Fashion Design had never been offered at AIS before, and despite having no sewing machines, dress forms, instruction books or fabric, the class was enthusiastically embraced. The students were very fashion conscious, yet the idea of creating their own clothing was foreign.

This was the first furniture design class ever offered at AIS. So I was not surprised to learn that most of the students never used hand tools or power tools before. The students expected to just design the furniture, then pay craftsmen to create build it. Seeing an opportunity, I had the class begin to practice both hand tools and power tools in addition to their lessons in furniture history and materials.

This short unit was the result of a student voted about what they wanted to explore during the three weeks before break. In this unit the students explored illustration and comic books as a modern story telling medium. The class began with review exercises in perspective drawing, figurative drawing, shading and the use of the Elements and Principles of Design. They were then introduced to foreshortening the use of the erasure as a drawing tool.

This 10th -12th year class was introduced to 20th century art, the philosophical ideas behind the movements and the world events that paralleled them. During the printmaking unit, the students explored a variety of printmaking techniques to create images that represented ideas that challenged them in their personal or social lives. Below are a few examples of their work.

Fashion Design had never been offered in any of the schools in the city before. Grade course introduced students to fashion drawing, draping, cutting and pinning fabric, hand stitching and machine sewing. Accompanying the technical skills was a survey of fashion history from 6000 BCE to 1950.