chai

I am going to be out of internet range for a week or so and think I will have a little computer down time. To sign off here is a quick recipe you can make as a Christmas gift note to anyone in my immediate family this is what your getting! Just use equal parts of everything and double the amount of tea, or do it to taste. I have to thank my friend Ella for the idea she is full of them.

See you on the flip side...

turn this...

into this...

with these make your own chai instructions

Lisa Golightly

we had our first scorching hot Summers day yesterday and many more to come, the holidays are just beginning and I am looking forward to it. I found these paintings by Lisa Golightly on the Jealous Curator and it pretty much sums up the feeling.

dark side of the moon

turn this...

into this...

with these moon phase explanation toy instructions

...yeah you heard me

phases

amazing photos of the moon from here

Tomorrow will be our last Art Class for the year, it has been such fun to do it each week. See you there.

Ruslan Khasanov lumen type

Just look at this magical font created with light refraction by Ruslan Khasanov you can also see each letter animated in a short video on his site.

tiny kite

i think the snow drifts of tiny tissue paper rectangles in class this week was a perfect sign of how much fun we had.

 it was lovely to see all the different kites the children made.

you could of course just like them add as many kites and tails as you like to your stick or i was thinking a nice little water colour painted version would be quite fetching too maybe I will have a try today

turn this...

into this...

with these make your own tiny kite on a stick instructions...

Flower

Tomorrow will be our second last Art Class for the year and it is shaping up to be a good one. I will look forward to seeing you if you are close by or have a look back on Wednesday to see what we did and you have a try it at home.

Cai Guo-Qiang

The Gallery of Modern Art,  GOMA in Brisbane is hosting the most amazing installation by Cai Guo-Qiang  I would love to go up and see it it must be overwhelming in real life. You can see more of his work here.

salt dough decorations

there was not a lot of science but a whole lot of fun in this weeks Art Class as the children made salt dough decorations

turn this...

into this...

with these salt dough decoration instructions...

December Classes

Art Classes for December will continue for three weeks with the final one being on Tuesday the 17th of December. They will still be on Tuesdays from 10.00 am -12.00 pm at Smiley McSlidey studio on the corner of Blyth and Nicholson St in East Brunswick
I will then take a month off for Christmas, Summer holidays and moving house extravaganza. In 2014 the classes will be on a different day either Monday, Thursday or Friday. I will keep you updated before we break for the Summer. See you on tomorrow if you are around about.

jimmy mcbride

R136 in 30 Doradus Quilt

one of Mars moons

Ambush in quadrant 4

In continuation of the space theme that seems to have taken hold of me this week here are some of my all time favourite artworks by Jimmy McBride. He is a  multi disciplined artist who has made some of the most remarkable quilts exploring aspects of space. I just love them but unfortunately he doesn't make them at the moment.

I also found these other quilts by Kate Findlay which look at images from the Large Hadron Collider which are fairly spectacular as well.

Galaxy chalk drawings

 turn this...

into this...

with these Hubble galaxy chalk drawing instructions

space

I saw that movie Gravity in 3D the other night and got blockbustered into outer space.It was super fun and has got me thinking. So in tomorrows Art Class we will be going to the far reaches of the universe, with chalk and black paper, it should be great. See you there!

timorous beasties

My friend just told me about timorous beasties a design driven wall covering and fabric power house. They also have a fun application where you can dress a room in their designs, fun indeed.

bird on a nest thaumatrope

this week we made a pretty simple and fun paper toy in our art class that uses the theory of persistence of vision to connect two images into one
you can get the template here

turn this...

into this...

with these make your own thaumatrope instructions...

black bird

We had a little black bird that had built a nest and laid four speckled blue eggs right by our front door. We came back after a weekend away and the nest was ransacked and all the eggs broken poor thing. This weekend we found a brand new nest and eggs in our apple tree. We are all thrilled. It finally feels like Spring and it is wonderful.
I am looking forward to tomorrows Art class and hope to see you there.

Ant Colony

One of the mothers from the Art Class sent me a link to this remarkable video that shows what happens when you make a cast from a massive ant colony. It is quite incredible.

fine balance mobile

 we had a fantastic art class yesterday making mobiles that balanced something light on one side with something heavy on the other. We discussed balance weight and colour and the results were just wonderful.

turn this...

into this...

with these mobile making instructions.

First November class

We will be having our first class for November tomorrow between 10.00am and 12.00 pm. I look forward to seeing you there if you are free and looking for adventure, or have a look back here on Wednesday and see what we did.

Shannon Smiley

Shannon Smiley does intricate botanical studies of urban wilderness in oils. I love them and only wish we had bought one years ago when we had the chance.

constellation scarf

As there is no Art Class this week here is something you can make for yourself. It is a variation on the previous version I did which showed you how to make a decorated t-shirt

Turn this...

into this...

with these bleach pen instructions...

November Art Classes

After a great month of classes in October I will be continuing the Art and Science classes for children through the month of November. Classes will be held every Tuesday from 10.00 am until 12.00pm, come anytime and stay as long as you like. They take place on the corner of Blyth and Nicholson St in East Brunswick. The only difference will be I am going to be charging $5.00 per family to help cover the cost of materials. I hope you can come along if you are close by and if not I will be posting each activity every Wednesday so you can do it at home if the mood takes you.
Tomorrow is a public holiday in Melbourne so there will be no class so see you next week!