Most of the projects I do with my regular class are paper-based so it's nice to occassionally do some textile art. Radial weaving is new to me (and my students!). When I tried it out at home I realised that my class of disabled adults would probably find it quite fiddly as you need quite nimble little fingers to weave the wool in and out. I almost abandoned the project but then hit upon the idea of cutting out the centre of the plate. This makes it much easier to pass the wool in and out.
When I came to do the project in class, I had pre-strung all the looms (paper plates) so that they could start weaving right away. I encouraged them all to use plastic sewing needles to make the wool even easier to handle.
The class all managed this activity quite well. A couple of students wanted to do their own thing and happily sewed the wool randomly in and out, ending up with something of a tangled mess but a sense of satisfaction at having done it their way!
Once they had been weaving for about 35 minutes I gave them the choice of leaving their work on the loom for display (when I strung the looms I left a loop for hanging) or taking it off. They all wanted to leave it on so I handed out oil pastels so that they could decorate the edges of the plates.
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