“Wise men say,
only fools rush in…”
…sang a man from Mississippi in a sequinned white jump suit.
Heeding the words of The King, I pondered and procrastinated for some time before jumping into this new venture.
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Mobile art and craft classes for the elderly in nursing homes and aged care facilities in Sydney.
Just in time for Seniors week 2015…
Viva Las Elvis!
The jacarandas are in bloom and juicy summer fruits are back.
Cherries, Mangoes, Strawberries and Watermelon!
Back to work for me too.
Returning to running art classes at a local nursing home and looking forward to kicking it off with this fruity craft!
Curiosity killed the cat… some of the time.
Back in 1935, there was a widely accepted theory amongst physicists when it came to teeny, tiny things not visible to the eye. They agreed that since you can’t see them, it’s possible they could be in state x or state y, so let’s say they’re both, in two states at the one time (the Copenhagen interpretation of Quantum mechanics).
An Austrian physicist called Erwin Schrodinger thought this to be reductio ad absurdum (absolutely whack). He put the theory to life size terms to illustrate his point, this became known as Schrodinger’s cat. The thought experiment goes; What happens when you put a cat in a box with a vial of poison and a trigger. How does kitty fare?
According to the accepted thought at the time, since you can’t see the cat, either possibility is valid, cat is both dead AND alive. When you open the lid reality collapses to one possibility or the other. Until that moment, it’s undead kitty.
This led to all sorts of other theories about parallel possible realities… but that’s another story altogether!
DIY UNDEAD CATS
Zombie Cat Straw Toppers
For more of my Halloween crafts –
Amongst Sweden’s better known exports are Abba, Volvo and Ikea… and then there’s Lisa Larson, a ceramicist and designer.
Some of her better known mid-century sculptures include Small Zoo (1955), ABC-girls (1958), Africa (1964) and Children of the World (1974–75). We based this craft activity on Flygplan (Airplane) from the 70s.
DIY Flygplan with cardboard & watercolours
Penned by Dorothy Wall in the early 1930’s, Blinky Bill is a cheeky fictional koala.
Not content to doze and munch on gum leaves all day long, he lugs about a tucker bag and slingshot and gets up to all manner of mischief…
Yoram Gross & Blinky Bill
This is my watercolour Blinky Bill
He’s a little geriatric looking, possibly pondering the ‘when I was a young koala….’
Finger pom-poms
Wax candle on Strawberries
Watercolour strawberries…
Pom-pom and strawberry garland
on the knocker…
The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return. Nat King Cole crooned this pearl of wisdom back in 1948 and it still rings true. For those of us who have the daily joy of parenting, there are moments where you don’t feel the love in return…
My crime…turn off Frozen and get ready for bed NOW! This lovely piece is blu tac’d to daughters bedroom door. Time to go tantrum art!
DIY PHOTO TRANSFER
Pick a photo of your beloved. Photocopy and enlarge in B & W.
Lightly tape your photocopy (picture facing down) onto your canvas board. Wear disposable gloves and head outdoors. Dip your blender pen into turps and rub pen tip in small wax on, wax off circles on the back of the paper on the parts where you’d like the image to transfer. It starts to look translucent.
The image transferred over a little faint. Xylene makes for a stronger image transfer, but is a more hazardous solvent to work with. Citra-Sol is apparently a safer alternative.
Colour in with oil pastels then thin out with mineral turps for a watercolour effect. You could use linseed oil instead if you desire a less flammable work of art (or work with oil/ acrylic paints.)
Felt for letters…
Blu tac to door and feel the love!
Yesterday my daughter took her shoes off in class, and kept them off. all. day. long. She could have chosen to sit with a friend for the day, or at the teachers desk! alas shoes off it was, her chosen reward for being good. When I was growing up it was all about gold stars, but back in the 5th Century Italian kids were given pretzels for good behaviour! A kitchen bound monk shaped them from dough to resemble hands crossed over the chest in prayer. They called them Pretiola, Latin for “little reward.”
Latin might be dead but the twisted pretzel lives on, from food vans to the freekum…
Germans quickly cottoned on to the pretzels doughy goodness and adopted them as a national food staple and beer besty. They also represent good luck and so are worn as a necklace on New Years Day. Austrians adorn their Christmas trees with them, while the Swiss play break the pretzel at weddings. The phrase “tying the knot” comes from pretzels too!
DIY CLAY PRETZELS
Warm up the modelling clay by rolling in your hands for a minute or so. Work on a non porous surface. Shape your pretzel. The bigger the pretzel, the more knots.
Rest pretzels on baking paper & leave to dry 24 hours.
Water down acrylic paint to the consistency of pancake mix…
dunk…
Leave to dry 24hours and ponder the uses of your dipped pretzels.
This is how I’ll be using mine.
When I’m feeling a little fancy or have a gal pal over for a cuppa!
Craft fails this week…plaster pretzels!
fall apart in your hands plaster leaves.
Learning to master the hole puncher!
Finally! a keeper. Rocking horse birthday card.
Wild and woolly!
Young or old? Foliage or face? It’s all a matter of perspective isn’t it?
One man sees a box of beer, another sees a croc!
Kirsty Fletcher is a Melbourne based artist. It’s incredible what she can make with a little cardboard and a lot of imagination!
We’ve been painting party props with leftover cardboard packaging in the lead up to daughters birthday party.
Safari Gym or Snail?
Not really the same Wow factor as Kirsty’s creations, but cheap and sturdy enough for the kids to demolish.
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