giftie for Bebo

The illustration with My Fave Pen

I've pretty much tanked on the last few holidays. I'm a terrible gift chooser! Especially for my husband. I always want so much for the gift to be loved. And then I psyche myself out. Of course, there's always this problem:

Repurposed Mat Board

Clear Glaze drying in the Sunshine

Me: What do you want for [this or that holiday]?

Him: I dunno. Maybe a CD?

Pause.

Him: Or this one [usually very technical, specific and expensive using jargon like F-stop or mm or focal length or gigabyte or other similar what-have-you] thing with these specs.


Me: (to myself) Yah, I'm not buying and/or ordering that. I don't even know what 'specs' ARE. And I would totally get the wrong one. He knows it and so do I.

But, this Valentine's Day I decided to make a little giftie. I got the idea from the illustration I did for the Illustration Friday challenge last week.

And I think he liked it.

Things I learned:

1) Try to have your project done more than 15 minutes before he gets home from work. It's less stressful that way. And it's also dry by that time. Not that I would know. On second thought, why not even finish it a day or two early?

2) Sewing scissors? Really?

3) Mat board is very thick. And I can't cut a straight line. I hope he didn't notice.

Awww...

Print Like a Master: DURER

{This idea was pretty much straight out of Discovering Great Artists. The woman is a genius.}

The art portion of class today was enormously fun. It was many of the kids' favorite project so far.








Who did we talk about? Albrecht Durer. Self-portrait to the left.

A German, so right there you know he's probably cool.

Albrecht is especially known for his Renaissance wood cuts/prints, his attention to detail, and his amazing hair.

We used small 4"x4" pieces of balsa wood, available at, you guessed it, Hobby Lobby. Rather than hand the littles a bunch of sharp wood carving tools, we used hammers, nails, coins, nuts, bolts, screws and other metal doodads. Balsa wood is so soft, that some of the kids just used the back end of a paint brush to make their indentations. And, you don't necessarily even need the hammers. If you just push hard enough, the balsa wood will take an impression.

However, the hammers were a big hit anyway.

Especially with the boys.

We used a brayer (a paint roller, in the vernacular) to apply the tempera paint (not egg tempera, though, thank goodness). Then you just flip your 'wood cut' over onto paper and be careful not to jiggle it while you apply pressure to the back.

Easy Breezy. Perfect wood prints for little artists.

To improve this project, I would bring a larger variety of doodads (springs? cookie cutters? fridge magnets for letter shapes?) and leave more time at the end for the actual printing. Most of the kids only got to make one or two prints. IF I was a pre-planning kind of person, we could've printed cards for mommies for Valentine's Day!

I'm going to try to remember this idea next fall when we're thinking about Christmas cards. I love the very organic vintage feel of these prints.

Sculpt Like a Master : GHIBERTI

Lorenzo Ghiberti - so in the early 1400s he wins this contest to be commissioned to design the baptistry doors for a big church in Florence, Italy (Battistero di San Giovanni). Apparently, he dazzled the judges with his gold leaf technique and his green chile stew (I made that last part up).




And with skads of people working under him, it took 20 years to finish those doors.

Michelangelo (yes, THAT Michelangelo) said that they deserved to be displayed at the Gates of Paradise. They were that good!

I'd like to see those doors.

Also I'd like to contemplate taking 20 years on one art project.

Or any project for that matter. [I don't think it counts when you take 2 years before you even start it.]


Today, my class and I did a Ghiberti inspired, easy breezy project.

Take some cardboard. Glue a bunch of stuff on it. The more varied the texture the better. We used wiki-sticks, yarn, pipe cleaners, cardboard pieces where the corrugation was showing, and fabric leaves.

Cover the entire piece with foil wrapping around the edges to the back. Then have the kids use all those little fingers to smooth, pat, and form the foil around each texture.  Next, paint the whole front with black tempura paint. After it's dry, go over the texture with steel wool. The foil shines through on the raised portions!

 
I liked this project because littler kids can just glue stuff on to their hearts' content while older kids can focus on creating a 3D scene. I think the kids liked seeing how it turned out after the steel wool step. Next time I'll try to give them more time to create and also bring a sample so they can see where things are going. The only girl in the class would really have preferred pink paint.

you know this, right?

I thought maybe I'd let you in on what seems to be a secret. When you are a book addict, like me, it's nice to have a more frugal way to feed the habit. Now, let me preface this next part by saying that I really prefer real books. You know, the kind made out of paper? With real covers? And pages? But...I'm out of shelf space (making #3 very helpful). So, I admit turning to eBooks (#1 & #2)

FREE (or basically free) BOOKS

Here are my favorite sources...

1 ) Gutenberg.org [Over 100,000 free ebooks...public domain - so very many classics. I downloaded the complete works of Jane Austen...for free! Yah, baby.]

2) Free Kindle eBooks for anyone with the free Kindle app
Or for those of you with Kindles: Kindle Owners' Lending Library

3) And last but not least:

(Online book swap. I've swapped books 61 times, so I feel good about referring this to you! Just pay a couple bucks for shipping (when you send from your library) and receive the books you order for free. You get a free credit when you first sign up - so you can try it out. What a great way to let someone else enjoy the books you don't want anymore. Don't let the name throw ya, you can swap hardcovers, too.)

re-purposed! (apple packaging)

If you know me (which you probably do, since you're reading my blog - hey friend!), then you know I love to re-purpose things. Here's my latest, possibly greatest. Ever.

Hand-painted gourds and glass ball ornaments fit oh-so-nicely into this plastic apple packaging. Isn't this a great idea?

The package (which is completely ridiculous for apples, in my opinion) is from Costco. I don't recommend getting a membership and/or buying your apples just for this awesome Christmas ornament packaging, however.

I do love Freecycle.

So a couple of weekends ago, I randomly remembered a stack of plywood and siding pieces left over from building our chicken coop in March. They've just been sitting behind the fence on one side of the house since then. Gulp. It's been months.

Anyway, I hopped on Freecycle and got rid of the whole pile in about 30 minutes - someone else wanted the scraps to build a house for a duck she was planning to get.

But today - someone gave us a Toddler Bed! I had checked Freecycle but there were no toddler beds posted. So then I went over to Craigslist and planned to buy a used one. But I had posted a 'want ad' on Freecycle. Meanwhile, someone saw the post, had a toddler bed not being used and called me up.

The kids and I picked it up today. It's very cute - white metal - and Sissy loves it. She pretended to go take a nap and then would wake up and say,  "It's MORNING! I waked up!" several times in a row.

Thanks Freecycle! Thanks Kelly!

Worm Bin Alive and Kicking

So, don't remember if I told you, but I took a look in my worm bin the other day. I'd decided to leave the little dudes alone for awhile, as I felt I was taxing their patience with my over-attentiveness. I took a look and found a whopping 5 adult worms! What happened!? No wonder the kitchen veggie scraps I'd been putting in the bin weren't getting eaten as fast as I thought they would.

I'm trying to resist just ordering more worms. For one thing, worms propagate. I just have to be patient. For another thing, who wants to pay $10 for a styro cup full of worms? And for a last thing, I did see a bunch of baby wormlets who will soon be eating their weight in kitchen scraps daily!

Did notice a few other interesting things growing in there though. A mushroom, tall and skinny. Some very furry and light looking mold on the damp shredded newspaper bedding.

What a saga! Having a worm bin is like having my own personal soap opera.