Gifts

This week has been an odd one. I woke up on Monday with a tightness in my chest that told me it might be a tricky few days, and despite setting my attitude to 'positive,' my instincts were right. It hasn't been a bad week, per say--just not sunshine and rainbows.

Yesterday, when things were not looking so good at school, I was perked up by a fabulous delivery:

It felt like it was my birthday or something! Very cool.

And that was just the icing on the cake--before that, I had checked my RSS feed to find a sweet post by one of my favorite online gals, Jen, who had shared a list of blogs to check out, and included mine! I felt famous. And I felt so good!

So thank you, Sax Arts, for your bountiful gifts, and thank you, Jen, for your undeserved kindness. (By the way, if you don't read Jen's blog, you're nuts. Stop being ridiculous and go subscribe. And look at the other blogs mentioned, because theirs are fabulous.)

I'm not sure this counts as paying it forward, but for those of you who are like me and can't find the time (or the attention span, hehe) to sit down and watch the news, or read the newspaper cover to cover, here's a little something for you. Each morning, as I check my email and prep for the day, I also take a few minutes to read The Skimm, a daily summary of important news stories sent right to my email account. Since I started reading it a few weeks ago, I am much more up to date on current affairs, and more understanding of the big headlines. If you want to check it out, visit http://www.theskimm.com/?r=QYD7 to register your name and email. It's free and it's fantastic!

Now, let's make the rest of this week wonderful!

Go vote for your favorite blogs!

Voting has opened for Art Ed Blog of the Year! Go on over to The Art of Ed to vote for the blogs that inspire you! Some of my favorite blogs are nominated and I have great hopes for them! Congrats to all nominees!

An art ed contest and more

Good Monday morning, friends! Not gonna lie--this morning has kinda kicked my tush. This is the first full week we've had in awhile and I've had to re-check my attitude multiple times already. We can do this!

I'm hoping to get a fourth grade metal tooling post up later tonight. Till then, I have other things to say (type). Shocking! I know!

First, go nominate your fave blog(s) at The Art of Ed! I follow the blogs of some amazing ladies and gents and really hope they get a nod this year!

Go nominate your favorite art ed blog! Go! Go now!

Second, there are few things I've loved as long as I've loved art. Other than the obvious exceptions--my family and sweet Baby Jesus, which aren't really things at all, if we're being technical--probably the only thing I've been lovin' for close to three decades is reading. Anyone with me?

When you find time to read, do you escape into fiction, biographies, or perhaps something more attune to your craft, a la art ed theory? (Yes, I'm serious about that last one.)

Currently, I'm staying up way too late reading book six of Harry Potter (!!!!!!!!), working my way through Steal Like an Artist (an easy and humorous perusal that I definitely recommend), obsessing over Young House Love (there's a blog by the same name), and keepin' it real with various Joyce Meyer staples.

And to keep myself somewhat well-rounded in my literacy choices, most days I also read several blogs, including those dedicated to art ed, home improvement, and food. I love me some DIY and homemade donuts.

Today, I wanted to send a shout-out and link to Andrea over at Dream.Pray.Create., whose post about social media and its ties to creativity really has me thinking this morning (when I should probably be thinking about pouring paint for my next class). I think it's a really interesting topic and I encourage everyone to head over to Andrea's blog to join in on the discussion!

Make it a great Monday!

African Amulets (and a thank you)

A very big thank you goes out to Phyl over at There's a Dragon in my Art Room (one of my very favorite art ed blogs) for mentioning ARTipelago in a recent post about new blogs! (I may or may not have had a much longer post written, in which I expressed my immense gratitude, wrote that I felt I had just won a prestigious and coveted award, and then deleted it out of embarrassment for being so excited...)

Since I got the shout-out, I figured I should post something today. And so, without further ado, I give you fourth grade African Amulets (in the making)! This is a lesson I've been doing for a few years now, and it's a favorite of the kids and yours truly. I came across it in an old issue of Arts & Activities and promise to give credit to the author as soon as I relocate the mag.

The lesson article was titled "Clay for the Kiln-less," and HELLO, that's me. Neither of my buildings has a kiln, so usually I am forced to use ( hideous nightmare-ish awful) air-dry clay. It cracks, it's brittle, it's my arch enemy. For the amulets, we use salt dough. It's easy to whip up in whatever quantity I need, it's cheap to make, and I can bake it in my regular ol' oven at home.

We start with an intro day, during which we identify some of the characteristics of traditional African art (focusing on masks and amulets). The kids get modeling clay to practice and sort out ideas.

One girl said, "mine looks like my sister before coffee." HA!

On the second day, we use the dough. The kiddos love sprinkling flour on their surface, and hearing about how I take the amulets home to bake, where Mr. Connell smells the dough baking and assumes I'm baking for him, and sometimes samples a project or two (they love any story that involves the mysterious Mr. Connell).

That's as far as we've gotten thus far. Next week we'll stain the baked dough using earth tones, a post for another day!

A shot from last year--more to come.

Thanks again, Phyl! :-)