Floor Cloths Come Alive with Designs of Budding Artists

By Kari Hawkins, Redstone Rocket StaffMarch 25, 2009

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Six-year-old ReAuna Heard loves her mom and dad, flowers, squiggly lines and birthday celebrations.

And she wants to include all of those favorites on her uniquely designed floor cloth.

With the help of her cousin, Alabama A&M University student Xantheia Watkins, ReAuna spent a day during spring break creating her floor cloth with templates and paints at the June M. Hughes Arts & Crafts Center.

"I want to put my mom's name and my dad's name and my name, and I want to put flowers all over the names. But I don't know how to spell my dad's name," ReAuna said.

Her cousin helped her with the spelling, and the two worked together as ReAuna began to stencil "Glenda" and "Reginald" in bright shades of pink, blue and purple on her floor cloth.

Nearby, 6-year-old Natasha Fernandez was getting help from family friend Char Blanton with her floor cloth design.

"First, I'm putting my name on it and then I'm going to put little houses on the side and triangles, and twirls and little puppies," said Natasha, pointing to the stencils she planned to use in her designs.

While the two girls were making plans and talking about the things they like, 5-year-old James Sears and his mom, Amy, were working together to stencil race cars and racing flags in purple, red and blue on the borders of his floor cloth. In the center, they stenciled the name "James" and the words "Start Your Engines" and "Off To The Races."

Older students in the class took a more serious approach to their floor cloths, creating intricate designs with flowers and geometric shapes. Some free drew their designs while others relied on stencils.

Riley Edger, 7, worked with her grandmother Charolott Rutherford to create a floral design while Rheyna Morgan, 11, and her mom, Reyna, discussed the colors that she would use in her geometric design. Victoria Bramhall, 11, decided not to use stencils and instead drew her own close-up interpretation of a pink rose while her dad, Tom, watched from the sidelines.

"This is our first foray into floor cloths," class coordinator Laura Metzger said of the parent-child floor cloth class taught by art teacher Margaret Chapman.

"There has been a lot of interest in this. We plan on also offering an adult floor cloth class that will involve more detail in the designs."

The floor cloths are 2-feet by 3-feet and are made of heavy, double-primed cotton duck cloth. Once painted, a protective acrylic coating will be added to keep the cloths from being damaged.

Even though they are meant to be used on the floor, ReAuna and Natasha aren't too sure that's where there floor cloths will end up.

"There will be no walking on my rug. I don't want to mess it up," ReAuna said. "I want to take mine home and put it on my wall."

Natasha agreed. "I want to put it on my wall, too, in my bedroom for a picture," she said.