Hair Styles

Level One: Grade Prep

Discussion
Read a picture story book - Ella Kazoo will not brush her hair by Lee Fox and illustrated by Cathy Wilcox or Emily’s Rapunzel Hair by Cecily Matthews and illustrated by Freya Blackwood.
Ask the class to paint their own, their parents and sibling’s hair type, all on one page. Cut out the results and sort them into categories: style, length or colour, with the rest of the class. Which colour is the most popular? What length? What do we call long hair, short hair or medium length?
Discuss “bad hair days”, what does that mean? What can be done on such days, what are the options?

Materials
Hessian, Digital Images of children or magazine pictures, Cover Paper A4, Cover Paper Black 51 x 76 cm, Supertac

How to Create Hairstyles from Threads

1. Explore the skill of changing a piece of Hessian to create hair. Pull threads, knot threads, fringe sides, weave through pulled threads, scrunch threads etc.
2. Digital photographs may be printed and cut out to glue on to a sheet of Cover Paper in a colour that best represents each child.
3. Create a hairstyle with threads to best represent their hair, use Supertac to glue the Hessian threads to the digital photographs.
4. Mount the faces on a long strip of black Cover Paper and display them as a frieze going along the corridor or a wall in the classroom.

Face Stitching

Level 2: Grades One and Two

Discussion
Look at and discuss the shape of people’s faces. Have a selection of faces cut out of magazines and ask the class to sort and classify them into categories: Oval, Long, Square, Round and Heart. They might come up with other categories.
Do particular hairstyles suit different face shapes? Would you like longer, curlier, straighter, shorter, thicker, thinner etc. hair? Look at a vast range of images that show different hairstyles and ask the class to describe them.

Materials
Hessian Natural, Bright Buttons, Bucket o’ Buttons, Ribbon Straw and Plastic Darning Needles

How to Make a Face Decorated with Stitchery

1. Cut your face shape out of a piece of Hessian approximately A4 size.
2. Glue buttons in place for eyes.
3. Thread a Darning Needle with a long length of Ribbon Straw and use long stitch to add features to the face, such as eyebrows, a nose and a big smile.
4. Pull some threads from the top of the face and fringe the very top of the face shape.
5. Tie some lengths of Ribbon Straw into the pulled threads line across the head shape.
6. Sew or tie and knot other lengths of Ribbon Straw around the sides of the face to best represent your hair style.
7. Does the face look like you? How can you make the hair style more like yours? What other threads, ribbons, stems etc. might you use? Try using Chenille Stems for curly hair.

 

Mad Hatter's Hat

Level 3: Grades Three and Four

Discussion
Read the picture story book The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss and try to find other book characters that might also wear a top hat. What about the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland?
If you were to go to a Mad Hatter's party what would you wear? How would you create a really weird but wonderful hat to wear?

Materials
Corrugated Wave Card, Cover Paper 51 x 76 cm, Tissue Paper, Pony Beads, Bright Buttons, Sequins In a Jar Embossed, Metallic Thread, Felt, Merino Wool Tops, Satin Ribbon, Material scraps, Chenille Needles, Supertac

How to Make a Mad Hatter Hat

1. Cut out a number of rectangles or another shape from Corrugated Wave Card.
2. Tear the same shapes but smaller from Cover Paper or Tissue Paper and lay them on top of the Corrugated card shapes and glue them in place.
3. Decorate each shape using basic stitchery, Sequins, Beads, Buttons or small cardboard shapes. Secure the decorative items by stitching them through the base shape.
4. Cut out a Felt hat and glue it in place on a large sheet of Cover Paper.
5. Glue on each of the decorated shapes.
6. Add Wool Tops for the back of the head and cut out a shirt from fabric scraps to create the back of your shoulders.
7. Give your hat a name.

Felted Picasso Inspired Head

Level 4: Grades Five and Six

Discussion
Picasso painted Weeping Woman in 1937 after his relationship with Dora Maar was over. The colours he used might give the viewer an indication of how distraught he was. Why do you think the face is fragmented into pieces?
Discuss with students how colour can be descriptive, symbolic, and suggestive of a mood or emotion. Find artworks that support this statement and discuss how effective that artist was in using colour.

Materials
Felt Squares, Felting Foam, Felting Needles, Merino Wool Tops, Cover Paper A4, Supertac, Black Cover Paper 38 x 51 cm

How to make a Picasso Inspired Head

1. On a scrap piece of paper, draw a Picasso inspired head made up of different shapes.
2. Draw the outline of the face on to a square of Felt.
3. Place the felt over a block of foam rubber and take a small portion of black Merino Wool Tops and stretch it out into a long length. Position this length on to the felt square. This will be the outline colour for the design.
4. Start to work the black wool into the felt, by pushing the Felting Needle gently in and out of the wool. You will note the wool begins to bind into the piece of felt. The more you needle it the better the result. Lift the felt square frequently to be sure it is not sticking to the foam. Continue this process until your outline is complete.
5. Add colours of Wool Tops to the design using the same process as described above.
6. Small features are added into the design by needling over the top of an existing colour.
7. Glue on some wisps of Merino Wool Tops to the top of the face shape for hair. Wool might be added here for more detail.
8. Cut around the outline of the face and glue it to Cover Paper on a colour that complements the colours used in the face.
9. Mount this on a sheet of black Cover Paper.