Portland Art Adventures

May classes posted

portlandartadventures — Tue, 03 May 2011 04:16:34 +0000

See our class list for the upcoming May classes! Note that Messy Art on Thursdays is currently not being offered. We will have a few workshops towards the end of May, and more classes coming in June.

No Messy Art April 28th

portlandartadventures — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 02:43:06 +0000

Messy Art has been great fun this last month. We had an extremely busy day during spring break, and have had some fun Spring activities and paint experiments in class. The class is continuing on Thursdays, 10:30-12:30.

There won’t be a class on the 28th of April, but class will continue the following week, May 5th, Cinco de Mayo!

Enjoy the rest of April!

No drawing class today

portlandartadventures — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 14:40:41 +0000

Hi all my drawing class friends!

Sick today, so there won’t be a drawing class this morning. Sorry for the inconvenience!

No Messy Art Tomorrow

portlandartadventures — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 01:48:27 +0000

Who knows about the predicted snow/ice for tomorrow, but I’m canceling Messy Art class for the morning.

Enjoy the snow, if it indeed comes!

Tie Dye

portlandartadventures — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 21:40:50 +0000

Here are a few pics from the Tie Dye and Dip Dye class last month.

For those not totally familiar with dip dye, its super easy and looks great. It usually uses just one color and creates a gradation from dark to light.

And of course, tie dye is classic and fun. Most of the kids had never tie dyed before, but caught on very quickly and started experimenting with twisting and banding.

Metal Sculpture

portlandartadventures — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 16:51:07 +0000

Hot Air Balloon

Various projects

House for the 2 mice and their pet penguin

The kids did some fantastic building in this class. Here are just a few pictures of the work that came out of this workshop.

Materials and Tools:

lots and lots of scrap metal, (quite a bit from SCRAP). Flat pieces, long pieces, lightweight metal is the easiest to work with.

Magnets (i really love rolls of magnets with a sticky side and a magnet side. You just cut pieces off the roll as needed)

Hot glue (very necessary for this class. It dries quickly and lets them continue building, rather than waiting for each piece to dry.)

Wire to twist and tie things with

wire cutters and pliers

_________________________________________

I’ll be teaching a repeat of this class on a weekend in Feb. or March. The kids were asking to make holes, so we’ll have a supervised drill station next time too.

Puppet making

portlandartadventures — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 14:37:11 +0000

Penny’s Puppet Show was a blast. The Warehouse Cafe was packed for her “Rainy- day tea-party” story. In our puppet making class just before the kids were hard at work. You can just barely see some of their film canister finger puppets in the picture. Hot glue + film canisters + lots of little bits and pieces: fabric and google eyes, dyed wool roving, string, poms and more. The film canisters were a big hit with the 4-6 yr old crowd. Since they were round and slick, the hot glue gun was really helpful in decorating these. Maybe it was the hot glue gun that was the hit, and not the film canisters….kids sure love the instant success of something sticking well, and the thrill of using a semi-dangerous tool, (those these are low temp). For the younger kids we had paste, and used paper bags, socks or plates for bases, as items paste easily onto these.

Recycled jewelry

portlandartadventures — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 21:22:25 +0000

In last months jewelry making class we used recycled materials, including metal washers and used Christmas wrapping paper and wall paper. We decoupaged the washers, rolled paper beads, and worked on clasps and basic braids.

The paper cutter was a big hit with the younger kids. That and stringing beads.

Paper beads are so simple and beautiful. Wrapping paper, posters, wallpaper and magazine ads make some of the best beads. The longer your strip of paper, the fatter the bead. The width of your strip will be the width of the bead.

To make a basic paper bead:

- Cut long triangles with a 1cm end and a 2 cm end. The length is dependent on the length of your paper.

-roll tightly around something the same diameter as what you wish to string your beads on. A toothpick or thin skewer work well. We used wooden shish-kebab skewers.

-when you get to the end of the roll, glue the end of paper tightly to the bead and hold long enough that it doesn’t fall apart.

-pull bead gently off of skewer.

-string beads on a long string hung vertically. (this is just a place to hold them to shellac them, not your final piece of jewelry.)

-brush beads with Mod Podge or watered down glue to give them a finished appearance and seal them a bit.

-let beads dry.

-remove beads from string to create your jewelry.

Gingerbread Houses

portlandartadventures — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 02:13:50 +0000

This was such a fun holiday class. The preparation was fun too – my daughter Benecia and I baked and assembled over 10 houses the weekend before class, so they would be ready to decorate. I debated over this quite a bit, but they take so long to dry and be stable enough to decorate, the workshop would have needed to spread over several days in order to let the children bake, assemble, decorate, etc. Keeping 12 houses intact for three days in a house with one 3 1/2 year old and two kittens was interesting.

So I brought them in already assembled, with a huge bowl of icing and lots of toppings. We made piping bags in class, and used a few pro cake tools as well. And “snow”, of course. Lots and lots of powdered sugar.

Benecia didn’t know what icing or powdered sugar were until she helped me with this class. Oh my, now she sure does.

All in the process

portlandartadventures — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 02:19:52 +0000

Part of being process oriented means we aren’t striving for perfection in an end project. When we become fixated on doing something perfectly we miss out on valuable learning. Often, our moments for learning and innovation come through failures and multiple attempts. Rather than spend 20 years trying to paint the perfect painting, we could instead paint 200, or even 2000, imperfect paintings. One of these approaches will be full of trial and error, play and process, many works we would not want to keep, and some we would. The other approach paralyzes us from the fear of screwing up that perfect end result, and offers little opportunities for growth. Or we make that perfect painting and are afraid our next piece might not measure up.

In the workshops I teach, I find my role is more of an assistant than a “teacher” in the traditional sense. I give ideas and lend a hand when asked, and teach skills when needed or necessary (yes, there is a right way to use a hammer and a hot glue gun!) The point of these classes is not to come away with a beautiful piece of art or finished craft, though kids are usually very proud of the work they take home, and rightly so. I hope that they are taking home more than just a piece of work, but also what that represents: hard work, trial and error, new skills learned, the courage to make mistakes and keep trying, and a desire to learn.