1. Huichol Native Mexican Yarn Painting
Presentation modified and prepared by Alice Finch 2012
4th Grade Art Project
West Mercer Elementary Art Enrichment Program

2. Huichol Yarn Painting

3. Huichol Yarn Painting

4. Huichol Indians of Mexico
Indigenous art form
Huichol Indians live in the mountainous areas of northwest Mexico
They use the animals, birds, plants, and people around them in their art
Designs are highly stylized

5. Today’s Project
‘Paint’ with concentric lines of yarn in the style of the Huichol Indians of Mexico.
1st- Borders
2nd- Outline animal
3rd- Fill in animal
4th- Fill in background

6. Step 1 – Draw your design
Write your name on the back of the chip board
Draw the outline of your design with a pencil
Design should fill up most of the space- think big and simple

7. Step 2 – Plan colors
Yarn paintings are colorful and so you will need to decide what colors you will use where. Write them on your board.
Animal outline
contrasts with animal fill and background
Animal fill
at least 2 colors
Beaks, wings, tails, eyes, etc. can be separate from a main fill color
Background
Contrasts with animal outline and fill
might be 2 parts- land, air
Borders
at least 2 colors
Not the same as colors in your animal or the background

8. Step 3 – Borders
Put down 2 concentric lines of glue on the edge of your board.
Hold yarn at the corners with the toothpick to keep yarn in place
Keep yarn tightly layered right up next to each other
If the yarn starts to unravel, twist it to keep the strands together.

9. Step 4 – Animal outline Put glue on penciled outline
Starting at a corner or angle, put down outline color for animal.
The outline color is for the outline only- not the fill and should contrast with your fill and planned background color.
After 1 layer, cut and tuck in the end.

10. Step 5 – Fill in the animal outline
Put down a concentric lines of glue to fill in the interior space of the animal.
Add eye, wing, fins, etc with contrasting colors BEFORE filling in the whole area.
The yarn follows the contours of the figures that define each space, reducing that space to a smaller and smaller area with one continuous strand until it is filled in.
In tight places, the yarn can tend to unravel- twist to keep the strands together.
Use the toothpick to push yarn in tight spots and tuck in ends.

11. Step 6 – Fill in background
Fill in area with concentric lines of glue.
Yarn should follow the contours of the figures that define each space, not back and forth.
You may want to create separate spaces if there is a bottleneck around your animal design.
(Read the book while they are working.)
Bottleneck- bottom right area is its own shape for concentric triangles.

12. Book in separate document