Hmmm, this is taking on the appearance of an art blog.  Well, we have been doing some creating lately, and a blog is a great place to tell about it, don't you think?  An art expert I am not, not even an amateur, so if you are an art expert (or an amateur) and you are reading here, and you see that I am an art idiot, go ahead and correct me.  If it's really bad, you are excused to go to a different blog and not waste your time here.   

Once upon a time we attempted carving in Ivory soap.  The soap crumbled and left us with teeny tiny sculptures that were left outside and eventually dried up, cracked, and were thrown away.  The results weren't even worth blogging about. Someone, probably my artist mother, suggested doing sculpture with a mix of plaster and vermiculite.  My kids enjoy art somewhat (they probably would a lot more with a real instructor) so I acquired some old plaster and vermiculite from the last time my mom tried this project, which was years ago.  Shortly thereafter I invited a good friend and her kiddos to come over and give it a try. In the meantime I was wise to experiment with mixing the sculpture medium. (I do have a good idea occasionally, thank you Lord, my brain is not completely dead.)  Just in time, I found the right combination of ingredients and time to give us a good sculpture material, yippee!

Plaster and vermiculite make a soft but solid carving/sculpting medium for a subtractive process.  Most art projects involve adding things together: paint and paper, paper with more paper, clay with more clay, pounding wood and nails, to get the desired result.  Sculpting or carving involve taking away material to get a desired result, and for that reason they are challenging.  I once heard a sermon illustration on becoming more Christ-like, about a  famous marble sculptor whose secret to producing life-like pieces was that he simply chiseled away everything that didn't look like the desired result.  This is the same process!

If you are trying to be more Christ-like, that is good, and the Lord can help you with that.  But I can help you with this subtractive art project.   It's quite simple, really.  Here is what you need (not everything is pictured):

• Sta-Green horticultural vermiculite (available at Lowe's garden center), or something similar, such as Perlite, but NOT the Hyponex brand -- it's too coarse.
• plaster of paris**
• warm water
• breathing mask
  
• something to mix in
• something to measure with
  
• something to stir with
• something to make forms with -- paper cups, empty pint containers, milk jugs, whatever
• something to carve with -- plastic spoons or knives, popsicle sticks, etc.
  

**Plaster of paris is potentially very dangerous.  Do not breathe this dust  (or any  fine dust) or get it into your eyes.  It can irritate skin.  Use it outdoors or in a very well ventilated area, facing downwind from a fan or breeze. Use care in preparing this stuff!  Keep the kids away.

Pour 2 parts of plaster into a bucket.  Add 2 parts warm water, and let it sit until the plaster stops bubbling. This puts off dust and heat, so again, be careful how you breathe. Stir the plaster and water until it is smooth.  Now add 3 parts vermiculite and mix well. It should be the consistency of thick wet cement. If it's too lumpy and thick, add a bit of water.  Pour into clean forms.  The mold will set up in less than one hour, but I made mine a day ahead of time.  Cut the mold away from the sculpting medium, and you are ready to go.



To give our kids some ideas, I did a Google search for images of simple sculptures, then printed them on a contact sheet. Like this:
When finished, allow the sculptures to dry for two or three weeks.  At that point they can be sanded and painted, or lacquered.  Or you can leave them alone.

The weather cooperated beautifully for this: a cloudy sky, cold temps (for western AZ in June -- 80's! ) and a little breeze.  The kids were busy for a good hour, then we cleaned up some and had lunch together.  Next time we do this I may add some coffee grounds to the plaster/vermiculite combination to give it a more stone-like appearance.  Now please excuse me while I go sweep up a bucketful of plaster dust!

 

So there I am, perusing the internet for a recipe.  Emily seems to have a sixth sense, one that tells her when Mom is Googling.  You know what she is going to ask me, don't you?  "Mom, will you find me a craft? Please?"  Groan.  I love crafts.  They are great for creativity, hand-eye coordination, gift-giving, etc.  But you know me, I also hate crafts. (I am getting better, though.) 

It didn't take the internet to come up with this idea, actually it came out of the archives of a poor memory.  (I'm so glad to know I can count on it once in a while.)   Emily and I looked at images of flame trees, then we made our own.  Here's what you need:

All you, the mom, have to do is cut the tissue paper into approximately 1" squares, draw the tree (maybe), and show the child how to glue the squares of tissue on. She does the rest!  This is my kind of craft.

Draw a tree on the card stock.  For the artistically impaired, it can be just a trunk.  Draw branches with glue stick. Take a square of tissue paper and fold it over the eraser end of the pencil, then give it a little twist.

Now press the tissue paper onto the "branch".  Repeat this step over and over again (keeps five-year-olds busy for a good long time), keeping the tissue paper pieces close together.

About five years ago my older girls did the project in my previous post, and then we added a twist to that one -- making a collage of their faces from colored papers. That was a little bit more challenging, but it was fun.  I dug around and was only able to come up with Alison's art work (she was nine) and the pictures I did of Emily when she was five months old.  (Gotta love the big ol' angel kiss on her upper lip! )  To do the collage, simply glue little bits of colored paper over the photo.  Instructions for the drawing are in the post below.

While you're here, go see Michelle's kids' results.  They did a stupendous job!

3. Use your photo-editing program to crop the photo so that the face takes up most of the rectangle, then change the color to gray-scale.  Fuss with the brightness/contrast to get a nice, light photo with deep shadows and good dark lines.
4. Print the photo to fit the paper.

5. Tape the photo to a bright window at shoulder height, and tape a blank piece of paper over the top of it.
6.  Now you are ready to draw your self-portrait.  If a child is doing the self-portrait, inform him ahead of time that the finished product will NOT look exactly like him.  In fact, for some this might be a good Halloween project, lol.  Depending on child's ability, he can just draw the lines he sees or he can shade in the shadows.

When I was a lot younger I learned how to sew.  Now that I am older and can look back on those years with some measure of maturity and objectivity, I realize that my learning to sew must have been miserable for my dear mother.  I am a perfectionist of sorts, choosing those thing in my life which must be faultless, impatient with myself, unrealistically expecting mastery on my first try. 

Amy is quite crafty and creative all on her own.  She sees something to make, and she makes it her own way, substituting supplies when we don't have the "right" ones.  She always has something in the works.  In this way, she is a dream child.  But the others need help. Lots of it.  They need for me to set aside a block of time to do it for them help them until the project is finished. A block of time with no distractions.  And we're not stopping until we're done.

Yesterday big sister started some thread spool dolls in minutes, cute little things.  Her enthusiasm was contagious, and soon I had two smaller girls avidly interested in making "something" on their own.  (But not something Mom suggested, of course, something that was their own idea.)  You have to understand, I am one of those people who run from crafts.  And to me, crafting with kids is like... well, like the Chinese bamboo-under-the-fingernails torture! **Shudder.** Today, underneath my outwardly, barely adequate, meek and quiet spirit,  I have been writhing and twisting, and occasionally screaming.  I have a five-year-old learning to back-stitch.  She does well for about three stitches, and then she makes a huge mess, and then I undo it and make about a dozen stitches myself.  Then we are out of thread, so I get some more and start it, then she takes three stitches, un-threading the needle a dozen times in the process, and we repeat.  We have been doing this project for hours.  But I have to give her credit.  She is DETERMINED.  I am happy to see this character quality in her, as painful as it is to my selfishness.

I know this is necessary.  It's how we learn.  Oh. Heh heh.  I am not talking about Emily learning to sew.  I am talking about me!  I am flunking... I am not nearly as determined to be patient as Emily is to learn to sew.  Above is her finished project, done 75% by me.  My own project will not be completed til I go to heaven... but Jesus is still working on me!

I love a visit to or from from my parents for many reasons, but one of them is that my mom loves to show the girls something artsy each time we are together.  Art is not one of my strong areas.  I enjoy beauty, and I enjoy art that is worth looking at, if you know what I mean -- I have little appreciation for abstract stuff that needs interpretation. Furthermore, I have little expertise in the technical aspects of art -- the doing of it.  Mom, however, has all kinds of info to share, and the expertise to go with it. 

Several days ago three of the girls did a project after the style of Gustav Klimt.  (I don't know who he is  -- use caution if you explore Google for his stuff.) Mom brought along a great display on the artist, complete with bio, methods, and examples of his work.  Unfortunately my the photo of the display is terribly out of focus, so I will just post some of its components here: