James Overton

A selection of students in Art X work individually on their projects during class. This class teaches students creative skills that they can apply both in and out of the classroom. “… If I have a pair of jeans that [have] a hole in them, I’ll embroider over them like cute flowers, or I’ll use the skills I learned in that class, and I’ll use them outside of school …”Sam Namaky, ‘27, said.

As the year comes to a close, many students have been thinking about which classes to take next year. One possible choice is Art X, a textile art class taught by Liz Lloyd.

In the class, students are taught stitching, printing, applique, weaving and dying techniques. Students in grades 9-12 can take the class, but it’s preferred that students have taken Jr. Art and Pro Media Design beforehand.

Some of the projects that the class has done over the years are creating embroidery samplers, making pillows and dying fabric with flower ink.

“We’ve done a flower pounding project, where you put flower petals on fabric [by pounding],” Sam Namaky, ‘27, a past student in the class, said.

However, the projects do vary from year to year.

“A lot of [the projects] get shifted or get adjusted based on student interest,” Lloyd said.

Lloyd has been teaching art for 13 years, six of them being at WHHS. Along with textiles, she teaches sculpture and ceramics.

“Ceramics is new; it has only been around for two years [and] students have [a lot of] choice on what their theme or subject matter is,” Lloyd said.

Namaky believes that Art X gives a lot of artistic license.

“[Lloyd] would show you how to do the project in general, or how to do certain types of stitching, and then you could do anything you wanted with the stitching,” Namaky said.

The main purpose of Art X is for students to express themselves through fabrics and textiles. Namaky did this through one of her favorite projects in the class.

“We did a print cloth where you carve out a stamp and you … print it on the cloth with ink,” Namaky said. “I thought that was cool because I’m Persian, and I got to pick a Persian pattern and represent my heritage with that project.”

Overall, Namaky feels that Art X was a positive experience andan enjoyable class to take.

“I think I was just interested in … having a creative outlet at Walnut during the school day,” Namaky said.