Molas
I taught this project in the spring of 2021 with my three Art Foundations classes. This project was quite possibly my favorite of the whole year!
We began with reading about the Kuna tribe and the traditional molas they create using reverse appliqué techniques, learning about the symbolism of the animals, colors and patterns they include in their creations. Then we turned to creating our own molas! We began by choosing an animal that we wanted to base our molas around — this could be a favorite animal, a spirit animal, a Patronus — and creating a full-color sketch to be our guide. We spent three days on a sewing bootcamp, learning to thread a needle, tie a knot, and practice several different stitches. Once we were all feeling more confident in our sewing skills, we used our sketches as guides and spent the next two weeks cutting felt, sewing, and finding interesting embellishments to add!
These turned out to be SO fun! Working with fiber arts was new for everyone in the class, and certainly presented its own challenges, but the students were super dedicated to this project and created some truly delightful molas.
