Where's My Computer?

My car was broken into about a month ago while I was in Yoga. The perpetrator stole my computer. MY COMPUTER!!!!!!!  As far as I was concerned at the time they stole my entire business. After I washed off the feeling of being violated and went out the same day to buy a new computer, I was just so disappointed with all the work that needed to be done to recoup the lost information, syllabi, photos. Do I back up you ask..........I do now.  I, of course, back up my quickbooks but I hadn't backed up in about 6 months. 6 MONTHS!!!!
The timing of the robbery was also pretty bad. My accountant was already knocking at my door for the tax information. I spent every night for almost a month updating my books, after putting my children to bed, going through bank accounts, going through all the credit card charges, trying to find all the check written. It has been so much more confusing and difficult than I expected.

As I was trying to figure out why the bank account isn't matching up with what the books, I thought "I am getting myself a bookkeeper". I called a friend of mine who is a bookkeeper and found out that I can't quite afford one yet. I taught myself how to work Quickbooks and I am sure that there is a more efficient way to do it with a little tweaking. In talking to other business owners in my neighborhood I realized that knowing my books is a part of knowing what's happening in my business. I know how it's growing and how fast. I know how much is coming in and how much is going out.

Instead of getting a book keeper I decided to ask my accountant if I can get a little tutoring which he was happy to offer, especially because it makes his job easier when my books are more efficient.

Cat Mummies

In our "Animals in Art" class we have been looking at the appreciation of animals in Egyptian art. Did you know that they were one of the first civilizations to domesticate cats? It was honorable for each household to have a cat. Rodents spread diseases rampantly. Cats killed the rodents therefore cats saved lives in ancient Egypt and they were honored by being mummified and buried with their kings and queens. Lucky them. They are odd beautiful objects with the patterned cotton fabric and painted face masks.

We decided to make our own mummified cats.  

I thought plaster strips would be a great material to use. It's easier to use than paper mache and hardens better and faster. The kids can see and feel the transformation from a wet, soft material to a dry, hard one. But we needed to start with an inner structure.

We balled up newspaper, rolled that up in another piece of newspaper, taped it together. We rolled up another ball of newspaper  and taped that to one end of the newspaper roll as the head, We used a shallow plastic container as the nose and taped it to the head. Oh and we needed ears so we cut out cardboard triangles and taped those to the top of the head.

We covered that structure with the plaster cloth and let dry. They were quite beautiful just white.

After the structure was made they really did look like mummies, but they needed some panache. We covered just the body portion with strips of fabric using watered down glue. They choose from all kinds of patterned fabric. We painted the head and let them dry. 

After we outlined the eyes and nose and sometimes ears we needed a final touch to really make them special so we added some gold paint to make them shine. The kids tend to take something like gold paint and just go nuts, covering the entire sculpture a\or painting so I talked about the paint as being special and to really think about where they would like to add that specialness. Some wanted golden ears or a golden nose and some really wanted the body to be gold. Now that I think about it an entirely golden cat mummy would pretty great as well.

The kids were super proud and gave a big roar for their mummies.

  

No Kid Hunger

This morning while I was making breakfast for my kids, I began to think about all the children who didn't get breakfast in the mornings because of lack of food. By the time I got to work I decided to add my voice to the many who won't tolerate such neglect. I looked around at a few different organizations and decide to make a monthly donation to SHARE OUR STRENGTH. It then occurred to me that maybe some of you would also like to add your voice.

Valentines celebration

On Saturday morning we woke up excited to get ready for the neighborhood bake sale at the Purple Twig. In order to celebrate Valentines Day we invited a few families that have been ever so supportive of the Purple Twig to prepare something for a bake sale in front of the shop. My kids love these bake sales. It's a great way for them to earn money. My daughter, Ada wanted to bake some lemon cookies and my son, Gus wanted to bring strawberries. What a delicious Valentines treat.

Ada got started by picking lemons from our tree for the cookies. We used a snicker doodle recipe, added lemon rind and rolled them in pink sugar instead of cinnamon sugar. When the licking of the bowl began, Gus came in to help. 

YUM!

While the treats were being had outside, we were offering workshops all day inside.  We were printing Valentines and making treat boxes. Ages 2 to 52 were printing, printing, printing beautiful Valentines. 

These were made by a three year old.

It's such a simple process perfect for printing cards. We first cut printing foam to 4 X 5 inches, . Then cut different colors of card stock 4.5 X 5.5. We give the kids short skewers to draw into the print foam. Using water soluble printing ink that you can get at most art supply stores, they use a brayer to roll the ink from the ink plates ( plexi-glass) to the print foam. The rolling of the ink can be the most desirable part of the printing process especially for ages 2 and 3.  We used red, pink, silver and gold ink so that no matter what image is drawn into the foam they look like Valentines.

 Look at all these lovely Valentines. Some kids worked really hard, printing one for all 25 kids in their class.

After printing for most of the day, we ended the day with a treat box making workshop. These are perfect for little treats for your little ones. 

We offered many different types of materials for making these, ribbon, paint, buttons, jewels, little animals, fabrics and decorative papers. 

With our workshops we encourage kids and parents to work together to create. It is so rewarding to watch the families interact in such a enriching way. 

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!!! 

Sewing with Toddlers

This week in our parent/child classes we did some sewing. We made these whimsical hanging sculptures using fabric, felt, wire and beads. It's a great exercise in fine motor skills and eye hand coordination.

        

These were made by children ages 2 and 3 along with their parents. It's such a great way to work together, choosing colors and patterns of fabrics and talking about the different color of beads.

Each child chose a larger piece of felt for the sewing and  a colored wire. Before class started I cut little holes in the felt and pieces of fabric for the children to weave the wire through. I then gave them patterned fabrics and little pieces of cut up foam (which I hole punched). Some of the children loved choosing which hole to push the wire through, taking their time. Others used the pieces of fabrics like beads, quickly placing each fabric onto the wire. I then gave them beads to string on the wire which many of the children were more familiar with, as well as, more comfortable with.

This is one of those projects that pains me to see go out the door as the kids take them home. They are so beautiful hanging in the studio.

Art Education for Children

I was interviewed by Kristen Whitehurst, who teaches at Pathways, an early children's education center, for an article she was writing about art and early childhood education. We, at Purple Twig, are proud of the article she wrote. It's a good way to start the new year. We take early childhood education very seriously. It's important to us that each child has a positive exploratory experience when they come to the Purple Twig.

http://www.examiner.com/article/los-angeles-art-space-provides-unique-experiences-for-children

Winter Camp- week 1

We do have so much fun creating full days of activities for the kids during school breaks. We did two 3 day weeks for winter camps this year. When coming up with the curriculum we really needed to figure out a way to get the kids some outside time. Since we don't have a park right near us we decided to use the neighborhood for what it had to offer. There is a patch or grass that sits adjacent to a local elementary school. We decided to hold races and play some outdoor games there, but also do scavenger hunts with objects the kids had made, hiding them around the neighborhood.  So we filled the days with art making, game playing, reading and going for walks. It's so nice to have the kids for longer ongoing days, so we can do more ambitious projects, as well as, to get to know the kids better.

Here ages 4-5 are creating little snowstorms to send through the mail. They use paper punch outs and we put them in envelopes for them to send home. They love getting things in the mail.

The outside time is important. We take walks in the neighborhood, gathering material for artworks, playing games and creating obstacle courses. 

A PARADE

During the first week we made flags and snowflake banners for a winter parade. We love a parade.

Ages 4-5 made these  beautiful winter flags made from fabric which they painted and added other smaller fabrics and colorful yarn.

 The older kids, ages 6-9 made these lovely snowflake banners for the parade.

We cut out snowflakes from paper, added some white glitter and hung them for sticks we had found on our walk. 

I brought in bells and other musical instruments for the kids to carry in the parade. We all set off down the street, waving at people and ringing our bells. Some of the parents also joined us in our Winter Parade. A good time was had by all.