Archive for March, 2011
Custom Party – French/Japanese
Hannah was turning 8 & wanted a more “grown-up” party theme. Her mother came to me wondering if I had any suggestions for a French/Japanese art party. Interesting combination = interesting challenge.
After interviewing the daughter a little bit, this is what we came up with and the girls had a blast.
We set up a boutique with grown-up dresses & accessories. The girls put together glamorous outfits and walked down the cat walk for a fashion show (complete w/ Edith Piaf music).
3 art activities... (1) Fashion Collages, (2) Decorated Japanese Trinket/Surprise Boxes, (3) French/Japanese Illustration & Painting Easels
Painting with Paper – Van Gogh Irises
class: Little Picasso’s (Age 4-6)
In this class, we used Van Gogh as our inspiration. Students created iris “paintings” using brown paper as their canvas, chalk pastels, various torn papers, glue, and oil pastels.We talked about the terms, “expressionism”, “horizon line”, “blending”, “highlights”, “foreground/background” and “layering”.
New Planters!
The studio has been open now for 2 years!
One of the many upgrades on my “to do” list has been to make planters out front to help draw attention from the street and keep people from leaning on the glass while waiting for the bus.
First, I *really* needed to paint the side walk. Really. It’s so boring and bland out there; people don’t notice we exist. My landlord never liked the idea of painting when I brought it up to him, but I have to make the storefront a reflection of me.
Next, I found galvanized trash cans in several different sizes at OSH. I thought they would be super cute and complement our creative reuse philosophy.
My Mom gathered succulents from her house & I from mine (including poky cactus). I also bought some purple cabbage and horsetail grass to create our little urban garden. It took 6 hours to put the containers together.
The plants still need to fill in a bit more, but I love it! I’ve noticed lots of smiles from people walking past, which always feels good. A big “Thank You” to my Mom who did all the planting!!! Here are some photos…
BEFORE photo. See, wasn't it bland?
Blue & Green paint added to the front sidewalk.
Shiny new cans & plants
Very happy!
St. Patty’s Day
Here’s all the green goodness that took place for St. Patrick’s Day this year… (click photos for larger pic)
Class: Pee Wee Art (Age 2-3)
Kids learned about color mixing, threading, and as always, exercised those little fine motor muscles while sponging, using small brushes & markers.
Green necklaces and color mixing shamrocks. Neil was also excited to show us on the easel that Y+B=G!
class: Little Picasso’s (Available T/TH/SA, age 4-6)
All Picasso classes this week are working on Paper Sculptures; however, the TH class was the only one making them with shades of GREEN. We used an amusement park as our inspiration and observed photos of rides while learning how to manipulate a practice strip of paper. Kids learned how to make circles, twists, loops, coils, hills, and accordian folds before starting their project. Then I let them do their thing…
Using 3 shades of green + brown strips of paper, kids created their own amusement parks.
class: Beginning Art (Age 6-9)
Students learned how to draw a 3-leaf clover & watercolor techniques. We talked about “small scale”, how to use” light pressure” while using our colored pencils, and how to “dilute” our paint to make a new shade of green. They also learned how to control the watercolors to avoid bleeding.
Sometimes a project seems simple at the start, but as the kids discovered, this project was a great skill building experience.
The background color also had a fine, gold glitter added to it. These came out really pretty 🙂
Open Studio
My sis-in-law came in with the family (well, some of the family, she has 9 kids!). She lives in AZ, so it was the first time she had seen the studio. She’s the one that has generously provided me with many of the fun costumes we have at Averyboo.
Making Leprechaun Beards with the kids during Open Studio.
Faux Glass & Analogous Colors
class: Beginning Art
Faux Glass Blowing
In this class we used Dale Chihuly as our inspiration and made faux glass. We viewed video clips of how real glass is blown & how Chihuly created his floppy edged pieces.
We chose “analogous colors” to paint our glass and learn how they automatically create “harmony”.
When the glass was dry, we turned out the lights and looked at the final pieces with a small lamp shining behind them. The kids were “oohing and aahing”. I totally flaked and forgot to take one last photo of all the student pieces before the kids happily took their work home.
Used overhead transparency film to cut "organic" shapes for our glass.
Gently fold the shapes, clip with paper clips to hold the fold, then lower into hot water for about 30 seconds (I used a crock pot). Use CAUTION!!
Let cool, pat dry, then paint the underside with watered down acrylics (or glass paint). Encourage dripping effect.
Neat-o!
