Art Auction Project 2015 "Pixelated Patterns"

Every other year, the PTSA holds an auction to raise money for the school. As part of it, each class produces an art project to sell in the auction. This particular year, the budget was $100 per project. We spent just under $100.

In 3rd grade, learning about Native Americans is part of the curriculum. So, for the Auction project, I thought it would be fun to teach the kids how to do Native beading on a loom. We designed and made an adult size leather beaded belt.

My mom taught me to bead on a loom when I was around 8 years old, and it's been since then that I did it. I did not have a loom, so, I looked online for how to build a loom and did so for the project. The other art docent and I showed the children many examples of Native American patterns and colors. Then we gave each child a sheet with an 11 x 11 grid on it. They were to design their portion of the belt, then each child got a turn to bead his or her design onto the loom.

Each child took between 30 minutes to 2 hours to bead their design. The other art docent and I took turns coming into the school for an hour or so per day until it was all done. Then she bought a piece of leather in the shape of a belt called a "belt blank" from Tandy Leather. I went there and bought some tools and special thread for sewing the bead work to the leather. I watched a YouTube video to learn how to do a saddle stitch in leather, and finished it off by adding a buckle that we purchased.

Here are some pictures. During the project we took a photo of each child to post on the class website. So, I'm sparing you the entire 50 pictures from the project! (The piece sold for $400 at the auction).