Day three

Day 3

Kids have been asking me when the embroidery will begin. They are eagerly waiting, since they have only two weeks to do it. So I thought I would plan something simple and fun, as they found the previous two days exercises difficult.

I collected bulk of clothes from Srishti crowd that they don’t wear any more, not because the clothes are torn but they don’t fit in them anymore. I collected a wide range of clothes. I was amazed at how much clothes people throw away without using much, and on the other hand people don’t have enough clothes to protect themselves to save from biting cold and sweltering summer.

I displayed a range of clothes in the class and told kids to choose the clothes that they would want to see themselves in. I though they may hesitate to choose sleeveless or short tops but they happily chose all kind of clothes. Boys mostly chose illustrated t-shirts.

I told them to embroider a pouch that they will use with the clothes they chose, and they can only use simple running stitch and chain stitch (fast stitches). I told them they can embroider a motif that says something about them. (But I think I kept it too open-ended)The pouch was supposed to be made from waste fabric which was provided to them.

RESULT

The motifs that kids created were all floral (which is ok) but all of them were similar. I learnt something that this chain has to be broken, they are becoming limited visually. It is not easy for kids also to grasp so fast, so what can be done to break the line of similarity, how each child’s thinking/concepts can be brought out visually. They think, they relate to things but the struggle with visualization. So the main task lies ahead is to improve their visualizing power. This requires exposure too.

In terms of product nothing came out today L , except they learnt to stitch a pouch from waste fabric. They want to learn, but the need is to design the tools to help them learn.