do you doodle?

Looking for an alternative to the tired old coloring book? You might have seen the Anti-Coloring books series in the past, and those were certainly revolutionary addition to the coloring book world when they came out, but these new Doodle books might just be the next step. The titles currently in print are Do You Doodle?, The Boys Doodle Book, The Girls Doodle Book, and during the Holiday season there was a Christmas Doodle book. Coming soon is the Boy's Doodle book 2, which Zeal is anxiously awaiting the arrival of. These books give kids a jumping off point for their drawings and allow for a deep well of creativity to bubble. I highly recommend them.

spring fever drawing

I just love what spring does to the soul! As spring entered our little lives last week, we all sat down together and made our Equinox goals, a ritual we do every year. The one goal we all had in common was to focus on a dedicated studio space (something we gave up for other things that are many numbered). So, with an eye towards that, and even though the space has yet to materialize, art is starting to take to its springtime blooming.

Here's a fun project that really allows the creative mind to take off... drawing while never lifting up the pencil. Here's Zeal's:


"Untitled Bird" (the actual name he gave it), oil pastels, 2009

This is a photocopy, photographed by Zeal and waiting for a frame and to be added to the Zeal Gallery. He gave the original to Grandma. Sweet spring, you have worked your magic once again.

manifesto-ing

busy bees

We've been so busy lately doing our part in the world to make the bulk of our holiday gifts this year. It's so crazy how this time of year just kind of takes over and there hardly seems time to breathe it all in sometimes. Still, we are finding the calm in the madness by staying home as much as we can, focusing on the simple things that make us happy, and revisiting rituals that connect us as a family. More on that very soon.

papiér-maché fun

This time of year we usually find ourselves heavily steeped papiér-maché (Zeal has always wanted a homemade piñata at his birthday party. This year when I mentioned it, he said emphatically, "No! No piñata!" And for a moment, I was sad that our ritualized-over-the-years piñata making would not be happening.

Luckily, his Halloween costume (The half-bull/half-man Minotaur) plans included the need for a bit of papiér-machéing, so I got my fill anyway.

There are other ways of doing papiér-maché that work well (like just glue or liquid starch and water, but here's our favorite recipe for a cooked slop that makes a good hard mask or piñata:



Papiér-Maché Mix
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
4 cups water

Directions:
Mix flour and sugar in a pan. Add water and stir together. Boil, stirring constantly until thick. Add more water to thin to desired consistency. Let cool slightly and use on any papiér-machéing projects such as piñatas, masks, etc. Keeps for a few days. Makes about a half gallon.

















And you can see the final costume, with mama's too, here.

Tapestrees

Years ago, I was offered this "Tapestree Table" and just couldn't refuse. Zeal has used it off and on, sewing nature treasures into it, signing his name, using it as a "guest book" for his room, and just generally enjoying bringing the needle back and forth through the cloth and creating a work of art while developing fine motor skills.

















We hadn't seen it for a while, but with the change of seasons, the table has made a reemergence in our home. With a few new needles and a package of new embroidery floss, the boy is off and sewing again. Now older, he brings a new maturity to the skill and has plans for some new framable art for his room. :)

















Any frame or embroidery hoop can be turned into a great creativity tool for boys and girls of all ages. Enjoy!

Super Sand Clay!

For a boy who has had a history of getting engrossed in sand play, has been forever fascinated by anyone who works with cement, sand or gravel, and has a most recent fascination with the art, science, and play of Ancient Egypt, working out a recipe that we could simulate stone blocks with has been a major coup!

Above is the recent game Zeal made with this sand clay, a coiled up snake waiting to be painted and played. (Rules yet to be determined)

Here's the recipe:

Super Sand Clay
3 cups sand
1 1/2 cups cornstarch
3 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 1/2 cups of hot water

Combine all ingredients in a wok or large saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture becomes thick and heavy (several minutes). remove from heat and turn onto cookie sheet. Once mixture is cool, it will be able to be modeled. (Don't try to use it before it is cooled or you'll just get a sticky mess on the hands - spoken from experience)

I so wish I had a picture of him making this dough and the mess that ensued when he decided he needed to sift the sand with our various-sized strainers and funnels in stock in our kitchen. Oh well -- I have the experience!

And here's the new favorite book with one of the Pyramids of Giza, which has a remarkable resemblance to the texture of real stone blocks!

















He's so proud of this feat of ancient architecture!

"A Great Day for Volcanoes!"

Kitchen and science "experiments" around here often lead us back to our favorite two ingredients to just play with: baking soda and vinegar! It seems these are the kinds of things that often show up in science fairs and a few classrooms. Around here, they might as well be considered everyday objects.

The ways in which Zeal likes to play with these two wonderful ingredients are more varied than I can probably recall and write down here, but here's the short list of some favorites:

-use an eye dropper to dribble vinegar on a pile or line of baking soda
-tape two plastic cups together, create a hole in the top and get baking soda and vinegar to react and ooze out the top
-add baking soda and vinegar to a bottle, cork it, and count to see how long it takes for the cork to pop! Repeat, and repeat again, trying each time to get the cork to shoot higher!

Zeal worked on this latest and more resembling of a volcano than any of his other baking soda-vinegar forays for a week: first building it from a container, tape and newspaper, then papier-macheing it thoroughly (a few days' project), then painting it,

















and finally letting it blow! (or ooze, if you prefer)



Today, he pulled it out again and said, "Today is a great day for Volcanoes! Let's go to the park!" So we grabbed the necessary supplies and walked the few steps from our front door to our neighborhood park where he made it a community event.

Here's our favorite easy recipe for papier-måché:

Mix 1 part glue and 1 part water. Dip dryer lint, newspaper, or colored tissue paper strips into the glue mixture and gently lay them onto the object of your choice. Let your sculpture dry in a warm area for 2-3 days.

and our favorite combination of lava: baking soda, vinegar, red food coloring, and a touch of dishwashing soap (we keep Dawn around just for projects like this - it also makes the best bubbles!)

















By the time they got past the initial eruptions, the kids got really into the "hands-on" experience and, eruption after eruption, the lava got redder and sudsier than ever. They had a wonder-full time!

Imaginary Wonder (and a new writing project on the way)

Imaginary worlds are a true wonder! I love hearing about the different lands children create while they play, alone or with friends. Often, children who create and play in them are in touch with their creativity in ways adults can no longer imagine.
What we know about this kind of imaginary play is this:

Children who engage in imaginary play involving imaginary friends or worlds…
• use abstract reasoning skills
• grow socially as they are practicing taking on another’s perspective and experimenting with relationships
• engage in original thought
• are usually characterized as creative and cooperative

In our house, Civilizania is the land of choice. It’s a place filled with mystery, monsters, and mayhem.
A few years ago, when Civilizania first appeared in our home, Zeal and a good friend would play that our backyard “island” of plants and flowers was the land of Civilizania. They would meet together inside our house and board The Invisible Airplane (a plane only children and people who have been to Civilizania could see)
I hear there is a whole mythology surrounding the place, but apparently only parts of the mythology (passed down on the scales of the gun breathing dragons) are remembered, and sadly, some may be lost forever. But Zeal has recorded some of what he has “learned” about the place, and so we have hope the history will be retained. Last week, we ran across the sketchbook Zeal began in his preschool years as he began a “Research Guide to Civilizania”. Here are a few of the sketches. Of course, it being a research guide and all, he had us label the various pictures.








Studies show that imaginary play is most prevalent in children ages 3-6, and that, for whatever reason, this kind of play diminishes in the elementary years. So while Zeal isn’t so much excited about taking regular trips to Civilizania anymore, he has decided that he would like to make a picture book and story about it “for other little kids who might want to go someday.”

Here lies the beginning of our new writing adventure for the coming month(s). Exciting stuff awaits, I am sure.

oUt oF OrdEr! ...or Kick the Boy and Make Him Cry

Here it is, the art project that had the potential to be groundbreaking in his fledgling art development. It’s a large, oversized piece, about the size of him. Notice the striking contrast of warm and cool colors. Notice the grounding black shapes that make your eye dance from one to the other and move over the page. Check out the balance of the composition. Take note of how it is all so really reminiscent of Matisse. In this photo, you can’t even see that some of it is three-dimensional and there is truly some real depth to this piece. The only problem? Nothing, in the final product, that is. It is wonderful to most who view it. Beyond his years, one woman noted. The problem lies not in what you see here, but in the creation of the piece, the process, which is the part I, as a parent and teacher, value the most. This piece, made in an “art class” in which the teacher espoused “children are allowed to express themselves however they wish”. It’s about process, not product, she said. Buzz words of the day, I suppose. And they are all well and good until the mouth who says them literally pulls the pieces out of his hand and tells him he has done it wrong. You see, in all his excitement to get started, he cut the pieces out before gluing down the background.

Oh my, he was

oUt
oF
OrdEr!

What he has to show for it...

Every week, my son spends a few hours at the home/studio of an amazing professional potter. It's an experience I wouldn't give up or trade for the world. There, with expert instruction, gentle guidance, and intense freedom, they (my son and the few others kids in the group) create with clay. They sit around a table, handbuild, sometimes throw on a wheel, laugh, have momentary bouts of feistiness, and learn together. They sculpt and form and build what only children who still listen effortlessly to their creativity can. They bring imagination, care, problem solving skills, and creative abandon to their projects. They make vessels, masks, tiles, clocks, puzzles, games, abstract sculptures, and of late some of the most ingenious marble mazes ever created.

It's a funny thing. Because after all this time of so enjoying the experience of it, I've just realized (when asked by a friend to see some of the things he has made) that "what he has to show for it" is limited to the cute little spotted rhino (above) that fits so nicely in the palm of his hand and a few small other things still waiting to be fired and glazed. He has spent hours, weeks, months creating. He has brought thought, ingenuity, and passion to what he has made. And at the end of nearly every session, he takes his work and returns it to its original state, a hearty lump of clay. Or, he works a piece of clay until it has been pounded, sculpted, layered, or molded into oblivion, and he decides in the end that he's moved on from wanting it. On occasion, he asks to have it "saved" and the piece is wrapped to keep it moist, and he returns to it again and again, each week maybe adding another small detail. A few times, things he has made that he did want to fire fell apart before getting to the next step, or broke in the kiln during the bisque firing.

Just the other day we were invited into another potter's studio for his scouting group. The potter was set to do a lesson for the kids. She started to ask the kids questions. Where does clay come from? What is slip and why do we need it? How would you start to make a pot or cup? Why might a ball explode in the kiln? He had all the answers and brought a humble confidence to the class. He was praised for his knowledge. Yet, he left the experience saying that he didn't like this class, because (unlike his regular class) he didn't get to choose what he was going to make, and he had to glaze it even though it wasn't done yet. Kids need to be able to be freer than what adults let them be, he said. Why don't most grown-ups know that, Mommy?

So glazing day in his regular pottery class is coming up, and he has just a few pieces. And he couldn't be happier about it. He doesn't compare himself to others or take a tally of number of pieces. He stays in the moment and he is personally proud and introspective about his work. Just yesterday, he said to me out of the blue, "I'm pretty good at making pottery." And went away with a thoughtful look in his eyes.

So it seems, sometimes what you have to show for it, what you can physically hold in your hand, doesn't necessarily represent what all you really do have.