Winter Workshops

I do love the early winter here in Los Angeles. The skies are so beautiful after it rains and the hills are so green. We go for early walks in the hills, do more staying in and reading and eat a lot more soups. I also love all the ornament making and winter treat making that happens in December. We, at the Purple Twig, do believe in process over product, that the exploring of materials is how to build confidence and emphasize creative thinking with children, but I do so love to teach a craft, whether it be sewing, knitting, ceramics or printmaking. If you begin with beautiful materials, whatever the kids make will be beautiful.

Look at the wonderful holiday cheer we have been making with kids during our workshops. We did holiday card printing by using print foam that the children draw into. This is good for ages 3- 103. Some of our parents get into this one as well, which we welcome. Here are some card the kids made with a snowflake theme. Each one is individual just like a snowflake. We finished them off with a bit of glitter.

Here are a few more using different colored inks on different colored papers. I just love these Winter trees, some with snow on them.

We also had workshops for ornament making from pastas that we glued together, painted white and added glistening white glitter. 

And these little winter dioramas in a small round tin complete with fake snow that one can shake. We used stickers, stamps on small white pieces of paper and glued them into the tin and some even added little pine cones.

We also made this big winter dioramas in a jar using fake little trees, animals and lots of fake snow. I have tried doing these as snow globes but no matter how much hot glue we used they ultimately all leaked so by taking the water out of the equation they are lovely dioramas. Just hot glue your scene onto the lid of the jar. One thing to realize when making these is to first add rocks or white stones for the animals to sit on, otherwise they won't be seen over the curved lip of the jar.

Happy Winter!!!