The Shape of Things

Some of you may know I am a volunteer art teacher in my son's Kindergarten classroom.  I thought I'd share this week's project as it is also a DIY textile printing tutorial.  I found the idea in Todd Oldham's book Kid Made Modern. 

Our Kindergarten class wears plain white T-shirts on their field trips and I thought spiffing them up would make for a fun art project, and it would give me the opportunity to teach them a little about printmaking and textile stamping. This lesson also tied into their recent study of shapes and patterns.  I made the stamps ahead of time, by hot gluing cosmetic sponges (some in patterns) to cardboard backing. We used two textile paint colors to keep it simple.  I spread the paint evenly onto paper plates and taught them how to coat their sponges and press into the fabric. The tees air dried and were heat set with an iron. Here's some of what they came up with.  Go Otters!