I love the beautiful patterns in Native American pottery. I also love the beautiful sunsets painted in many Contemporary Native American Art. So, I combined both ideas for this assignment. The feather was drawn on a separate piece of paper and then glued to the watercolor background.

I have always liked the intricate patterns and designs created by Native American artists with turquoise jewelry. Coming up with a project inspired from it was a little more challenging, but I think this works. There are three layers to the piece. The bottom layer is marbled paper. The video below shows how to make marbled paper. The teal paper marbled with blue and black mimics the turquoise mineral. The second layer is black paper with patterned designs inspired from Native American art with silver paint. The top layer also uses another piece of marbled teal paper. Students need to cut out an animal (from North America) shape and outline with sharpie. The sharpie outline adds detail and helps to contrast against the black background. Then it is all glued together.

It is a challenge to teach patterns. Often students go too simple. For this assignment, I ask for at least two patterns and four animal shapes inspired from Native American art. If I notice that it does not have enough detail, I ask the student to add more.