Fast fashion is out, and vintage is in. The look, quality, and style of nostalgic items bring warmth back into our world of scrolling, two-day shipping, and mass-produced items. As art teachers, our time to shine is now! We are already pros at finding treasures, scoring deals, and upcycling the discarded. Let’s take a moment to treat ourselves this fall, complete a project we started eons ago, and wear or display it with art teacher energy!
Treat your wardrobe with the thrill of curating custom pieces.
Visible Mending and Decorative Repair
Art teachers are hard on their clothes—we work with paint, clay, and unique tools all day long! The next time you get a hole or stain on a piece of clothing, embrace visible mending and transform the accident into something amazing. Add a fun scrap of fabric with colored embroidery floss embellishments or a nifty patch to embrace the art teacher stereotype with a little pizazz.
Cyanotypes
Who said photography only belongs on paper? Cyanotypes are a great way to do basic photography concepts without a lot of fancy materials—and you can do them on fabric and wear them! The process is similar to developing a print from film. You will need natural fabric and chemicals, a glass plate, and objects to put under the glass to print outlines of, or an acetate photocopy. Go on a fall nature walk to decompress before or after school and collect fall foliage. Plants and flowers work well as light filters through them, capturing value and details. Let the sun create the exposure, and then simply rinse the fabric.
Charms and Bedazzling
A super quick and easy way to dress up anything is to add charms or beading. Although you can buy charms for almost anything, why not make your own? Search thrift stores and estate sales for bags of costume jewelry to repurpose into unique bag, book, or phone charms. It’s such a treat to find even the tiniest ways to express your personality!
Treat your accessories below with a custom charm glow-up:
- Bag or backpack
- Water bottle
- Bookmark
- Lanyard or ID badge
- Keychain
- Clipboard
- Whistle
- Apron
- Shoelaces
Bleaching
Bleaching designs on clothes really encourages you to let go of control and just enjoy the process! Plus, it’s another great way to revive ruined clothes. Scavenge your home or the local thrift store for dark-colored items to play with. Using a squeeze or spray bottle with a 1:4 bleach-to-water solution, draw a design on your item and let it sit for up to an hour. The black will bleach to white and shades of brown, creating a neat, neutral-colored design.
Treat your art room with the thrill of the hunt.
Having a welcoming and warm classroom doesn’t have to be a distant dream—you can make it happen now for pennies! Sub doomscrolling for marketplace and freecycle groups and search for fun furniture finds. Keep your eye out for items to make your classroom feel less sterile and more comfortable. You spend so much time in your room; treat yourself to little updates to make it feel relaxing and inspiring, like in the video below.
Try these thrifty ideas to elevate your space:
- Use a wooden paper towel holder for rolls of masking tape
- Find a metal basket to hang above the sink to hold sponges
- Pick up a mini wicker basket to hold dry-erase markers
- Plug in table lamps for mood lighting
- Add flexible seating areas with secondhand chairs
- Swap the school metal bookshelves for wood shelving
Treat your taste buds with the thrill of being around other creatives.
Cake Embroidery
As much as we all love art, sometimes it’s nice to make art with unexpected materials. Plus, it’s a total bonus if you can eat it after! If you’ve never heard of cake embroidery, get ready to add this to your next craft night. Pool your sprinkle collection and use tweezers to create custom “embroidered” designs on small sheet cakes. Snap some photos and then dig in for a double treat!
Artist Themed Snacks
What happens when delicious treats and our love of art history collide? We get hilarious art-themed snacks that bring us so much joy! Brush up on your art history with food-themed videos, then raid your pantry to whip up a culinary creation, like this Frida Fresca drink. Make this a fun potluck theme for even more inspirational snacks!
The best treats are the ones that keep giving and harness your giftings! When you upcycle, you save money and the environment while creating one-of-a-kind pieces that truly capture your art teacher vibes. Set aside a relaxing evening to mend a favorite sweatshirt or embroider a cake and invite your friends over to swap stashes, share skills, and spark new ideas. However you choose to thrift, scavenge, or gather your supplies, transform them into a treat you can enjoy long after the evening and season are over.
What is the best item you thrifted for your art room?
Share another creative way to treat yourself as an art teacher.
To chat about upcycled treats with other art teachers, join us in The Art of Ed Community!
Magazine articles and podcasts are opinions of professional education contributors and do not necessarily represent the position of the Art of Education University (AOEU) or its academic offerings. Contributors use terms in the way they are most often talked about in the scope of their educational experiences.
