Ndebele Dolls

In honor of my presentation at the Florida Art Education Association's Annual Conference, I'm giving you the lesson I will be presenting there! I have taught this lesson for the last 3 years at FAEA, co-teaching twice with my friend Lynsey, and this year I will be doing it by myself. It is a wonderful lesson, focusing on recyclable projects annnnnd the African art form of doll-making withing the Ndebele (en-duh-belly) tribe.

I have written and received grants for this project, and have presented it to our local teacher's group, the Sarasota Art Education Association. It's deeply meaningful, personal, and creative. Ndebele dolls are made to mark a turning point in a tribe member's life: wedding, courtship, becoming a "man", etc. Kids and adults LOVE making these dolls (and I love teaching it!). It's a doozie of a project, so here goes:

I start out by showing examples of some Ndebele dolls and my Ndebelle Powerpoint. *If you would like a copy of this PP, send me your email and I will send it to you!

I also purchased two Ndebele dolls from Crizmac so the kids could look, feel and touch an "original". The beadwork on the dolls is uh-maze-ing!

For my kids I start out about a month beforehad collecting empty Danimals yogurt smoothie cups. This is the perfect size for the body. For my "grown-up" lesson, I use empty water bottles.

You will need a lot of random things for this project:

For the head-

5x5" black fabric squares

Poly-Fil

rubber band

For the body-

clean, empty water bottle (I also put a little sand in each one to make it more stable)

For the decor-

popsicle sticks, beads, buttons, scrap fabric, yarn, yarn sharps, ribbon, twine, stringed beads, pearls, etc.

Fabric glue and HOT GLUE (yes, I have 5th graders using hot glue!)

The only "uniform" thing about each one is the head. To make the head, take a handful of Poly-Fil and stuff it into the black square. Tightly put the "head" onto the neck of the water bottle and use the rubber band to secure it. Trim off the excess fabric.

Here are some student examples:

To make my students' work more meaningful to them, I had them list 5 accomplishments they were proud of making in their life. This was the pre-cursor to the lesson. They then had to choose one of their "turning points" or accomplishments into their artwork. This particular student was proud of winning a gold medal at a swim meet. So you see the gold medal around her neck and the colors of the swim team (black and gold).

This student just made the all-star cheerleading squad. I love how she wrapped the shirt to show off her midriff. Very 2010!
This student is an equestrian and takes care of horses. It is hard to see, but she used raffia to make a bundle of hay and in the other "hand" she holds and apple (a bead).
For this doll, the student was proud of his ninth consecutive straight-A report card!

These are some examples from my SAEA workshop last October. They were done by area Art Teachers (so this lesson is adaptable to high school!) To make the frizzy hair, just thin out the yarn by untwisting it and pulling it apart! You can glue the hair on or you can use a needle and loop each strand through the head.

You can make "arms" by winding yarn around popsicle sticks and hot gluing them in the desired position. To make the hands, take a tad of Poly-Fil and stuff it into a scrap of black fabric. affix that to the end of the popsicle stick.

More cute examples from my workshop!
This one I am in LOVE with! The participant told me it was her deceased Aunt. She took a few hours and knitted/wove/crocheted this shawl, wound up the yarn balls and dressed her. It was stunning in person!

I really love going to my state conference. I leave energized and renewed with lesson ideas and am able to share my ideas with others. I am so excited to see what this weekend's workshop and the other studio classes I will attend hold! I will post ideas and pictures online sometime this weekend.

This is my little beauty I am taking to the Conference. She's unfinished...I'll post pictures of her tomorrow...totally done and looking gorgeous!

Happy Creating!