Introduction

“Weaving Your Emotions” combines colour and weaving to help you explore and express your emotions creatively. Colours are powerful means of emotional expression. German polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Theory of Colours (1970)  offers a starting point, emphasising the psychological and emotional impact of colour.1 Artist Josef Albers’s Interaction of Color ([1963] 2013) complements this by exploring how colour relationships shape perception.2 For example, red frequently conveys energy or rage, while blue indicates calmness or sadness. Assigning colours to emotions enables us to make our feelings visible.

Weaving, an ancient practice, symbolises connection and transformation. Artists Anni Albers (2018) 3 and art therapist Lisa Raye Garlock ( 2016) have explained how weaving brings rhythm and mindfulness, mirroring our internal thoughts.4 By weaving strips of your own emotional drawings, you’ll arrange and convert feelings into a tangible form.

By integrating colour theory with weaving, this toolkit offers a dual-layered approach to emotional expression. These foundational practices encourage learners to think critically about their emotions and create meaningful, reflective works in just 20 minutes.

Learning Goals

By engaging with this toolkit, you will:

Explore your emotions in a non-verbal, visual way.

Gain insight into how creativity can transform feelings into something tangible.

Enjoy a calming and meditative activity that encourages mindfulness.

What do you need to prepare?

• A blank sheet of paper (A4 or letter-sized works well).📄
• Coloured crayons, markers, or pencils (choose whatever feels right to you).🖌️
• A pair of scissors.✂️
• Tape (optional, for securing strips while weaving).

Don’t worry if you don’t have these exact items—any kind of paper will do, even old magazines or scrap paper, and you can swap crayons for pens, paints, or whatever you have on hand. No scissors? Try tearing the paper!

😊😊Let’s start step-by-step!😊😊

1. Prepare (2 minutes)

Find a quiet, comfortable spot where you won’t be disturbed. Lay out your materials on a flat surface. Take a deep breath to centre yourself.🧘Focus on the moment and think about your own emotions or feelings. The following questions may help identify your feelings:

“Imagine you’re feeling frustration from a delayed project. How might that look as a colour or shape?”

“Think of the joy from a recent success. What patterns or hues might represent that?”

2. Draw Your Emotions (7 minutes)

Picture 1 example of drawing

3. Prepare Your Paper Strips (3 minutes)

Take your drawing and cut it into strips, about 1-2 cm wide.

No scissors? No problem—just tear the paper into strips with your hands for a more textured, organic look.

You can make the strips as uniform or as varied as you like—this is your creation!

Picture 2 example of cutting

4. Weave Your Emotions (5 minutes)

Now, it’s time to weave your strips of paper together. Here’s a simple guide to help you:

Here are the text steps:

1. Lay out the first strip horizontally (across your workspace or paper). This will be the base of your weaving.
2. Take a second strip and place it vertically (up and down) over the first one, crossing it.
3. Weave the second strip by folding it under the first strip, then over the next, and so on, like an over-under pattern.
4. Continue weaving by adding each new strip, alternating the over and under pattern.

（You can secure the ends with tape if needed, but let the process flow naturally.）

Here are the picture steps:

Picture 3 example of weaving

Or you can refer to instructional videos:

process

Picture 4 cut from the video process

If you’re interested, there are other ways to do it

https://youtu.be/jrZH7GrdGlA?si=9BpVFBJCS_00f-3A

Picture 5 TheDadLab

Tip: Don’t worry if it’s not perfect! This process is all about creativity, not precision. The goal is to let your emotions flow through the weaving.

5. Reflect on Your Creation (3 minutes)

Once you’ve finished weaving, step back and observe your artwork. Reflect on your emotional expression and the final woven piece.

According to the theory of constructivism,  experiential learning where participants construct their own understanding through engagement with materials and processes (Mattar 2018), some questions may help guide your reflection from your own experience:

• How does this artwork reflect your current emotions?
• What feelings do the colours and patterns evoke now that you’ve created them?
• Does the weaving process make you feel any different from before you started?

Take a few minutes to write or think about these questions. If you’re comfortable, you can even share your thoughts with someone or draw more connections to how you felt during the process.

Enjoy the journey

you are weaving more than just paper;

you’re weaving a piece of yourself.

According to the paragogical principle, ‘Peers as Equals but Different’ (Corneli and Danoff 2011), your feedback matters!

This quick questionnaire helps improve the toolkit for future learners.

No personal data is collected—just your honest thoughts and it will take you only 1 minute to complete. Thank you!🥰

Click the button below or scan the QR code to get started!

feedback QR code

https://forms.office.com/e/3V6JBHzVTU

To further your learning, you can refer to the following resources:

References

1.Von Goethe, J.W., 1970. Theory of colours (No. 3). Mit Press.

2. Albers, J., 2013. Interaction of Colour (1962). New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

3. Albers, A., 2018. On weaving: new expanded edition. Princeton University Press.

4. Garlock, Lisa Raye. “Stories in the cloth: Art therapy and narrative textiles.” Art Therapy 33, no. 2 (2016): 58-66.

5 .Popova, M. (2012). Goethe on the Psychology of Color and Emotion. [online] The Marginalian. Available at: https://www.themarginalian.org/2012/08/17/goethe-theory-of-colours [Accessed 30 Nov. 2024].

7. Mattar, Joao. “Constructivism and connectivism in education technology: Active, situated, authentic, experiential, and anchored learning.” RIED-Revista Iberoamericana de Educación a Distancia21, no. 2 (2018).

8. Corneli, J. and Danoff, C.J., 2011. Paragogy: Synergizing individual and organizational learning. In 1st International Conference on Learning Analytics and Knowledge(Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 205-215).

Weaving Your Emotions: Transform Feelings into Art © 2024 by Feng Zhao is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 

Picture References

(Picture 1 example of drawing © 2024 by Feng Zhao is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

(Picture 2 example of cutting © 2024 by Feng Zhao is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

(Picture 3 example of weaving © 2024 by Feng Zhao is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

(Picture 4 cut from the video process© 2024 by Feng Zhao is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

(Picture 5 Mattar, Joao. “Constructivism and connectivism in education technology: Active, situated, authentic, experiential, and anchored learning.” RIED-Revista Iberoamericana de Educación a Distancia21, no. 2 (2018).

(Photoed by Matthew Perkins https://www.flickr.com/photos/96951910@N00/3178454911)