correspondence class

these are not my cousins.

When I was growing up three of my cousins would spend half of the year on a remote sheep station in the outback. They did their school via correspondence. I suppose I  was only ever there in the school holidays so I never saw it in action, but that old radio with its clunky earphones looks so mysterious and I never quite understood how the far away teacher would know if they were there or not. 
Anyhow over the next four weeks on Tuesday mornings I will be giving some open art and science classes for children and on Wednesdays I will be setting up my own correspondence school with all the information accessible to anyone. No clunky earphones needed.

Sounds like colour

Have a look at these wonderfully clever robotic art devices called Colour Chaser by Yuri Suzuki. They travel along the black lines that people draw and interpret any blots of colour they come across and convert them into sounds. Colours making music, how brilliant. Don't you just love a bit of synesthesia?

I found these via Plenty of Colour which is also worth a look.


                   
Colour Chaser 2010 from Yuri Suzuki on Vimeo.

art class

There are only a few more days until our first art class next Tuesday. I am getting pretty excited about it I have to say. This project has been in my mind for five years so it feels pretty terrific to be getting it underway. As it will be an open class there is no way of knowing how many children may be there so I have designed the activity to be quite simple so even if it is chaotic we can still get some things made. There may be a few of you or there may be a lot so come along with your sense of adventure and we can roll with the punches together. Hooray!

bleach pen fabric design

turn this...

into this...

 with these bleach pen fabric decoration instructions...

brownie

I found my brownie uniform in the dress up box. It reminded me of a bewildering time in my 6 year old life. I don't think any one ever explained what it was all about and the endless badge sewing and shoe polishing in an echoey hall, watching middle aged women dance around a concrete mushroom while we did strange things like dive to the bottom of a pool and save a brick whilst wearing our pyjamas didn't help answer any questions. Needless to say as Susie my best friends tunic filled up with endless badges of honour three year in I proudly wore my two. One for collecting autumn leaves and classifying them and one for doing handstands.

whole larder love

I love checking in on Rohan Anderson's blog Whole Larder Love. It is always full of seasonal foraging and cooking and earthy adventure. He also has a wonderful book and takes workshops teaching all sorts of pioneer skills. Excellent.

free art classes for children

Starting on the first Tuesday in October, I will be teaching four free art classes for children at Smiley Mcslidey Studio. It will be from 10 am -12pm and each child will walk away with something excellent they have created from every day things. There will be an emphasis on science and learning and all activities are geared towards 1-5 year olds their enjoyment and how they learn.
The studio is on the corner of Blyth and Nicholson St in East Brunswick.
I did a display in the window there yesterday and it came out a bit rebel motorcycle club which made me laugh. Here is a version of it with all the information, I hope if you are in the area you can come along it's going to be great!!

seedlings

turn this...

into this...

with these seedling egg instructions...

wild bees

We went away on the weekend with some friends and had a wonderful time. We found an abandoned wild bee hive in a fallen down tree. We saw this awesome cloud and looked in rock pools. It was grand.

tin can

I am going to be needing a whole lot of regular old tin cans the type tomato's or chick peas come in for a project in mid October. So if anyone is in Melbourne, preferable on the north side and would like to collect some for me over the next weeks let me know. It is for something fun.

children's moccasin slippers

turn this...

into this...

with these children's moccasin instructions

op shop

I totally scored at the op shop today. Look at this amazing cross stitch I can't believe someone spent so long doing all those stitches. I am hopeless at embroidery I did a class with my mum once and we got yelled at by the fierce teacher who's sons and husband also were award winning cross stitchers, about how the back was meant to be as polished as the front and not look like the tangled mess of spaghetti we had done.
I also found these wonderful free form illustrative jumpers, you can bet those boys of mine will be getting some wear out of them before they are old enough to make me stop.

Mica Angela Hendricks

I have been seeing this wonderful collaboration between the artist Mica Angela Hendricks and her four year old daughter all over the place this week. One of the children's kinder teachers pointed out to me and since then it has popped up all over the place. It is such a clever idea and process. You can see more of their work here. 

sage and thyme face scrub

turn this...

into this...

with these make it your self face scrub instructions

not much news

 never been cut

after

new bike

clashing spring flowers from the garden

Well not a whole lot has been going on lately. I cut my almost four year old's hair for the first time ever this morning. It felt a little strange. It never grew in his eyes or was that long so we just let it go but then it felt like it had become a "thing" like Sampson or something so we decided to give it a trim. It still looks very pretty. And in exciting transportation news our neighbours have lent us a Christiania bike and we are now barreling all over the neighbourhood with picnics and scooters and books and school bags not to mention children in the basket. It is a wonderful sense of liberation to not be in the car all the time.