Girl Power

Yesterday, I mentioned that I was teaching a group of 11-year-old girls as part of the SOHO project. This project pairs at-risk girls with mentors. A focus of the program is to have the girls create art projects each week that will end up being a part of their room makeover. I had the girls make pillowcases using freezer paper, masking tape and stickers. Of course, I was blown away by the results!

Joann Lui who heads up the program is a young, energetic teacher. We had time before the class to go over the lesson plan and streamline it a bit.  She had the great suggestion to have the girls think of a word or a few words to represent a future dream or something that they aspired to (or just something that they liked) instead of symbols.

The SOHO program is really quite wonderful. The girls arrive at 4:30 PM for an hour interactive program to discuss different topics to help build self-esteem and make good life choices. Then they meet up with their mentors for a provided dinner. From 6:00 - 8:00 PM the girls and their mentors work on the art project of the week. It's a great bonding time for them. After hearing the assignment and watching me demo, they sat down together and planned the pillowcase. The mentors let the girls take the lead but also take part in the art project as an assistant of sorts. At 7:45 PM we stopped for clean-up. It was great to see the girls take responsibility for cleaning up after the project.

I had such a super time. The girls were enthusiastic, thoughtful, polite and just fun to be with.

Enjoy seeing the project results!

Space Of Her Own

Tonight I'll be teaching eleven 5th graders and their mentors about using masks and stencils to decorate pillow cases. This project is part of the SOHO (Space of Her Own) program. Every year, at-risk girls in Alexandria, Virginia are paired with mentor volunteers to work on a series of art projects to foster self esteem. The program is part of The Art League's outreach to the community. At the end of the year program, each girl gets a room makeover that incorporates the art projects created during the year.

This is the first time I've done a project for the program. I was asked to work with pillowcases. Since the girls had already done a relief printing project, I suggested working with stencils and masks to create, Dream Big pillowcases. Although mine are decorative, I plan to suggest that the girls think about their dreams and how they might represent them. I'm really looking forward to seeing what the girls do with this project. I plan to bring my camera along tonight so I might have some more photos to share tomorrow.

Searching for Roy G Biv III: Orange Update #7

Ferry Building farmers' market

Outside my window there's plenty of white and brown but not much in the ORANGE department so this month's search for ORANGE had me looking through the photo archives...and reminiscing...

San Francisco ORANGE

Ferry Building farmers' market

Stained glass window in the Basilica next to Mission Dolores (of Vertigo fame)

Savannah ORANGE

Fencing found on one of my Savannah nature walks.

Leaves found on one of my Savannah nature walks.

Virginia Beach ORANGE

My friend, Laura, showing off her gelatin prints.

Vienna, VA ORANGE

Vienna farmers' market

Some sari treasures from The Bead Goes On trunk show at Star's Beads.

Orange circle fabric I designed for Lynn Krawczyk as part of The Printed Fabric Bee.

Where did you find ORANGE this month?

If you'd like to join in this month's Search  for Roy G Biv (the colors of the rainbow), just post up to five ORANGE photos on your blog and comment here or on Jennifer Coyne Qudeen's blog. We will link to your photos. You can continue to post comments here until midnight, Saturday, February 22. Can't wait to see your ORANGE!

Here's Joan's ORANGE.  An amazing sky!

Maya at Million Little Stitches has some delicious ORANGE!
Fiona at Paper Ponderings has some thoughts on books and bees and a lovely ORANGE poppy.
Jennifer has some humorous ORANGE.
Charlton Stitcher found ORANGE hiding in plain site!
Lisa at Arzigogolare has an ORANGE tea party going on complete with some yummy-looking recipes!
Bridgette at Contemplating the Moon has lots of artistic ORANGE.
Sharmon has some gorgeous natural ORANGE.
Yarngoddess found lots of ORANGE around her home.
Susan at Flying Dog Studio discovered some favorite ORANGE treasures full of memories.
Mary Ann at Blue Sky Dreaming has some lovely artistic ORANGE.
Cindi at The Organic Manic has some eclectic ORANGE.
I couldn't help but see that peek of ORANGE in Roberta's pencil/pen case. She's off to Tucson...a place I remember as full of ORANGE.
Jill at Recycled Daze is having an ORANGE crush!
Francoise at Creatilfun has some ORANGE surprises (especially that first photo!).

OMG! It's time for Roy again!

Rainbow-colored Indian embroidery with some little shisha mirrors. I plan to include attaching small objects with stitchery as part of my upcoming class, Patching, Stitching, Weaving: Creating Healing Cloth

Time is a funny thing...it slows down...it speeds up...

I'm still slogging through book edits. It appears that I like to write....too much! I'm hoping that enough words are now cut, though I don't believe so. I'd just hate to cut more projects! And this was supposed to be done by Dec 15th (ha!)!

We are speedily moving through February, despite the recent snow storm. We totaled out at about 14". Miraculously, us Northern Virginians seem to getting the knack for cleaning up snow. It's also a great time to reconnect with the neighbors.

What I can't believe is that we are up for another round of Searching for Roy G Biv (the hunt for the colors of the rainbow). The third Thursday of the month  (February 20) is upon us. This month's color is ORANGE. I hope that you'll join in on the fun. Here's the info about posting photos and a calendar for the rest of the year.

Now back to book edits, class prep, designing new class samples and Printed Fabric Bee fabrics!

Time for a Fabric Give-Away!

The Printed Fabric Bee is once again offering a fabric give-away of nine 6" squares of hand printed fabric.

For those of you new to the Bee, we are a group of ten surface design enthusiasts. Each month one of us is crowned Queen Bee and requests fabric from the rest of the Hive in a particular theme and/or color.

This month's Queen was Gerrie Congdon. She asked each member to create wonky, organic lines. Here is what I made for Gerrie.

Now you get a chance to win a collection of 6" squares of these fabrics! Just go to The Printed Fabric Bee fb page or visit Gerrie Congdon's blog and leave a comment (under the collection photo). The drawing for this fabric collection is on February 11. Good luck!!!

Free Fabric is Coming!

Wonky Lines fabric for Gerrie

Here's a teaser for this month's Printed Fabric Bee give away...

Wonky lines was the theme for Gerrie Congdon's fabric set. This is my 6" square that will join 8 others for the give away.

My fabric includes layers of salt and liquid soap resist followed by block printing and hand drawn details.

More info about the drawing to come. I can't wait to see the fabric set!

Back to Teaching

Cheryl V.

 After being down in Savannah for a week, I'm trying to get back into my life. It was so great to be with family. We spent a weekend remembering all the great times we had with Dad before he got ill. It was incredible how after all this time we could piece together the special stories and details about Dad. How he held his pipe, his incredibly squeaky office chair, all the nicknames he had for us kids. I didn't know that it would be  a funny, happy and sad experience all at the same time.

I've been thrown back into my life and I'm trying to get my bearings again. Teaching yesterday helped with that. I spent all of yesterday in the classroom teaching two short workshops, which I dubbed the messy workshop (Just Gelatin) and the un-messy workshop (Jazzy). Both classes had four students (and one student, Cheryl, stayed for the entire day). All of these students were a pleasure to teach. Such enthusiasm was just the balm I needed!

Cheryl V.

Cheryl V.

The morning workshop was all about gelatin printing. We all agreed that it needed to be a longer class as students were just getting into the flow of experimentation when we had to clean up.

Barbara G.

Barbara G.

Barbara H.

Barbara H.

Ruth C.

Ruth C.

Two moms and two daughters spent the afternoon making my wrapped wire doll, Jazzy. We played doll dress-up, creating clothes and accessories for our Jazzys using fabric strips, pipe cleaners, beads and yarn. The end of class became a fashion shoot with our Jazzys posing for the camera.

Adriana H.

Angela C-H.

Cheryl V.

Yene

Thank you to all my students for helping me get back into flow of my life.