3-D paper town

With the current stay at home situation it can be difficult to find new, different, or interesting things to keep kids busy. I stumbled across a set of printable 3-D house templates and tried them out with our daughter. It was an immediate hit and before I knew it, we were on the way to creating our very own 3-D paper town.

An aerial view of our town with the city on the left and the neighborhood houses on the right.

We don’t actually have a name for our town yet, other than it being referred to as “our town” right now. We started by creating fun modern (dream) homes and slowly added things like a barn for a farm, a hair salon for her Nana, a music studio for her Dad, and most recently a school.

The neighborhood with both modern and traditional style of houses, the Niffler Academy, and the pond at the farm.

ripple yarn project

Earlier this summer, I signed up to be one of the 57 artists in the Ripple Yarn Project.  The project was created by two local artists, Adria Arch and Cecily Miller, and the installation is along the Minuteman bikeway in Arlington Center.  We were assigned specific measurements to knit or crochet a piece to cover a portion of a tree using a bright and bold color palette, but were [almost] totally free to do whatever design we wanted.  The exhibit will be up for six months.

young crafters in lexington

Here’s something you don’t see everyday: My daughter and I were walking around at the Lexington Farmers Market late this afternoon and I noticed some tents in the middle manned by young kids. When we got closer I could see that they were selling handmade crafts and some had big signs saying that proceeds would be donated to various charities. I was so moved. I mean, talk about awesomeness.

There were two girls who made every single piece of origami that covered their long table and they were so proud! I talked to one girl who made large square cards with either a folded heart or a crane on it as I was trying to pick one, and she apologized for running out of “the pretty ones with lots of flowers and hearts”. I gave her $3 for one card priced at $2.50 and told her that I didn’t need the change back and she said, “oh then you can pick two cards”. {heart melt!} I told her that that was very kind of her to offer but that her cards and hard work to make them were too much for me to take another card, and she smiled.

Then we stopped at another table who’s sign “Crafts for Cancer” caught my attention. We looked at all of the pretty jewelry on their table, and one of the girls (Emily) picked up a plastic cat figure she made to show to my 20-month-old daughter, and she said “meow!” in return. I ended up getting a necklace for her and she helped pick out a yellow beaded strand by pulling it off the table herself. I spoke to the girl’s mom and complimented the girls on their beautiful creations. She said that they have been working since last fall toward this day. That is amazing to me, and I was so happy to have stumbled on such ambitious, sweet, kind, and crafty young ladies today.

I wish there were more things like this at other farmers’ markets and outdoor events. I think it gives kids a feeling of empowerment and helps them practice social and business skills that they can use when they get older. Each child greeted us with a smile and “hello” when we walked by. I seriously wish I could’ve purchased something from every single one of them in support! But the card and necklace we purchased today is definitely the best $5 I’ve spent in a long time. 🙂

40 spools

I recently learned that a friend had a 40th birthday coming up.  I know this person is passionate about sewing and so I wanted to create something special to give to her as a gift.  I used a Quickutz 2×2 spool die-cut and created these out of 40 different colors of paper and framed it after assembly.  I think it turned out pretty neat even though I didn’t leave quite enough of a border around the edges for framing properly.

Cranking out each spool twice — once for the khaki colored spool pieces and then once for the thread color — was tedious but therapeutic in a weird way.  All worth it in the end.

ceramics.2

The goal of last night’s class was to work on the wheel to learn how to center clay, and then hopefully be able to make a cylinder.  I know this is going to sound terrible but I cannot get it to go up straight.  Seriously!  I think I definitely need to work more on centering the clay on the wheel, too.  It’s much harder to do than it seems after watching our teacher, Kathy, demonstrate on the wheel.

Here’s what my first attempt at creating a cylinder looked like:

ceramics.1

I’m taking the “exploring clay” ceramics class through the Office for the Arts at Harvard with teacher Kathy King (one of the funniest people I’ve ever met!) this semester.  Yes I know, “another craft, Candice?” you ask.

project 1: cutting out the base of a tumbler

It’s going to be spread out over 12 Fridays and I’m excited about learning throwing skills, trying different glazes, and basically to get down right dirty working with clay.  Am I a geeky crafter?  Um, yes unfortunately. 

fun friday find

Now here’s something that everyone should check out: The Museum of the Modern Snowglobe.  Yes, I said snowglobe.  Lots of them.

The Museum of the Modern Snowglobe is located at the Vernon Street Studios in Somerville, MA

This is my coworker’s collection of snowglobes collected from all over the world.  You have to check out the website (and yes, possibly kill a lot of time in the process) to see each one and learn about its origin.  Can you guess which states are not yet represented? 

The exhibit is currently open by appointment only, but you can get a cool virtual tour here.

friday finds 11.05.10

(from top to bottom, left to right on each row: autumn chai loose leaf tea by BeesKneesTeas; necklace by Teeru Bihani of Blue Helix;  dipping bowls by Chrissy Ann Ceramics; knitting needle case and organizer by mlmxoxo; tweet ring cuff by Idawho; monogrammed notes by Paper Doll Boston; chocolate fingerless gloves by Postroad; petal earrings with wirewrapped crystals by Ripegoods; one of a kind handbag by sac A main; chocolates by vianne chocolat; recycled felted wool periwinkle fuzzy arm sweater by Studio Workshop Designs; lemon cupcake with raspberry buttercream cupcake by Whisky Business)

It’s been a long time since I did a “Friday Finds” post so I thought I’d showcase some of the goodies that will be available at the upcoming Snow Mall holiday craft show at the Armory on December 4th and 5th (yes, that was a shameless plug for a show that I will be participating in too).  There will be nearly 50 different artists featuring a huge variety of goods from jewelry to chocolates to body products to textiles to paintings to paper goods and more.  It’ll be a perfect time to get your holiday shopping needs taken care of (hint, hint) and a great way to support local artists.  Hope to see you there!

TGIF!

I…You…We…Robot!

We went to the I…You…We…Robot! art exhibit at the Space 242 gallery in Boston on Saturday. We went mainly to check out my friend (and coworker), Ansis Purin’s, painting but were floored by all of the art there. So many cool pieces built around a robot theme!

We also saw a piece by Dave Ortega there, and Tony just happened to have on one of the t-shirts he designed underneath his sweatshirt.

The exhibit will be up until March 13, 2010 so be sure to check it out soon. They have kind of odd showing hours (Fridays from 6:30 to 8:00 pm, and Saturdays from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm) but it’s totally worth the trip. The space itself is pretty cool too — we would love to to have a loft space like this in Boston if it were ever possible!

To see more photos of the pieces that caught my eye, click here.

lines walking

“Lines Walking” is a solo art exhibit by one of our friends, Lennie Peterson. We attended the opening reception on Wednesday night and got to view some of his exquisitely detailed art at Harvard University’s “Three Columns Gallery”. Some of you may remember me mentioning Lennie after we received a seriously cool Christmas card from him last year (if not, click here).

The portraits celebrate the marriage of music and visual art, and are Lennie’s way of paying tribute to musical genius. The original artwork is six-feet high, with all details meticulously hand-drawn in pen, ink and oils.

One piece that was probably my favorite (certainly one we stared at for a long period of time) was his “Circle of Fifths” drawing. It’s in three frames and there is just so much detail in each inch of the paper (literally art within art), it’s quite incredible. Here’s one piece of the drawing:

And here is the work in full with a red circle pointing out where the previous scene is located in it.

As one person in New York told Lennie at an exhibit: “This is exquisite shit!”. It really is!

The exhibit is free and open to the public at the Mather House (10 Cowperthwaite Street in Cambridge, MA) until April 16, 2010. It features twelve of Lennie’s large 6′ x 3′ composer portraits and several other works including a collection of his pen and ink surrealisms and smaller portraits.

A shot of us with the artiste extraordinaire