Colonial Leather Jugs and Mugs With Printable PDF

When I was with my family at Plimoth Plantation, I saw a craftsman making these neat jugs and mugs entirely from leather. I didn't actually see any of the people at Plimoth Plantation using these, but the leathersmith said that he was relatively new there and starting to supply the Colonists with these.

In the background you can see one of the mugs that haven't been dyed.
The mug in the foreground still needs the inside finished.

Here's the bottom view of the colonial leather mug.
See how there are two rows of neat stitches--this is all done by hand!

He had them in various stages of completion, they are cut from leather, sewn by hand, colored using a variety of dyes, the insides are then coated with a pitchy substance and they are ready-to-go! This was an interesting project and I thought my students (and my children) would like a variation of this.

The leathersmith suggested I check out Tandy Leather for kits for my students, and there sure are a bunch of kits on their site, though I didn't see a kit for making a leather mug. I'm just not sure that we are ready for real leather just yet.

So, I thought of an easy, inexpensive alternative that will get my students to understand the idea of crafting this product, along with the cutting, punching and sewing, that the real process has, but without the expense of buying leather and fancy tools. They can even use this project afterwards! You know they'll be excited about that!

So, here it goes:

Colonial Faux Leather Mug

Supplies Needed:

• 1 9" x 12" piece of brown craft foam
• 1 9 oz paper cup (I bought mine from Walmart as a pack of 10 for $.78)
• Template pdf (hopefully this template uploads well below!) *needs to be printed on 9"x12" paper, so download the file and have printed on larger paper and trimmed-sorry for the waste! 
• Pencil or pen
• Scissors
• Masking tape, optional
• Small hole punch (mine is 1/8")
• Hot glue gun, optional
• Braiding cord or any thin, strong cord you can sew with
• Metal needle in which you can tread the cord through

Directions:

1. Print out the template on 9" x 12" paper (sorry, that is the size paper that matches the craft foam sheet). And that's the size that works with these standard size paper cups.

2. Cut out the cup body and the bottom circle from the paper. Punch holes in the paper template using the hole punch wherever you see a little circle.

3. Place your prepared template onto the craft foam, I hold it in place with a couple rolls of masking tape. Use your pencil or pen to trace around the outside of the template. Before you remove your template, make sure you trace around the inside of the mug's handle.

4. Use scissors to cut the cup body and the bottom circle from craft foam. Cut out the inner shape of the handle and discard. These pieces would have been cut from thick, tanned leather in Colonial times.

5. Use the hole punch to punch holes into the craft foam, using your paper template as a guide. Hold the template and the craft foam together and punch through both layers. The leathersmith would have used a tool that looks like a multi-pronged wheel with a handle and roll it along the leather to make little pin pricks nice and even along with path he wanted to sew. Then he would take a sharp metal awl and poke through the leather, making a hole every place he wanted to stitch.

6. This is where I do something that is not-so-Colonial, but helpful for little sewers (you can skip this step, if you'd like). Fold the cup body in half, and line up the handles. Use a couple dabs of hot glue to hold the two layers of the handle together, making sure that you aren't getting hot glue in any of your sewing holes. Make sure you only tack near the sewing holes--don't glue to cup totally together! This will hold the cup body together for you to begin sewing, so you don't have to manage holding the pieces and sewing stitches at the same time. Older kiddos won't need this step, probably.

7. Take a length of cording and knot it at one end. Hide the knot inside the two layers of craft foam and begin sewing the two layers of the handle together. Sew around the handle and down the side of the mug (it will look like an uppercase letter "D"). Leathersmiths would use strong string they imported from England and other parts of Europe to sew the pieces of the mugs together by hand. I'm not sure of the stitch they used, but I used a running stitch.

8. Position the bottom of the mug and, using the photos as a reference, begin sewing around the bottom edge of the mug. Make these bottom stitches snug, but don't pull too hard or you will pull the cording right through the craft foam.

The bottom view of my mug.

9. When you are done, knot your thread and hide the knot inside the mug, if you can. You can secure the knot with a little hot glue, if you'd like. I know, not very Colonial, but bear with me! Colonial leathersmiths would now dye the outside of the leather mugs. The dyes are made by putting metal shavings in vinegar. Once that has oxidized overnight, the dye is painted on. The mug continues to patina as it is used. 

10. Slip a paper cup into your craft foam mug. With this design, the rim of the paper cup is visible. I did this because I wasn't sure that children should be putting their mouths on the craft foam, with this design, the child's lip touches the paper cup. Obviously, this mug should NOT be used for hot liquids, this project is for fun. Colonial leathersmiths would now pour a thick, tarry substance inside the mugs to make them watertight, thankfully, we are using a paper cup that should be watertight already!

Enjoy your handmade faux leather mug!

To Brighten Your Day: Frank Lloyd Wright Windows

My Modern Art Class created some lovely faux stained glass windows based on the work of American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. I've done this project with students before, and the process can be seen in this post.

This time, I tweaked my presentation a bit. I showed a large poster of Fallingwater, one of Wright's most famous houses. I talked about what an architect does, and about Wright's design philosophy. We made some observations about the building and I pointed out the horizontal, vertical & diagonal lines of the building (later on, I showed how these same lines appear in his stained glass windows).

Then we discussed how Wright was, um, a bit of a control freak when it came to his interior designs. He designed every little pillow, lamp, rug and even the dishes that would go into the house. We looked at some of his stained glass window designs. I was fortunate to have a great article that I have had FOREVER, well, since 1995 anyway, that appeared in American Patchwork & Quilting Magazine about a quilter named Jackie Robinson, who recreates Wright's stained glass windows in fabric. This is an awesome article because it shows how she constructs the quilts and really helps the children see the windows broken down into sections; leading vs. glass, and shapes such as squares, rectangles, rhombi, and triangles. I think this article really helped me simplify his work for the children.

I tried to access the article through the American Patchwork & Quilting's official site, but they didn't have it available. However, Jackie Robinson has her own site called Animas Quilts Publishing. Robinson had published an entire book of quilt designs based on Wright's stained glass windows titled, "Quilts In The Tradition of Frank Lloyd Wright." It is currrently out of print, but there are a few copies still floating around out there. There is a Frank Lloyd Wright section of her site showing examples of Wright-inspired quilts made from her book.

So, here are the beautiful results of my Frank Lloyd Wright lesson! Enjoy!

Dragon (Faux) Stained Glass

Yesterday was the first session in my after school Medieval Art Class! What a blast! I have a great group of kids and a nice mix of boys and girls!

Aren't these fabulous?!

We did a variation on a project I saw in the book, "Medieval Projects You Can Do" by Marsha Groves. The image is pretty much the one Groves uses, but I used the Contact paper technique that I've developed with my students over the last couple years.

I showed the children pictures of stained glass from medieval times, making sure that I had examples of traditional stained glass (tall and rectangular), some details showing the brushed-on enamel details, and an example of a rose window with its circular design.

I then provided them with a guide that had the dragon image on it with all of the sections labeled so the children would know what was fire, what was dragon and what was background (sometimes that gets confusing). Using a template like this is actually very traditional. In medieval times artisans would sketch the designs for windows onto wooden panels and the artisans would fabricate the windows on top of the wooden templates.

The end results of this project were gorgeous! It is funny how different the pieces can be even thought they are all the same subject.

One bit of warning, using tissue paper squares with children can be, um...tricky. This group wasn't bad at all: I had the tissue paper squares in a tray in the center of each table and I warned that crazy movements can cause the squares can fly up and get on other people's work (not cool!). Once the tissue paper is on the Contact paper, it cannot be removed, so the children need to be mindful of their neighbors' pieces and move slowly and carefully.

I do hope you try this project, it really is a cool one!

Here's the method:

Dragon (Faux) Stained Glass

Supplies Needed:

• Template (I copied mine on 8 1/2" x 11" paper)
• Pencils, Ruler & Sharpie to create your template
• Piece of clear Contact paper slightly larger than your paper guide
• Clear tape
• Four 3/4" x 12" strips black construction paper "(for frame)
• About four 1/4" x 12" strips black construction paper "(for leading)
• Many 1" squares of tissue paper, assorted colors
• Scissors
• 1 clear sheet protector, optional

Directions:

1. Make your template: Draw a border around the copy paper that is about 1/2" wide. Use the pencil & ruler to create a simple, bold image made up of straight lines. Don't make anything too detailed! You can use the dragon image for inspiration. Once you have your design down, use the Sharpie to go over the lines. These will be the guide lines you will use when placing your construction paper leading. You may want younger children to work from a template image you've created, but older children could create their own over a period of classes.

2. Tape the template to the table using clear tape.

3. Remove the paper backing from the Contact paper and place it on top of the template sticky side up. You will be doing all of the work on the sticky side of the Contact paper. Tape the Contact paper to the table using a couple pieces of clear tape to hold it in place while you work.

4. Place the 3/4" pieces of black construction paper over the areas of the template designated as your border. Place the paper strips directly onto the sticky side of the Contact paper and press lightly. It is OK if the strips extend beyond your template--you'll be trimming the piece later.

5. Using your template as a guide, place the 1/4" strips of construction paper over the leading lines on the image you drew. Simply rip (or cut) the construction paper strips to the proper length to cover your leading lines. Cover all of the lines in your drawing.

6. Once you have the border and all of the leading lines covered in construction paper, start filling in the remaining sections with colorful pieces of tissue paper. The squares can overlap each other and can overlap the black construction paper lines a bit (you are actually working on the piece from behind). But take care to make sure the tissue paper goes where you want it to. It is almost impossible to remove the tissue paper from the Contact paper once it gets on there. 

7. Once all of the sections are filled in with color, trim the piece down to 8 1/2" x 11" and slip it into a clear sheet protector to protect it. Other options would be to use another sheet of Contact paper on the other side of the piece to seal the tissue paper and construction paper safely inside. Or you could run the piece through a laminator (maybe), I don't have one at my disposal, so I'm not sure of that, but it may work. 

Place in a sunny window and enjoy!

Working on our dragon (faux) stained glass windows.
Everything is taped down with clear tape and the tissue paper
squares are in the center of the table in cardboard trays.

Frank Lloyd Wright Faux Stained Glass

Last week my after school class created Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired stained glass windows. I showed them a variety of his stained glass designs and then let them explore line, shape and pattern to create their own stained glass designs. They looked wonderful on the windows with the bright spring sun shining through!

Frank Lloyd Wright-Inspired Stained Glass Windows

Supplies Needed:

• 1" Grid template, optional (more info below)
• Clear Contact paper (2 sheets 18" x 12")
• Black construction paper strips, some 1" wide and some 1/4" wide, 18" long
• Additional black construction paper for circles or other non-linear shapes
• Scotch tape
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Pencil and eraser
• Tissue paper, various colors

Directions:

1. This piece is worked from the back. I created a grid template for my students to use that had 1" squares on it. I used two sheets of 8 1/2 x 11" paper taped together. This is a nice space to work on encouraging the students to use the grid for their pieces. Some disregarded it and others really utilized it for the creation of their designs. I had each student tape a template to their desk.

2. I then had the students remove the paper film from the Contact paper and lay that on the grid template sticky side up. This is the surface on which the window will be created.

3. I had the children place 1" wide black construction paper strips around the outside of the grid gently pressing them onto the Contact paper. This creates the frame for the window.

4. I then had the children create a Wright-inspired design over the grid using 1/4" wide strips of black construction paper. This is the leading of the stained glass window. I explained that the lines can be horizontal, vertical or diagonal. Also, the intersection of the lines can make shapes such as squares, rectangles, triangles and rhombi. Circles and portions of circles could also be added.

I told them that they did not need to fill the entire window with lines and shapes (look at Wright's work) . I also kept encouraging them to take their time and plan.

A look at the pieces in progress...messy but fun!

5. Once their leading was done, I took a quick look and then demonstrated how they could add color to their piece. Some of the more geometric shapes could easily be cut from tissue. They could use the grid to help: if they had a shape that was 2 squares by 3 squares on the grid, they could cut a 2" x 3" rectangle from tissue paper. For younger students or for shapes that were trickier to cut from tissue, I suggested the children tear off pieces and just fill in the section with "bits" of tissue. The tissue easily sticks to the Contact paper. I told the children it is OK if the tissue paper extends onto the black lines a bit since this is the back of their window and that won't be seen when it's done. I suggested that the children not fill the entire piece with color since Wright often left portions of his windows clear.

6. Once the children had added all the color they wanted I adhered a second piece of Contact paper over their work creating a sandwich to seal the tissue and construction paper inside. I've done a similar project to this using just one sheet of Contact paper and it doesn't hold up as well as the "sandwich" of two pieces of Contact paper).

7. The children could then use their scissors to cut the excess Contact paper from around the piece using the outer edge of the frame as a guide.

I placed these pieces on the windows immediately so we could all enjoy the bright colors and beautiful designs!