Lesson video

Hello, my name is Miss.

Holland, and I'm gonna be teaching you today.

Are you ready to create some fantastic artworks? Well, let's get started.

Our lesson today is about making an abstract felt panel.

And this is from our unit, abstract art, drawing, printing and textiles.

So by the end of today's lesson, you will have used stitch with paper and felt to create your very own abstract panel.

Our keywords today are panel evaluation and collection.

A panel in art is a flat surface or section used as the base for an artwork.

Evaluation is when we look at our artwork and think about it, and we try to understand how good it is and how we could make it even better.

And a collection in art is a group of art pieces that are gathered together because they share a common theme.

Our lesson is in two halves.

First of all, we're gonna make our abstract felt panel and then we're gonna evaluate a collection of work.

So let's get started with making an abstract felt panel.

What makes this design an abstract design? Look really, really closely at it.

What makes it an abstract design? Well, Alex says, "Abstract art is art that does not try to represent something realistically." Can you remember? It's not representational, so it often has lots of shapes and colours in them.

And can you remember often it's about expressing an emotion or a feeling.

So here we can see that this is abstract 'cause it's got lots of shape, bold shapes in it, the green felt circle, the orange circle, the blue circle, and then the oblong, the blue oblong and then the colours are very bright and expressive.

Alex developed his paper panel design into an abstract felt panel.

So let's have a look at his paper design on the left, you can see he sketched it out and he's annotated it, which is making notes.

And then he's translated that into his felt panel.

What is the same and what is different? Have a really close look.

What is the same and what is different? I can see that there are some similarities and the use of the shapes, the three circular shapes and where some of the stitching is being used and what type of stitching.

So running stitching on the base panel, chain stitching on the green circle.

But can you see that some of the shapes have shifted a little bit and that actually, the blue square above the green felt has been included, added.

So some of the changes you may have noticed are, the shapes have moved, like we said, although the stitches are still in the same shapes, they've moved slightly within the shapes.

Alex has considered the composition and he's also added in stitches in this circular orange circular shape.

He's added in the French knot to add even more texture.

True or false, when you develop a design into a final piece, such as an abstract felt panel, you must keep everything the same.

True or false? Well done, it's false, but why? Yes, sometimes changes are made to a design when the final piece is made.

It's okay to evolve a design.

When making a felt panel, you might use different embroidery stitches.

So here we have three that we've looked at previously.

Can you remember what they are? What do you think their names are? Let's have a look.

So we first of all have a sample showing a running stitch.

And can you remember, that's where the thread goes up and down and up and down.

Then we have a sample showing a chain stitch, which is where we loop the thread.

And then on the third sample we have a French knot, which is where we wrap the thread around the needle and create a knot.

And this creates a lovely, lovely texture.

Stitching onto paper uses a slightly different technique to stitching onto fabric, which we have to remember as we'll be stitching onto both today.

So flexibility.

So fabric is soft and flexible.

It moves, it allows the needle to pass through easily.

Paper is rigid and can tear if not pre-punched or handled gently.

Remember, we can make a hole in cardboard with our needle by placing a rubber behind the cardboard and pushing the pencil through the needle, through the cardboard onto the rubber behind tension.

This means how tightly you can pull your thread.

So too much tension on paper can cause it to rip or to warp, which means to move in a way you wouldn't want it to.

And so hole preparation in fabric, the needle creates holes as you stitch, but with paper it's best to pre pierce as I've just explained, using a rubber behind the cardboard to keep your fingers safe.

True or false? Stitching onto paper is exactly the same as stitching onto fabric.

True or false? Well done, it is false, but why? Well done, yes, stitching on paper requires a few things to be mindful of, including preparing your holes in your paper and not pulling your thread too tightly.

When you are ready to begin stitching your design onto your fabric and paper panel, you can begin by cutting the base fabric panel.

So this fabric should be strong and a colour that is appropriate to your design.

So you need to think really carefully about what colour would work well in your design.

Then you can cut out the shapes of your pattern pieces.

And looking at your design can help you decide what pieces you will need.

Which shapes would you cut out for this design? Have a really close look.

Which shapes do you feel stand out that you would need to cut out? Let's have a look, so we would cut out a green felt circle, an orange felt circle, and then using my previous piece of printing, abstract printing, I'm gonna cut out different shapes my printing paper.

We then need to gather and prepare our materials, and we want to do that to begin with before we start making the art so that when we are in the process of creating the art, we can focus purely on that.

So we would need an embroidery needle, embroidery thread, a needle threader, pins, masking tape, rubber, and a pencil.

Then we pin our fabric and paper pieces to our panel.

Why do we do this? Yes, this prevents the fabric from moving outta place on your panel as you sew.

And at this stage, you may prefer a different idea, colour, or pattern.

And pinning means that you can make changes to a design.

And that's a really important part of our creative process, is to reflect on what we have and maybe alter it and change it as we go.

And you can make these alterations before you begin sewing.

It's far harder to make them after you begin sewing.

Check for understanding, why is pinning fabric together useful for an artist? Is it so an artist can make the changes to their design? Is it because pinning prevents the fabric from moving outta place? Or is it because it makes the fabric more flexible? Which of these is important and why we pin fabric together? Well done, it's A and B.

So an artist can make changes to their design, and pinning prevents the fabric from moving outta place.

And at this point in the design, we can make alterations.

Using stitching techniques to complete your panel can really help add depth and texture.

So this is where we can start to bring in our running stitches, our chain stitches, and our French knots that we've practised previously.

So moving on to our first task, making an abstract panel.

I would like you to follow the same process.

So first of all, cut the base fabric for your panel, then use your design, your paper design to identify what pattern pieces you're gonna cut out and cut them out of both paper and felt.

Gather the materials that you need.

And this should include an embroidery needle, embroidery thread, a needle threader if you want to use one of those, pins, masking tape, a rubber and a pencil, then I'd like you to pin your fabric and paper pieces to your panel, making adjustments if desired.

So if you would like to make any changes, please do.

And then look back to your samples, your stitch samples, and think about where you're gonna place the different stitches.

Are you going to use all of them? Are you just going to use some of them? Whereabouts will you place them? Pause the video and off you go.

Well done, I wish I could see all of yours.

So the panel might include stitches that you practise with in your samples, adaptations to your design.

So this square is meaning included and shapes and patterns from your other abstract artworks.

Well done, we are now gonna move on to evaluating a collection of artwork.

And evaluation is very, very important in the artistic process.

When approaching the final stages of a project, it can be useful to reflect and evaluate on the process.

So several pieces of work made with a similar theme by an artist is sometimes called a collection.

So there are many, many collections in museums and art galleries around the world and in homes.

And normally a collection is a group of artworks that are gathered together with a similar theme.

And artists might reflect and evaluate a whole collection of work rather than a single piece.

And this helps them to see how their styles, ideas, and skills have grown and evolved over time.

How do the sketches, designs, and final textile panels show the ideas and symbols the artist was thinking about in this collection of work? I can see the similar colours coming out throughout all of the artworks, the oranges and the blues.

I can see similar motifs such as the lines, the circles, the zigzags, and I can see for example, in the second piece of artwork, the constantina bit of paper has been reflected in the orange zigzaggy zigzag stitch using running stitch in the final abstract panel.

So we can start picking out elements that link all three, and we can see the development of these.

An effective evaluation should be honest and thoughtfully made.

So you might evaluate your collection through writing in your sketchbook, you might discuss with a partner or you could present it to a group.

And in your evaluation it is important to notice what challenges you found, which can help with your next art collection.

So Izzy says, "I found some of the stitches quite challenging on my panel." What did you find challenging? It is also equally important to note what went well so that you can celebrate your achievements.

And that's really, really, really important.

And Izzy says, "I really like the way my collection looks together with colours and shapes, which are similar in each piece." True or false, an effective evaluation should only focus on the positives.

True or false? Well done, it's false, but why? Well done, an effective evaluation should reflect honestly what went well as well as any challenges.

And this will help us in future creative projects.

Questions in an evaluation are often used to help provoke reflections, to make us reflect design choices and future directions.

So some questions you might consider in an evaluation are, how does your panel compare to the original design? So what is the journey that you went through and how have you altered it? Can you identify any common themes in the artwork within your collection, which we just talked about? Does the collection express the memories you wanted it to? So does the collection express the intent behind your making of the artwork? Another question may be, how did you find working with the materials at each stage of the process? So did you find some particularly challenging? Some very easy, did you enjoy working with some of them? I love working with ink, such as in the first example in this collection.

And what could you have done differently or what might you do differently next time? Is there something you would do slightly differently? Check for understanding, questions in an evaluation are often used to help provoke reflections, design choices and.

Which one did you choose? Let's see, yes, future directions.

And you might have noticed you are drawn towards particular shapes, colours or materials.

And this knowledge may help you to make artistic choices in the future.

Our final task is to evaluate our collection of abstract work, either by writing in a sketchbook or discussing with a partner or presenting to a group.

And I'd like you to consider the following, the process of designing.

How did you find the process of designing? The materials used to make the collection.

Are there any similarities, differences? Which ones did you most enjoy working with? What you like about your collection, celebrate your achievements and what you might do differently in the future.

Pause the video and take some time to evaluate and reflect upon your collection.

Well done, let's see what some of our pupils have said.

So about this collection.

They've said I adapted my design with my textile panel, but still use a similar theme to my other artworks.

And I might try to include a broader range of colours in the future.

So I think my colour palette was too limited.

What did you enjoy, what did you celebrate? Thank you for joining me today in our lesson, making an abstract felt panel.

We've learned that flexibility, tension and whole preparation should be considered when sewing paper pieces together, that pinning a panel together before sewing it can prevent the pieces from moving as well as allowing for alterations and that artists might reflect and evaluate a whole collection of work rather than a single piece.

Thank you again, and I hope to see you very soon.