Category — Workshops

Canadian Museum of Civilization, Children’s Museum. “Break Away to Japan!”

Gatineau, Québec. March 7, 8, 14 and 15th. Saturday and Sunday; 1 hour shibori workshops are at 11 am, 1 pm, 2 pm and 3 pm.

Local to Ottawa or the Outaouais? Did you miss it last time? Don’t miss these fast and furious workshops for the kids. (my apologies to the grown-ups!) It was so much fun last time that we’re doing it again!

Workshops are bilingual, French and English.

Single silk veil in search of dark gothic beauty?

in search of fiery redhead?

These are the last of the 5 momme. I thought it would never end; unless I find another stash I didn’t know I had, this is it.

I know this is subjective, but both these would be on my most wanted list.

The for sale page is now up to date for the new year!

OMG! What fun, but how exhausting! I have survived a weekend of being the guest artist at the Canadian Children’s Museum’s Japan and Nature Matsuri. I didn’t think I had it in me, but eleven (11!) one hour sessions later, I am still alive, exhausted but exhilarated.

So you’re probably wondering what can be done in less than an hour with a studio full of 2 year olds and up? Something simple, of course, but with the objective of big fun and high impact. Yes, you heard me right : 2 year olds. I think there was even one that was hardly old enough to be able to sit on a chair without wobbling and teetering like a weeble. Talk about living dangerously! Of course, parents were close at hand to help out the very little ones as well as the museum providing me at least 2 animators at all times.

So yes … what can one do with very limited time and limited dexterity? I decided that the biggest impact would come from combining the concepts of some very basic origami folds with 1 silk pocket square, a single rubber band and the 3 primary colours. Throw a little citric acid into some Procion MX dyes, wet your silk in advance to facilitate keeping the silk folded for little hands, find yourself a microwave oven to speed up the process, some running water and you’re ready to roll. The magic number of students per session seemed to be a maximum of 15; they could be finished in about 45 minutes from lesson to leaving with their freshly made, washed and ironed silk project, and leave me about 15 minutes before the next group came into the studio to do it all over again. In both official languages, I might add. Phew.

Imagine them leaving, each with a variation of something that looked like this. Imagine a hundred +plus+ different variations of the origami kaleidoscope. Whatever their age, the results (10″ x 10″ pocket square) were nothing but sensational!

I’ve never seen so much pride, joy and pure amazement in my life. The look in their eyes was priceless. I didn’t know the word “WOW” and “COOL” could be exclaimed as often by anybody but myself.

And what else did I learn? I knew this to be true with adults, but it was interesting to see it evolve as the children grew older, more reserved : they had more difficulty with the concept of “now, just squirt colours anywhere in any way on your project, then lets see what happens.” I was surprised to witness disdain and fear at touching their projects after the dyes had been applied when I said “now squish it so the colours mix together.”

Just to confirm my suspicions, I had many parents ask later if the results could be controlled. Of course, they can.

But isn’t just so much more fun to just squish it and see what happens?