Stranded goods to Christmas tree goodies

Last year I was given a shell by my dear friend Philine with a hemp string wrapped around it and a loop at the end. "Put it on your Christmas tree", she said. Such a simple and decorative idea! I found out that the name of the shell is 'Tower Shell' or 'Turritellidae'. Now we simply call it 'Turritelli', a word rolling wonderfully over your tongue. For this year's Christmas I couldn't resist to copy the idea for my Wunderkinder class. Making a few alterations, we are using soft wire instead of string. And we are adding gold and silver glittery glue plus glitter (there can never be enough!) to make the ornaments sparkle - now they almost look like icicles! 

Follow the steps as shown in these pictures. It's easy! 

Peaceful and happy Holy Days to all of you:)

Origami: the Sacred Lotus

Yes, I do adore Lotus flowers!(bot.Nelumbium speciosum) They seem to glow from within, flowers so beautiful they seem from beyond this world. It is hard for any artist to capture something that beautiful, something that perfect. I'd like to show you a version that comes close to the original and isn't that hard to make: the origami lotus.

 

Instead of using origami paper I prepared sheets of newspaper that I tinted with wood stain pigments beforehand. These pigments give off warm colors that look very natural. The folding of the petals is actually easy, it can be done by 6 year olds. Here is a YouTube video that's easy to follow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phYNG2YikxA

The trick is the larger the paper petals the easier the folding. For our lotus we folded 12 petals (purple) and 4 outer leaves (green) but you can also go with 8 and 4. Tying the bundle of petals together and then inverting them is a bit more challenging and needs the help of an adult. 

Our hands being coloured purple after folding so many Lotus petals!

This photo I took in a temple in Siem Reap, Cambodia this spring. Even withered the beauty of the Lotus still radiates.

Botanical drawings: Wild Chinese Pineapple

This plant with its spiky leaves and round fruits grows on beaches in Hong Kong. Its name is Wild Chinese Pineapple or Screw pine (lat. Pandanus) and it has an important role in keeping the sand and soil from being washed into the ocean. Parts of the fruit can be found in the sand and they look very pretty,almost like little brushes. See, a couple of them even germinated in my garden! So with this background knowledge and a big green Wild Pineapple in front of them, the children start to draw. It is a difficult task as the surface is made up of an intricate and repeating pattern. How patient they copy each seed and how beautiful those drawings turn out! I am once again very proud of my little artists:-)

Tonight is Mid-autumn Festival in Hong Kong!

If you haven't made a lantern for tonights Mid autumn festival yet, here are a couple of really cool upcycling ideas!!! I took those pictures this morning at Lantau International School where a lantern competition is held each year. Only recycled material is allowed for use. Thanks L.I.S. for this great event and thanks to all the children and parents for sharing your creativity!

Botanical drawings: Kadena de amor

There are so many names for this beautiful flower (bot. Antigonon): Chinese love vine, Heart on a chain, Chain of hearts and many more. We stick to its Spanish name Kadena de amor because this creeper is a native to Mexico. 

In the next couple of lessons we will explore botanical drawings. Today we start out with the heart-shaped leaves of our Kadena de amor. The frottage technique is perfect: placing the leaf underneath a thin sheet of paper and rubbing over it with a soft pencil or crayon. An easy way to do a perfect copy! Next step is to cut out the leaves with a pair of scissors. Then we draw the vine and glue the leaves onto the stem. 

So far so good. Next lesson will be all about pink flowers and butterflies:-)

Kadena de amor: flowers and butterflies

It is important to me to let children draw from real nature. Today I brought out a selection of insects for them to copy. No photo can capture those transparent delicate wings and shimmering bodies appropriately. In nature children have to find their own way of observing, their own angle of looking. They themselves have to make this selection. And they themselves will reap the fruit.  

Passion for plants and paints

This is an art class involving two of my favourite topics: plants and paints! 

We're used to drawing plants from the ground up - but that's only half the picture, isn't it? Plants have roots which aren't less beautiful and just as diverse as the plant leaves themselves. Take a look at how well the children observed and drew their versions of the different roots and leaves. They first made a draft with pencil and then coloured the soil around the roots in, which was quite a challenge being a negative image!

Another amazing fact about these paintings is that the soil is actually painted with brown pigments retrieved from the earth, and that the leaves are actually painted with the green juice of leaves and grass! I will tell you about the recipe for these paints in my next blog entry - stay tuned:-)

Mix it yourself!

These botanical paintings originated from two art sessions: one day we only drew roots of plants and the surrounding soil, the other day we did the stems and leaves of the plants. All you need to make the colours involved in these paintings is: soil, green leaves and an egg!

For the green: collect leaves and grass and put it all in a blender. Mix thoroughly with as little water as possible (not to thin down the chlorophyll pigments). Then sieve through a mesh - you receive a green juice which you can use for painting right away. Note: this colour is not light proof as the green from the chlorophyll will fade into a more brownish green (same as dry leaves:-)

For the brown: dig up some soil and add water until you get a nice brown mud pudding. Let it sit for a while to allow heavier particles (e.g. stones) to sink down. Scoop up the top of your mud pudding and sieve it through a mesh. The finer the mesh the smaller the pigments, which results in smoother paint. To make the soil stick to the paper, add one egg as a binder and mix thoroughly. E voilà! Use as thick paint or thin down with water if you want a lighter tone. 

This is such a fun class! Children really enjoy being out in nature, observing, collecting, digging, sieving, mixing and getting dirty:-)
For me personally the most important message is that we already have everything we need. We are not condemned to buy readymade paints, we are able to actually create from scratch what we need: independent, imaginative and most of all, with so much fun!