Paste: Make it: Paper Weaving. // Key concepts: Media discovery and exploration, shape, symmetry, pattern. // Materials: Watercolor set, 2-3 brushes in varying sizes; 2 large sheets of watercolor paper or white drawing paper (around 9x12; you can tear a big sheet of paper into smaller pieces if you need); glue stick; oil pastels or crayons. Remember: Break up this project into two or three sessions if you need to! Allow time for art appreciation, discussion, thought, and discovery. // 1. Spend some time looking at textiles, discussing different lines, shapes, motifs (such as diamonds, triangles, squares, stars, flowers, houses, etc.) and symmetry. An easy place to start would be a quick web search of “folk quilts,” “quilts of Gee’s bend” or “Native American textiles.” If you’re doing this project with your child, remember you can tailor it to his/her interests. 2. Using 2 or 3 different brushes, paint both sheets of paper, experimenting with washes, linear marks, and splatters, and let dry. 3. Take one sheet and cut it into strips width-wise. Take the other and cut it nearly into strips length-wise, stopping the cuts a couple of inches before you reach the end of the paper. 4. Use your pastels to draw some of the shapes and motifs you found in your quilt study onto the shorter loose strips. [Note: You might decide to do this after step 5 if it bothers your child that some of the drawing will be covered up by the weaving.] 5. Weave the short strips into the long ones and use a dab of glue on the ends to keep in place. Notice how the watercolor and pastel sections now interact with each other in different ways. Hang your paper “textile” on the wall and admire it!