The most recent artist-in-residence at Sorensen Magnet School of the Arts and Humanities brought the art-making experience to a whole new dimension for students.

“It was really interesting,” fifth grader Ace Adams said Friday. “It was really fun learning with the rectangle looms to make tapestries."

Visual artist Diane Garmire worked with students from the end of January through mid-February to introduce them to the world of fiber arts. She has lived in North Idaho since 1975 and is retired after four decades as a teacher.

Culture was woven into the lessons she taught Sorensen's younger students as they crafted pieces based on Guatemalan worry dolls and story sticks.

“There’s the mechanical side, the developmental, where they are learning how to do the stronger eye and mind contact, hand-to-eye contact and developing those skills," Garmire said. "That’s really important starting at very young ages."

Older students learned how to use looms and enhanced their fiber arts knowledge.

“They learned ‘warp’ and ‘weft’ and the vocabulary,” Garmire said. "They could choose their color combinations, which was really important. When those all came off the looms I sewed them all together."

She assembled the students' colorful, geometric works into one installation that will permanently be on display above the ramp leading into the gym.

"It's amazing what they've done, and what they see as a community," Garmire said. "But watching them go down the hall and say, ‘That one’s mine,’ and they see their names, and say, ‘My friend did that,’ I mean, I was a teacher for 40 years, and nothing matters more than that."

Fifth grader Emmett Couillard said he was introduced to working on smaller looms to make hats last year.

“This is 10 times more fun. I love this,” he said. "You can have a lot of fun with it."

Fifth grader Jeanilly Petit made a piece with fluffy and regular yarn.

“It kind of reminds me of the Sahara Desert,” she said.

This artist-in-residence experience was made possible through a $1,100 grant Sorensen received from the Idaho Commission on the Arts and support from the Sorensen Magnet Fund.