Monday, November 23, 2009

The JOY of Creating With Children


Yesterday I spent a wonderfully creative and giigly afternoon with my new little friend Julia! Julia came to Liberty Town Artists Studio's to take a class from me called Snow People Sculptures. For this class I was very lucky to have Julia as my only student and we had such fun together!
This project was first described in the December 08 issue of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine. Since that publication I have made many modifications to make this project my own. I save bottles and jars throughout the year and scour Thrift stores and Flea Markets in search of interesting b its of stuff and whatn ot to repurpose into accoutrments for the Snow People.
We fashioned heads from foil balss covered in clay and added polymer clay carrot noses (that I had created ahead of time), smeared on lots of glue and sprinkled lots of glitter. We filled our snow people with sparkly sequins and lustrous pearls that we gathered from discarded jewelry. We added old buttons and silver beads and cut letters from old books to spell wintery names for our Snow People. (Julia didn't realize that she would be having a spelling lesson along with her creative project!)

Julia dug through my box of bits and jewelry to find wonderful "hats" for her jolly snow people. For Twinkle, on the left she choose a vintage black button with a sparkling rhinestone jewel in the center and added a sprig of silvery eucalyptus to finish the elegant look. Then she create d a wonderful pearl and jingle bell necklace and wound a silvery scarf around Twinkles neck. To complete Storm's look, Julia decided that the top of an old salt shaker would be the perfect hat with an added red berry pom pom. Coppery garland held in place with a dashing scrapbooking brad completed the outfit!
Isn't this stylish couple delightful!!?!!? I was very impressed with Julia's creative and adventurous spirit and her" What if ...."artistic attitude!!
We had a bit of time left over to create one more Snow Person. "Icicle" had her name spelled out using letters from a reclaimed vintage book. Julia also decided that a colorful scarf repurposed from a discarded cotton sweater, would be the perfect touch to complement the vintage white and rhinestone encrusted button hat that Icicle shows off.

We had amarvelous fun even when we were struggling to get the pesky glue out of the bottle and chasing tiny letters flying pearls and runaway sequins around the work table!
Hopefully, next year , I will have more parents sign up with their children, so we can all experience one of the true joys of the season, creating magical moments with creative kids!!!

12 comments:

laura cater-woods said...
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Heather Robinson said...

I totally agree with you about creating with children. I find it incredibly rewarding. You are so fortunate to have had Julia all to yourself. These little fellows have SO much detailing and personality. Brilliant.

Deborah said...

So creative! Love the snow people!

Martha Lever said...

Adorable!!! The snowmen were cute too!! :)

Jacky said...

How fantastic are the Snow People...what a great addition to the Christmas decorations. I must remember and make something like this with my nephew (11) this year. Always nice to have some "art" time with the kids.

Jacky xox

Beena said...

Sounds like it was great fun you had.
I have been lucky enough to have taught tie dying and cake decorating to kids.

Debrina said...

How neat, Elizabeth! I just love the vitality of kids and when you channel that vitality this is what you get. Magnificent snow people!!!

Kay said...

These are so clever and creative. It's too bad there was only one student, but that was fun too.

Chris said...

I loved these snowmen when i got my copy of cloth paper scissors last year, in fact i would say it was the best article in it that month. These ones you have made with the children are delightful.

martha brown said...

Oh so cute! It's nice to have a motivated student! I'm making melted snowmen in jars this year (was it in Cloth Paper Scissors??)

LOVE STITCHING RED said...

How absolutely wonderful. I love the snowmen you created with Julia. I first admired these in CPS at the time and have never got round to making my own yet! It would be so wonderful to have a whole day making snowmen like yours!

Carolyn :o)

Judy said...

she was one lucky girl!

xo

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