording, collecting project samples, and even giving some teacher tips with images after teaching this lesson to 5 sections. Want to know more about this lesson? Please watch the video below. If you are interested in seeing the lesson on TPT, Please click here.