The Yolk’s on You

There was a plan- to make those super cute sugar egg dioramas like the ones my mom would give to me every Easter.  I’m still a novice with royal icing, I can make it, but the fancy decor is a bit beyond my skill set.  I decided to take some short cuts and go with the glue gun/rickrack double combo.  We’d done a dry run at craft night on Thursday and my friends had all walked away with lovely treats.  My first step was to paint the inside of the hollow sugar eggs with glitter glue, forgetting how wet some glues can be.  Lucy’s egg held up well, but the glue completely disintegrated the roof of Xander’s egg and it imploded on itself.  Fortunately the boy had asked for something spooky and really is there anything more creepy than a fly emerging from a giant egg, a gutted skeleton perched in it’s mandibles… I’d say the whole thing was a learning moment, and once again a crafting accident has turned into a gift home run, needless to say, my son is delighted though he is seriously questioning the Easter Bunny’s judgement.

Dia de Los Muertos ‘08

Someday Lounge Poster

Well, last year’s Day of the Dead party was huge fun and my friends at the Someday Lounge in Portland Oregon agree!  We’re planning to do it all over again this year, with a free skull decorating workshop, a community altar build and procession through Old Town and the Park block areas.  We’re planning on starting the party at around 3pm.  Making the skulls is my favorite part of the day, something the kids really get into, especially with the glitter and icing.  We’ll have mexican hot choclate, face painting and watch short films too.  Many people came dressed up last year and we had a number of folks marching on stilts… Last year the alter was fairly small, but this year we’re sending out invitations to artists and crafters to participate, bringing mememntos of loved ones or other ephemeria to celebrate the holiday.

tiny tba

The large unexpected object

The lil peeps and I are really excited for Sunday and the children’s portion of PICA’s TBA festival, tiny tba. It’s something I’ve participated in for the last three years and it’s been a complete hoot. My friends Belinda and Hova of the most awesome radio program Greasy Kid Stuff host the event which features a kid dance party among other great performance pieces including Anna Oxygen, songs by Smithsonian Folkways Recording artist Elizabeth Mitchell and a performance by the Portland dance company Hot Little Hands there’s a link to the line-up here….

I’ll be showing about a half hour of global independent cinema for children and my friend Lars and I will have a hands on editing workshop. It’s something we’ve done a bunch in the past and features scratching and drawing on found footage and splicing together on the fly. It’s pretty fun and it’s amazing to watch kids “get it” when they realize that the film stock itself can be a medium, something beyond traditional narrative structures. I posted an example of Molly’s finished film on my kidfilmmaker blog. In the past we’ve done this workshop without sound, but a recent walk in the rain with my son inspired me to add another improvisational layer to the creative process.

Xander and I were busy attaching ponies to rings around town (see previous post) when we came across the innards from an old piano in an alley. It was just the back with metal wood and strings but we knew at once it was a real treasure. We plucked, banged and pulled on the strings for about 20 minutes getting the loveliest variations in tone which all complimented the small downpour we endured for our spontaneous art. The piano’s owner was willing to part with it and with only the slightest hesitation my husband and later PICA came to appreciate what was to be know as “the large unexpected object”. Getting it over to Leftbank where tiny tba is being held was a small challenge since it’s fairly large and weighs about 500 lbs. but I think worth the effort. I’m really looking forward to hearing the kids compose on the fly, narrating their experimental films. Lars is going to digitize the final work and my buddy Makayla has come on board as the official videographer for Indiekid Arts, so I’ll post the fruits of our labor soon.

Additionally, I’m helping to coordinate a paint chip poetry project for PNCA’s Continuing Education department.  We’re cutting up and rearranging hardware store samples to create visual and verbal art.  It’s a really cool activity, deserving of it’s own blog post which I’ll get to promptly, promise….

Yarn Pony bombing at Arts in the Pearl

Just waiting to be dressed

Here’s the project I’m helping to coordinate tomorrow, it should be a blast, though a very complicated arts ‘in-joke”

Knitting for Ponies the steps

• Make a small fancy thing in yarn- scarves, blankets and legwarmers are nice.

• Find a pony to dress, a great place to look is on the interactive pony map http://www.platial.com/map/the-horse-project-portland/6077#the_horse_project,_portland Many of the older ponies have disappeared, scroll through the “Items on Map” option until you find the PNCA ponies, they just found homes in Portland

• Take a picture of your well dressed pony and add it to the map or email it to shawn@twobeeindustries.com we’ll upload it for you!

• Can’t find a pony? Grab one at our table and put it out on a ring! Let us know where to find it!

For more information on this project visit http://pnca.edu/ponies For more information about family projects at PNCA visit http://www.pnca.edu/programs/ce

Knit Graffiti and Yarn Bombing!

For Art in the Pearl, PNCA’s Continuing Education outreach table is hosting an activity which combines this simple knit, guerilla/community art and interactive media with another Portland arts phenomenon, the little horses.

What the heck? Knit graffiti is a strange urban crafts invention where knitters are engaging and decorating public spaces. The art can take many forms from embellished bike racks to hats for fire hydrants. Unlike spray paint graffiti, the work doesn’t damage property and is quickly subject to the elements, and do-gooders with scissors. The term “yarn bombing” is street slang for putting crafted work up, usually anonymously. A number of groups have formed around the world creating these small artworks and document them. Blogs about knit graffiti can be found on line including this great collection on Flickr and at www.knittaplease.com .

Over the last couple years in Portland, there has been a city wide spontaneous art happening where people have chained tiny horses to gigantic rings which line the sidewalks of the older business and residential neighborhoods. The original idea came from artist Scott Wayne Indiana and is called the The Horse Project . The rings were originally set in concrete for people to tie their horses to when that was the main mode of transportation. At our table kids and adults will be crafting the horses legwarmers, blankets, yarn garlands and hats, using finger knitting and easy spool techniques.

Yarn for the project was donated by Twisted the yarn shop on NE Broadway, where one can stock up on supplies and get a cup of tea!

Summer Cotillion and Pie Fight

A pie in the hand is better than two in the bush?

This was the party we anticipated all summer and it was fantastic!  Marilyn and Allen opened up the old church and invited us all over for a fancy cotillion and pie fight party as  a fundraiser for the Nomadic Theater Co., clowns who practice in the space.  Heather and Sarah gave a short version of “Running into Walls” that they’ll be performing in NY in the fall.  Fay taught us “stately dancing” which was pretty hysterical, as with clowns, I have two left feet. There were several pie related activities- pie judging on beauty, pie eating, and lots of pie throwing in THE PIE PIT.  The last was a small ringed in area, similar to Mad Max’s Thunderdome, where there was a mele of bad behavior.  Thankfully there was an outside shower, but I’m still pretty sticky. And while there was no official contest for hats, several of my firends stepped up to the plate (ah hem) and made some really great head gear….

Pie-rate

Laura based the outfit on a penchant for Pirate wear and and wearing (at least once) the over-the-top (well almost) girly pirate shirt we found for her at the rennisance festival.  The kids made their own hats too…

Lil funster

Xander decided his hat should be both manly and functional, since he spent most of the afternoon in the pie pit, on the receiving end, his creation was most appropriate….

The deflector

Amy, the queen of craft and aces with a glue gun came in one hat, which she thoughtfully gave to me.  I hope the dog doesn’t eat the marshmallow trim…

I was delighted to get such an elegant gift, so I sent her home in the petite chapeau I’d made for myself.  We hope the party was a success for the clowns and that Marilyn was able to get the whipped cream off the walls, we love to do it again next year….

Hey Denver, what gives?

I took this picture at the Denver Zoo, it asks more questions than it answers, my mind wanders…

Summer slacker

Teaching grandpa to finger knit

I have problems sitting still for too long. Making things is less of an outlet and more of a compulsive behavior, but three cheers for productive disorders, we’ll never run out of trivets or kleenex cosies and with all those matching sweater sets the dog won’t be getting cold. The big drag of vacations is being away from my supplies. Normally I’ve got one knitting project in the car, for the times when SOMEONE ELSE is driving. More than a week from home and I start jonesing and then there is the emergency drive-by to JoAnne’s or I start rooting through unattended recycle bins. This trip I lasted about three days before dropping $20 on felt, needles, sparklies and random sticky things… here’s a catalog of the last six weeks…

No trip to my home town of Ft. Collins Colorado would be complete with out a trip to the New Belgium Brewery or stopping into the super cute knitting boutique, My Sister Knits. They’ve converted the carriage house in the back yard into a yarn shop with a wonderful selection. I really, really wanted to get a skein of handspun “Vitrehumours Yarn” from Insubodrdiknit, it’s to die for, it’s got felted eyeballs in it, how rad is that! I just couldn’t justify the cost, actually I could, but really just couldn’t explain the impending credit card bill to my better half. “But honey, I just had to have the eyeball yarn…”. Maybe for Christmas. I did get the Mochimochi chicken/egg pattern. I’m feeling so-so about the results, my egg looks like an onion…

The transition works…

but the chick is just goofy, the wings are too big proportionally… and his head looks like a bit of a boob.

Some of the other projects fared better, there was a lot of felted toy making. I gave Lucy the store bought mermaid but made her a sleeping bag and some pillows…

I spied a super craft at the Denver Zoo, a tote made from Capri Sun bags. I talked to the woman who made it, she said it sewed up super quick and wasn’t sticky as I’d suspected. I like the idea of a bag I can actually stick in the dishwasher. We don’t actually drink the stuff, but I did see some organic juices the other day in the mylar packaging, so I may get around to it…

The kids have been busy too. Lucy’s been absolutley prodigious and finished the doll blanket yesterday… We’d just finished reading “Princess and the Pea”. I think there is a plan to make several more blankets, rumor has it “a stack to the ceiling”. There was also a need for peas for the interpretive version of the story. We came to a mutual decision that REAL peas might not fare well, we made our own. A great choice since the kids spent about 3 hours in the back yard rolling dough balls of flour,water and food coloring. We had more than enough peas for the story, in fact so many that we decided to make bracelets. We used the stretchy elastic string.

But the very favorite craft this summer has been something Xander made. He came up with the design, did all the cutting and a fair part of the sewing. He also chose the fabric from my stash (some of it was stuff I’d lifted off my mom) He named the monster “Mr. Sloppy”. It’s kind of tough to see from the photo, but he’s got four legs. That particular fabric came from the Liberty’s of London shop, something my mom got there in ‘85. She’s threatening to ream us both, and probably would if she knew what the remnants were selling for on Ebay. If nothing else, Mr. Sloppy is one well dressed dandy and my boy’s got expensive taste.

Mr. Sloppy

You’re the Yarnbomb!

It’s a mommy/daughter project in the making. Lucy and I along with our friends, mother/daughter team of Kristina and Alivia, have submitted a proposal to the forthcoming book on Yarn Bombing. If you’re not familiar with the term, yarn bombing is like doing late night graffiti, but using fiber arts rather than spray paint. It’s absurd and crafty just our criteria for a good time… enclosed is the proposal we drafted. Please cross your fingers for us, we’d really like to be included in what is sure to be the next global phenomenon of craftploytation:

Little Things, for little horses, by little girls

By Aliva Perry, Lucy Bowman

and their moms

Kristina and Shawn

The Project

Portland Oregon is notorious for it’s fabulous craft events, boutique yarn stores and off the wall art. Over the last couple years there has been a city wide spontaneous art happening where people have chained tiny horses to gigantic rings which line the sidewalks of the older business and residential neighborhoods. The original idea came from artist Scott Wayne Indiana and is called the The Horse Project . The rings were originally set in concrete for people to tie their horses to when that was the main mode of transportation. For our yarn bombing we intend to outfit the horses in legwarmers, blankets, yarn garlands and hats. Lucy and Alivia are very keen on the idea and it’s perfect beginning project for young people who are just learning to knit. The leg warmers were made on a knitting mushroom and Alivia has been making the garlands using finger knitting. We love the idea of doing a project with our kids, passing on our favorite skill and stealthy surprising the neighbors with our midnight crafting. A number of our other mom friends love this idea and have begged to be included. Picture if you will several playdates of happy knitting kindergarteners and moms drinking wine as we play “Elves and Shoemaker”

f accepted we could include basic instructions for finger knitting and using a spool. We have several illustrator friends who could render a drawing or we could take instructional photos. Enclosed are photos of the girls with their work and their sketches of the plan.

Bio

Lucy and Alivia live in Portland Oregon and are five years old. They met and spend many happy days crafting at Harmony Montessori School. Next year they will both attend Richmond a public Japanese immersion elementary school. When not pretending to be kittens, the girls spend their time drawing on walls and causing general mischief, they intend to start a band, soon. We would like to trade places with them.

The support team: Kristina Perry is a pro knitter and all around great gal, she sells her work on line here… www.livandlotus.com and occasionally at the Portland Museum of Contemporary Crafts.

Shawn Bowman puts on independent film festivals for kids and families and teaches kids contemporary art classes, you can see one of her projects here… www.indiekidfilms.com .

Monster Mashup

I’m about to teach a kid’s film production class at PNCA a lovely arts college here in Portland. It’s been about 15 years since I’ve taught kids film making and back then we did all our editing in video, not on the computer…. and when I was in film school we edited on the archaic Steinbeck flatbeds. When we made cuts, we literally cut the film, little sharp razors, spliced fingers, bleed for your work! So I’ve spent the last little bit getting up to speed on iMovie, since we’ll be using it for the class. My vote is still out, there are some great tools there, but I miss the hands on aspect of the old old old days. Needing something to work with, and not having the right firewire for the camera, I scanned my son’s fall journal and set up the music in Garage Band.

Hey, I can see my house from here!

Well, it’s been a while, and I’ve got some great post dated art/craft projects to share, and three major work deadlines. So instead of going nose to the grindstone, I’ve been spending Easter making French Toast and mimosas and watching this, over and over….