For very young children and chldren with special needs
Arpilleras are textile collage from South America, made with simple materials normally found at home. Bits and pieces of cotton, wool and other materials are sewn on a piece of burlap also called Hessian. Arpilleras have a narrative, people’s stories, stories from their village, and their families. Although arpilleras tell stories of day to day life, there have been times when arpilleras have been made to tell political stories.
Young children arpilleras can be very beautiful, for those children old enough to be able to sew and to work with sharp needles, these textile collages present the opportunity to tell their own stories in a different way.
The arpilleras presented in the Brava Art video (above and on our YouTube Channel) and on this blog are for very young children and children with special needs. Hessian, plastic needles and bits of knitted materials have been used. The loose woven materials make the sewing with plastic needles very easy. Also on the sample above, small woven pieces and small worry dolls, have been incorporated to create variety. Both video lessons, ‘Weaving for young Children’ and ‘Worry Dolls’ are available on our video page and there is more information on the Educators page.
Materials: Most of the materials for arpilleras normally can be found in op shops/charity shops and donations from parents.
- A 30 x 45 cms piece of burlap/hessian per student
- 1 or 2 plastic needles per student
- small rolls of different colours yarns, about 8 ply distributed wrapped on small pieces of cardboard, see above
- old hand knitted scarfs cut up into small pieces, or old sweaters/jumpers cut up.
- big plastic colourful buttons
