Last week during class, we were given time in our breakout rooms to discuss what we wanted to do for our learning projects. My whole group had all decided on what they wanted to do, but I could not settle on anything. So I decided to sleep on it, so Thursday came and went, and I still had nothing. But, on Friday, after scouring Pinterest, I came across some homemade artwork called “punch needling.” It looks very similar to designs made on carpets/rugs and pillows. Below is an example of the kind of art I saw.

I got to thinking, what even is punch needling? So I rushed over to google, and its basically a needle technique very similar to embroidery but uses a different type of needle. After seeing more pictures, I decided this is what I wanted to learn for my learning project over the course of the semester. Therefore, I decided to go out and buy a starter kit as I read online that it is the easiest way to begin. I made my way over to Micheals and bought three different kinds of kits; I bought two of each type of kit. I’ve organized them into what I think will be the easiest to most challenging based on the patterns, amount of colours, and overall design.

My overall setup with this learning project is to start with the small ones on the left-hand side to ease into the process while watching some tutorials for tips and tricks. Then as I finish the first two, I want to continue going from left to right. I believe how I’ve organized each design gets slightly more complicated because of the pattern or the number of colours used. I also want to learn some of the history behind punch needling along the way. My final goal is to be able to free-hand my own design! I’m very excited to continue this process and see where it takes me. I already am aware my plans can maybe change as I go along (if I pick it up faster or slower than anticipated, etc.)