There is something magical that happens when you combine thread and cloth to create wearable art, or use paints and canvas to create artwork you can hang on the wall. The students at Martha Ann Sloan’s business, Create at Studio M.A., have found a tangible way to see and feel creativity, and last Friday evening had a chance to present their artistic designs to family and friends at a Kids’ Art and Fashion Show.
This was the first year the studio owner had put together a show that combined both her fashion and art students, although in prior years she has held small fashion shows at the conclusion of the weekly classes.
“In one week we will make two or three outfits and then have a fashion show, but this one is for the afterschool art and sewing students,” explained Sloan.
Children and adults filled the bright and cheerful studio, which was bursting with open tins of colorful buttons, paint brushes and bits of craft materials. Visitors munched on cookies while viewing the clothing and artwork produced by Sloan’s budding young artists, ages 6 to 18. All in attendance beamed with pride at what they had accomplished.
The young seamstresses had worked on flannel pajamas, skirts and stylish shift dresses, such as the sleek evening gowns created by Austin Jimenez, 16, and Hannah El-Zein, 18 – a long version created by Jimenez and a shorter one crafted by El-Zein.
“We designed it together,” said Jimenez. “First we came up with ideas, then I sketched it out and we both sewed it.”
Jimenez, who has taken sewing classes for more than a year, and El-Zein, who joined in November, met through the afterschool sewing class before realizing that they were in the same art classes at high school.
“I wanted to learn how to create my own things,” said El-Zein. “And I am hoping to study fashion design at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.”
Other young artists bustled about, pointing out their beautiful paintings which were hung along the wall. Ten-year old Kayla Osowski’s painting “Vegetables” won a Best of Show trophy which she proudly showed off to her father.
“This gets her thinking about possibilities of what she wants to do,” said Eric Wagner of his 8-year-old daughter, Darci, who was wearing her handmade pajamas. “She uses her creative side to create things that besides being art are also functional. Now she wants to design high fashion clothes and set up a shop.”
“Sewing is something they will take through their whole life,” said Sloan, whose next summer art camp begins June 6 and summer sewing camp June 13. She also has various classes for adults. “I think sewing skipped a generation. Now I am amazed at all the kids who want to sew and have their own real sewing machine that they will keep forever.”
