Smarter than C-3PO

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Star Wars, Valentines

How do you tell your mom you love her?  Well, you might compare her to what you think about most in the world.  If you are a nine year old boy, that just might be Star Wars.

When my boys make something by hand, I cherish it.  Even more so if it is made especially for me. Most parents have a soft spot for what our kids give us, but Moms tend to be the savers of pieces of paper, squirreling these treasures away inside scrapbooks, folders, and files, for posterity or reminiscence in some unknown future time.  Because I oversee much of the creative work that happens at home with my kids, I’m rarely surprised by the end results. This means that I look forward to the surprises that come from school, pieces of writing and art that happen under another person’s guidance.

So February arrives (where did January go!?), the month when heartfelt cards are exchanged.  When another parent gently suggested to my son’s third grade teacher that a handmade gift from the kids would be nice for Valentine’s Day, he enlisted my help to come up with a project. Cards seemed to be the most straight-forward thing to make, given that our time to put something together was limited to a Valentine’s Day party during the last forty minutes of school.

Here’s how we collaborated on the Valentine project:

• I created a template for a simple heart-shaped card on decorative 12″ x 12″ paper, tracing out enough of these double hearts for each child to cut.
•  Separately I cut out small card stock paper hearts for the kids to draw on with colored pencils.
• I gave the teacher a list of ideas for what might be drawn on the little hearts before the party:  self portraits, a picture of the parent, a design or pattern, flowers, the words “I love you”, etc.
• The teacher would lead the kids through a poem writing exercise during language arts time, getting them to “show not tell” their love for their loved ones.  These poems would be written out carefully on small pieces of paper to be pasted into the large folded hearts.
• The students cut out the big hearts and attached all the small pieces during the class party, signing each card with love and their name.

The cards were a simple smashing success–I only wish I’d thought to photograph some of the funny and sincere messages inside.  A few kids read their poems aloud to their moms during the party, and more than one mom got a little teary.  Sigh.  Can we help it!?

A reading to her mom

D reads to his mom

That's Dobby the house elf with a Valentine

A, really not shy, reads with gusto "Mom, you are smarter than a dictionary!"

Regular readers might be able to spot my son’s Valentine among the photos above.  Look for the one with the castle battle scene and the robot doing mental math, and you’ve got it. Here’s what L wrote:

While some mothers might be compared to sunsets, and flowers, and comfortable pillows, this mom is more (fill in the blank) than Jedis and droids.  I love it.  My husband meanwhile, is deemed “taller than Chewbacca on a growthspurt,” with smarts to outmatch a computer game wizard, and unbeatable fortress strength.  I love that too.

C3PO, Chewbacca, stronghold castle Valentine

Funny thing about love. There are a gazillion ways to express it. This Valentine is surely a keeper (the most artistic mom in the whole world!?!), as is our goofy sweet nine year old boy.  Now if I could just try to feel the Force instead of getting angry, and dig into my memory banks to remember “over six million forms of communication” as I love my family, I’ll be doing all right.

That's AMORE under there

Love, to you all!  Happy Valentine’s Day.

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The Other Jingle Bells

November is gone, and December, flashing by at light speed.  So much to write about, but given the choice between sitting in front of the computer and moving through the tasks at hand, I’ve chosen the latter!  Our lives have been full of good everyday happenings– dinners with friends, school concerts, art classes, and creative projects of all sorts–just to name a few.  In the midst of all the activity, we are more grateful than ever for the community we are starting to find here, but continually miss friends and family far away.

For the first time our family is not traveling this Christmas, and although there are pangs of regret for me, staying put is a gift in itself.  More about Christmas at “home,” later.

tree trimmer

Early in December my six year old remarked “I don’t like Christmas Carols. ”  Then he paused and said, “What are Christmas carols anyway?”  When I told him they were songs about Christmas he said, “Oh, actually I do like them.”  The boys have been doing a lot of singing in the past few weeks.  At school the kids have been preparing various Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa songs to sing in concert (in Spanish too!).  Many of these songs came home in their heads, and I’d hear the boys humming to themselves or singing quietly in the back of the car.  My five year old learned the verses of “Jingle Bells,” and over and over wanted me to start singing with the “dashing through the snow part.”

Then one day the six year old says to the five year old, “Did you know that there’s another way to sing Jingle Bells?”  That’s right, the Batman way.  Then with a wicked gleeful look in his eye he launches into “Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin laid and egg!  Batmobii-le lost a whee-el, and the Joker got away!  Hey!”  and it was all downhill from there.  My husband overheard the Batman version being sung and wondered aloud where they learned it.  His comment was something like, “the funny thing is, we thought that was hilariously funny when we learned it at their age too.”  They have no idea how long kids have been tweaking the song to impress each other.  And as kids do, the five year old went on to teach the Batman Jingle Bells to his best little three year old buddy, and they happily sang it together over and over.  I have to admit that even as the song gets old, really fast, the kids get such a kick out of it that I find myself smiling.  A little.

T's Christmas card: jingle bells and happy face ornaments

Another family music favorite that has had its share of airtime is a home-made CD from the cousins, fondly referred to as “Tree-Hunting Tunes.”   The recording dates back to a Children’s Radio Hour Christmas show in 1999, recorded on tape, by yours truly, as broadcast on Albuquerque Public Radio (KUNM).   I gave the tape to my then very young niece and nephew, not knowing that the Radio Hour would become their all-time favorite Christmas recording, and the music they would listen to every year on their way to find a Christmas tree.  When you’ve got songs like “What Do You Get a Wookie for Christmas,”  “It Must Be Santa,” sung at super speed, and Louis Armstrong reading “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” in his warm gravelly voice, what is not to love?

A life full of song is a good one, and there is room for the goofy and spoofy, just as there is room for the reverent and soulful.  With the strains of “In the Deep Midwinter” and “What Child is This” in the mix, I’m content.

T draws a snowman and a tree...

As we move into the last days of the season, there are still parcels to be wrapped, cards to be sent, and sweets to bake, and of course, songs to be sung.  

So even if you don’t have a card from us yet, please know, we’ll be wishing you “the happiest, the happiest, and the merriest, the merriest!” wherever you are.

card printing

before the eggs get put away

Before the month is out, and before putting away the Easter supplies, I have to include photos of  the eggs of 2011.  This year I didn’t take any action shots during our Ukrainian egg dying, but the after shots will do!

The Saturday before Palm Sunday marked the now annual cousins’ egg dying afternoon with Margie.  While I made a kind of groovy colorful “mouse in the garden” egg, she made gorgeous turquoise and black design in the more traditional vein.  Then, the day before Easter there was another round of egg dying with the kids, which produced a number of vivid scribbly eggs (Jackson Pollock eat your heart out, again!), and two more from me.

Margie cleans off the wax

cool bird upside down

Finished egg!

succulent nest

this one started out as a naturally green egg...

We’ll make honorary Ukrainians yet!

shelf of curiosities: a homely exhibit

The American Heritage Dictionary lists the second definition of “homely” as “Simple or unpretentious; plain:  homely truths.”  I double checked the exact definition just now, to make sure that my title made sense, because “homey” was not right, and neither was the idea of homely being unattractive.  But yes, an unpretentious, simple exhibit is just what I mean to say.

This idea all started with a series of questions:  What are the objects that I’m drawn to, that inspire me?  What are the everyday things that I want to look at, to touch, to hold, or display?  Delving beyond the appearance and feel of these objects, what is the meaning they carry?

From childhood until now, my most collected and cherished objects have often been natural ones; pieces of nature, such as rocks, sticks, and shells. Or items a few degrees removed from their origins, made from wood, stone, clay, or paper.  Tactile qualities, the rough or smooth, delicate or sturdy, attracted me in the first place, and still do.

As much as I have moved in my adult life, I have accumulated the aforementioned kinds of things, for want of a better word.  In many cases these special items have been packed away or stored as I settle and re-settle, and don’t always get to see the light of day.  Then I moved into this, our first house, and immediately laid claim to the room with built-in shelves, my new studio.  What possibility!

My friend Heather and I were talking one day about studio and workroom set-up, and the best use of our spaces.  We share similar organizational issues, and a desire to use and appreciate the best of what we have, while attempting to weed out the unnecessary or otherwise unappealing.  We both like the thrill of thrift and antique shopping, and treasure the finds that seem as if they were made for us, the ones that might add character or color to our households.

Heather and I challenged each other that day to create a shelf space that could serve as a kind of rotating display, a museum of sorts, that would inspire our artwork and help us re-think what we own and why.  As an artist, I also wanted to think about the connections between the pieces on the shelf, and imagine an allegory from the grouping; a story told.

The top middle shelf in my studio was ideal, once cleared and dusted.  Piece by piece, I began to cluster potential artifacts.  I started with a very old silvery photograph, one I bought in Chicago from the neighborhood’s rare book store.

The photo speaks to me of pine trees and mountains, of scent and memory, and light.  This landscape on paper, a setting, led me to a new favorite handmade object:  the little wooden cabin.

The rough-hewn cabin, led to ideas of handwork, home, and tools, and to a wooden level and an empty embroidery hoop smooth with age.  Three books ended up on the shelf:  “Ways of the Six-Footed,” a study on insects written by Anna Botsford Comstock, published in 1926, with double cicadas on the cover, “The Wonderland a Knowledge,” an illustrated guide for children on subjects of every kind, and “Mechanical Drawing,” an old textbook from a similar era, open to the two page spread on the “Theory of Shape Description.”

level on the level

one cicada

Mechanical Drawing

Mechanical Drawing problems

To help hold Mechanical Drawing in place, and because it fit the emerging theme so well, I added a red wood and metal hand drill that I still use.  And last, three delicate objects, two of paper, and one a pressed and dried leaf.  The grayish paper that partly obscures the green book cover is a piece I made.  It looks to be inconsequential, but is a strong piece of flax with cement particles embedded in it.  The second paper is turquoise in color, and about the size of a business card.  In elegant black and white ink flourishes is my grandmother’s name, written in her own hand.  The leaf had to be included, and though I don’t remember where it was collected, it could be from any number of my former homes, pressed in the height of the fall season.

cement paper

drill, name card, leaf

That’s it, those are the parts.  What is the sum?  There is a story being told through these things, that perhaps only I see.  A homely exhibit, one that calls to mind my roots.  Roots in the strength and simplicity of my forebears, the ones I remember and the ones I never knew, and the curiosity that led them out into the world to build a life, with hand tools and books, needle and thread, or pen and ink.   But in the space between the objects where I find invisible links, and in the objects of my choosing, I am too.

From this amalgam may come pieces of art– drawings, paintings, or prints– or at least  the spark of a developing  idea, it’s in my fingertips.

almost the length of it

little red suede book

For my second book binding project of 2011, I decided to try to copy a stitch pattern from the spine of a book that someone else made.  It looked to be a fairly simple stitch, crossing through 5 signatures inside the book, with two sets of exposed crisscrossing threads on the soft leather spine.  To work out the sewing for myself, I pierced holes in a piece of book board cut to the spine width I wanted, and by trial and error, sewed through the holes until I figured out the order of things.

sewing practice

outside pattern

Decoding the pattern was not difficult once I had needle and thread in hand, and though I wasn’t sure it was stitched in exactly the same way as the original, it would look just like the book spine it was modeled after.

Digging through my box of leather and suede scraps for a soft but sturdy piece to make a wraparound cover with, I chose a thick red one, close to the book height I wanted.  One of its edges had a diagonal slant that would make an interesting cover flap, so I worked from there, trimming the top and bottom edge to match.  For the pages, I found some tea dyed paper left over from a previous book that would complement the cover and style of this binding.  The paper was already very close to the right size, I just needed to fold the folios and trim it down.

There are no pictures of the process, but here is the end product, the 4 3/4″ square book, thick enough to be hefty, and perhaps small enough to fit in the pocket of a big coat.

spine stitch and wraparound strap

diagonal cover flap

strap end

dyed pages

for a sense of scale

curvy top view

The strap was added last, another leather scrap that I considered trimming before attaching it, but in the end felt right just as it was.  This is what one of my teachers meant when she told us to “build the book from the book;” rather than starting from arbitrary measurements and pre-determined sizes when making a book, fold and divide from the actual object, whether it be paper, board, or leather.  This approach is more intuitive and more about manipulating what you have, and less about rulers and fine-tuned marking and cutting.  Maybe that is why building the book from the book suits me so well.

Friendly address book

My first hand-bound book of the new year is an attempt to make a dent in the paper clutter that seems to multiply itself in our house.  Part of the problem is that I tend to save things and have trouble ignoring the collage potential in bits of paper. But, it is also true that avalanches of junk paper arrive through the mailbox, the kids’ schools, and elsewhere, and threaten to take over the place.  When life gets busy, decisions on sorting, filing, posting, or recycling each piece get put off, and the job grows exponentially.

yikes

Faced with one of these paper collections– a basket full of greeting cards, many saved from Christmases past–I decided that the envelopes needed to be made into a book.  I’d been keeping these cards to remember who had written and eventually get back to them (someday, I promise, but don’t hold your breath!), but had yet to take the next step with either updating my address book, or writing back.  Time to cut through the good intentions and move on.  In this new clutter book idea, the cards and pictures and parts of the letters could be incorporated, as a sort of ongoing keepsake of the words and images of family and friends.  I liked too that it could become a creative reference of sorts, a tactile and visual place to find addresses every year at holiday time, and perhaps next year I’d get that card done.

The first step was to sort the stuff in the basket, and glean out the real “keepers” for the book.  I was looking especially for handwritten addressed envelopes, with an eye on using the return addresses.  After cutting two edges off of the envelopes so that the bottom edge of each would become the crease in the folio, I stacked them together like this, one inside the other:

book sections

For the cover, I lit on just the thing:  an old Golden Book cover, now separated from its pages, called “The Friendly Book,” by Garth Williams.  The boards were bigger than my pages, just enough to add a small margin, and the title says it all.  Next I decided on an exposed spine binding to show off the colorful papers, and ribbon hinges to hold the cover boards together.  From there I pierced each section to correspond to where the ribbons would cross the spine.

piercing stations

Here is the text block sewn up–isn’t it cool!?

3 ribbon spine

Then, inspired by the wintry theme inside the book, I painted these little people in red snowsuits on the outside of the book, surrounded by a slightly transparent white, like snow.  The figure stencils were left over from a Kindergarten art lesson I taught on Ezra Jack Keat’s “Snowy Day,”  and in my mind could be the “Friendly Book” cover characters in another season.

magnetic closure

This brimming book was wanting to spring open to show the world its colorful pages, so to help it contain itself I added a small magnet in the front cover and a second sewn into another piece of ribbon to keep it closed.

The colorful pages:

The Friendly Address book is an evolving work in progress, now ready to have this year’s greeting cards folded into its welcoming pages.  Take heart, those of you who send me real mail.  Each note is lovingly received, and if not otherwise saved or re-cycled, just might find itself a book page, or better yet a piece of art.

do you see a cat face and tiny truck?

fun with the sewing machine

pop-up and concentric hearts

The kids were not the only ones who made paper Valentine cards this February.  Their paper-folding mom has been busy too, teaching other people how to make cards with a little something extra.  Paper Pop-ups have that kind of surprise impact, and my favorites are the single card style, in which the pop-up is part of the folded paper folio, rather than being attached as a separate piece of paper.

This style has 3 simple steps, starting at the fold: 

• cut through the card (half of the image, like half a heart) leaving an attachment point
• crease (at the attachment point, back and forth)
• reverse fold (push the part that pops out from back to front)

This finished heart design was made that way, with decorative paper attached afterward to the back of the card:

It sounds easy, and it is easy once you get the hang of it, but it does take some practice.  I taught my son’s second grade class how to make this type of card during their Valentine’s Day party, and although some of them got it right away, others struggled with each step.  Many of these kids never have to chance to do anything artistic, let alone crafty, and their inexperience is part of the problem. Luckily, there were many adult helpers, and each child did complete a card to take home.

Here’s a decorated version of the same thing:

The next example adds a reverse pop-up inside the first, same technique, different direction:

hearts inside out

and another with plain red card stock:

shadow and holes

And last, for a flat card idea I cut increasingly smaller hearts out of a watery blue tempera painting to make nestling hearts.  The variations on this theme are endless, and these were some of the best of my bunch.

ripple effect

More to come on making pop-up art projects in the next few weeks!

Valentines, with heart

At last count, and with a little guidance and teamwork, my three boys made at least 68 Valentines in the last week.  The various school Valentine parties happened on different days, some last Thursday and some today, so we were able to stagger the Valentine making a bit.

This year we took the old-fashioned approach, and cut lots and lots of paper hearts, which we then pasted onto paper cards.

glue, paper, scissors

Here’s a sample of the preschool version…

"these hearts look like foxes!"

before the addition of pairs of animal stickers.

This is the Kindergarten set:

colorful hearts

and last but not least, the second grade set:

kisses attached last

As most parents know, the hardest part of this whole process is likely the name writing.  For a four-year-old, writing one’s own name 12 times takes patience and stamina.  It is not much easier when you are 6, and have to write your name 28 times.  We took lots of breaks in-between steps for that very reason– rest the arm, rest the hand, eat a candy kiss–and on to more cutting and pasting, and yes, write your name one more time.  The Kindergartener barreled through, and with some help cutting out hearts from his big brother, he finished his group of 29 cards in just an hour.  They turned out to be some of my favorites, with bright colors, large animal stickers, and a touch of colored pencil embellishment.

red on black

Besides the hands-on aspect of this holiday project, what I liked about sitting alongside each boy as they worked on their cards was that I learned something about each of them.  I learned who their special friends are, the kids who merit the very “best” artworks, favorite colors, patterns, or stickers.

My second grader, in particular, showed his own heart to me in a new way as he chose particular Valentines for particular classmates.  As he went down the class list, he would come across a name, then scan the cards on the table to find one that seemed just right for that person.  In a couple of cases he made cards with people in mind from the very beginning.  Some of the comments he made went something like this:

“Oh, Isabelle.  Isabelle does everything fast–she talks fast, she runs fast.  This one is for Isabelle.”

“Dylan.  Dylan likes blue, that’s why I cut out a blue heart for him.”

“Ella would like a heart with flowers on it (he says this as he picks out a heart with a floral pattern on the right-hand side of it).  She wears flowers in her hair sometimes, and she always wears them on that side.”

“Hannah.”  He picks up a card with a single heart pasted on it.  “I think this one is a little boring, I need to make it more interesting for Hannah.”  Then he adds a second heart cut out around the first, and is satisfied.

But the one that really got me was when he looked for a card for Nate.

“Nate.  Nate needs a really good one, because sometimes he gets picked on.  I need to make him one of the best ones because he deserves it.”

And so on, until every person had a card with their name on it, and a chocolate kiss attached with glue.

Just when I was beginning to think the whole card exchanging thing might be kind of empty–how many Spiderman lollipop cards does one kid need!?– I saw that with the good attention and intention it doesn’t have to be.  The combination heart + card can carry some real heart with it, especially when made by hand.

Happy Valentine’s Day!!

spit & polish, sand paper, & spray paint

It is amazing what a coat of paint can do.  I’ve written before about giving old things new life with a little fix-it attention and a coat of paint, and once again I’ve been working on just that.

The first project to require a spit and polish job was our old hand-me-down pedal-less bike, a favorite of all my kids, now the worse for wear.  The poor wooden bike was left out to weather in the heavy December rains, by accident, and the plywood was flaking apart.

This is the bike before, looking fairly beaten up:

the bike

With a bit of sanding and clean up, the bike was more or less ready for paint.  I taped over the tires and rims, and found a burgundy color of spray paint in our garage.

After adding some zig-zag taping and gold paint…

gold

greased lightning

voila!

zoom

Somehow that coat of paint and lightning stripe made the bike much faster, at least that’s what the riders tell me.

Another paint project still in the works is a kid-sized card table that I bought at a garage sale for $5.  The initial clean up was done and first coats have been painted, but with some more fancy taping, we’ll eventually have a checkerboard/chalkboard table top.

pulling off the tape

and a little more red

For me it is important to show the kids that by fixing our belongings we can use them longer, and in the process put our stamp on them, making them more unique and more our own.  In the end, I’m not sure what I like more, envisioning the old thing transformed, or actually making it happen.

Stay tuned for the finished table!

acorns, paper, & wire*

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While waiting for the outdoor signs and wonders of winter’s coming, inside we have been making other preparations for the season upon us.  The craft project that grew most naturally from our surroundings came about when we were hiking one day, and the kids discovered dried seed pods and seed caps littering the ground under a Eucalyptus tree.

seed collecting in November

They came home with full pockets and big plans to use the seed pods to make little people, like a set of three we already had, souvenirs from a friend’s trip to Germany.

Besides the Eucalyptus pods, we needed acorn caps, and found plenty in our neighborhood.  After looking over our original set, which consists of a tiny king, queen, and knight, I found the other supplies at a craft store and in my own stash to complete similar figures –colored felts, unfinished wooden beads, and varicolored yarn.  Here are some pictures of the first attempts:

the originals with extra knights, squires, and a lady

Each of my kids painted and assembled a little figure with some glue and detail help from me, and while they worked planned the hordes of knights yet to come.  That first blast of creative energy was put on hold until a later date, and our acorn crew found its way to a shelf for the meantime.

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Flash-forward to Thanksgiving and my cousin Margie.  Margie took one look at our little acorn friends and said, “That would be a great way to make a Nativity Scene!”  Put Margie’s enthusiasm together with a crafting Saturday afternoon at my house before Christmas, and you get these:

Margie

Margie's kings from the land of Acorns

Margie paints a star

T across the table

acorn baby in a walnut manger

Margie's second Nativity

Kelly's Mary, in blue, and another king

The best thing about this project was that the found materials inspired us, suggesting by their very shapes what they might become.  Each small figure was different from the others, and full of spirit.  By the end of the afternoon, the crowd of acorn folk made quite a gathering!  As the creative juices got flowing, so did that certain Christmas feeling, and with it good fun, and so Margie and I agreed to make a habit of these cousins’ crafting sessions.

peeking through the crowd

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On my own, my hands have busied themselves with Christmas creations of the ornament kind, every night as part of winding down after the kids are in bed.   A little bit of paper cutting, folding, and twisting makes these…

paper ornaments

and there will be more where these came from as I try out different papers and expand on the basic structures.

And finally, in a more free-form, experimental direction, I’ve been bending wire birds…

wire in hand

beaded bird

Visions of mobiles and flying sculptures have been dancing in my head for weeks,  and I think I’m on to something with these paper and wire pieces.  Just the thing to wing me into the new year…  stay tuned!

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*A post meant for before Christmas!