Fabric Bowls

I will admit that sometimes I create projects for the students based on an overabundance of materials.

There are SO MANY bags of fabric scraps in my store rooms that have been donated to my school and I just don't have the heart to throw them away.

These Year 5 students were due for a textiles-based project and created these fabric bowls by cutting and pasting layers of fabric over plastic bowls. The process was the same as papier mache, only using strips of fabric, therefore, the more strips and layers of glue the students added, the stronger the completed bowl was.

Once totally dry the plastic bowl was popped out and the top edge of he bowl trimmed with scissors.

  

Paper Mache Bowls

 

I was inspired to create these recycled paper bowls with my grade 4 and 5 students after seeing this post at 'Splish Splash Splatter' using shredded magazines. Our administration office at school gets rid of a large box of shredded papers about every week and I already had a large box of shredded newspaper in my store room, so we set about layering and gluing strips of paper over plastic bowls until they began to form these new and interesting textured bowls. Obviously the more layers of paper each student added, the stronger the bowl. Once complete and totally dried out, you simply pop out the plastic bowl to reveal each new paper bowl.

I gave students the option of trimming the edges of their bowl, or leaving it ragged and also gave them the option of painting their finished bowl, though most decided it was much more interesting being able to see the different individual layers of paper strips. I also enjoy this look as it shows the process involved.