Art connections: Tecumseh elementary student's artwork inspires creation of wool rug
ADRIAN — Artwork and a person’s eye for creativity is something people of all ages can appreciate and admire.
A perfect example of art bringing people together was on display Monday, Dec. 18, during the weekly gathering of Adrian’s Holy Family Parish’s Fiber Art Ministry (FAM) class, also known as the Friendly Art Ministry, which meets in Father Williams Hall at the St. Joseph Campus of Holy Family Parish from 6-8 p.m. every Monday.
It was there that third grader Bella Ripple, a student at Tecumseh Public Schools’ Patterson Elementary, was introduced to Adrian resident Ken Hamlin, a member of FAM, and saw firsthand a rug he recreated in the likeness of a school art project she made when she was in the second grade at Tecumseh’s Sutton Elementary School.
The rug, made from the method of traditional rug hooking, was nearly an exact likeness of a placemat Ripple and her fellow classmates at Sutton Elementary made for a Lenawee County retired teacher/school personnel meeting and luncheon held at the Lenawee Intermediate School District (LISD).
Ripple’s placemat was made to reflect the style and work of Spanish painter and sculptor Pablo Picasso and includes predominant colors of blue, pink and green with some purple.
When asked if she had a specific design in mind when she started to make the placemat, Ripple said she did not, but “as soon as I started drawing, everything came together.”
The placemat created by Ripple caught the attention of Hamlin, a retired educator from Adrian Public Schools. He said the design exuded to him quite a bit of interest and creativity.
“I asked the lady in charge, who did this?” he said. “Something about it clicked in my mind and told me it’s an interesting concept.”
When Hamlin recreated the placemat into a rug, he said it was about a couple of months' worth of work before the product was finished. It's made with 100% wool. To make the colors like that of Ripple’s drawing, Hamlin said he needed to dye certain parts of the wool.
There's also at least $300 worth of material invested in the rug, Hamlin said, not to mention all the time spent on the project.
It also took a couple of weeks to coordinate Monday’s get-together.
Ripple was brought to the St. Joseph Campus by her mother, Kyli, under the impression she was attending an art class — which she kind of was. FAM, under the founding and direction of Tammy Eaton, provides several different kinds of artwork and crafts for attendees and participants to dabble in. Eaton was integral in bringing together Hamlin and Ripple, having coordinated the surprise reveal with Tecumseh schools and Ripple’s mother.
Ripple also brought her own artwork with her.
“You have a lot of good art concepts already,” Hamlin praised.
When she grows up, Ripple said she wants to be either an artist or a gymnast.
“I just like how if I draw, it makes me happy,” she said. Drawing is one of her favorite crafts/hobbies. Black, pink and blue are her favorite colors, she said.
“(Bella) loves art,” Kyli said. “It’s her favorite subject in school.”
A lot of her daughter’s artwork is displayed in frames at their house, Kyli said.
“We have a toy room and it's become the art room,” she said.
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Bella and Kyli were not only impressed by Hamlin’s rug creation, but honored by the fact that someone would take such an interest in an elementary student’s art design.
“I think it's awesome. I think it's so cool,” Kyli said when looking at the rug Hamlin created. “When I told (Bella) about it, it made her entire school year. She was so excited and was in shock that someone would do this because of her art.”
— Contact reporter Brad Heineman at bheineman@lenconnect.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter: twitter.com/LenaweeHeineman.
This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Art Connections: Elementary student's artwork inspires creation of rug
