leaf

I've been reading Keri Smith's two beautiful books (The Guerilla Art Kit and How to be an Explorer of the World). We were inspired to make some leaf sculptures at the Botanic Gardens. Ella also did some 'sap-exploration'- she's deeply interested in tree-sap at the moment - collecting bits of it in pockets and bags. Last time we were at the Botanic gardens we made flower sticks - threading flowers and leaves onto sticks. I'd seen Bhutanese girls from the village of Laya making these in a break from collecting firewood on Tribe.

boy with bean

Rare to go out with one and not two small people. Ella stayed home to help Dad with an important 'secret' project. Jamie came with Mum, Auntie and Nana to ACCA to see The Waterhole, was fed jellybeans and tickled and chased.

house-bound house-found 3 - sticky tape

And how about this little mixed collection of craftyness, reading practice and green found on the kitchen table?

-

--

-

Sticky-tape- how it is loved in this house. There is nothing my girl cannot mend or create with a few bits and pieces and some sticky tape, which she much prefers to glue any day - so in case you're in need, here are a few sticky tape ideas: make a laptop with a plastic box, bits of paper and stickytape; stickytape a buckle back onto a broken shoe; stickytape a button to a door as a doorbell; stickytape a torn hat back together; stickytape some buttons to a small cardboard box to make a mobile; stickytape fabric scraps onto small dolls as clothes, make a sculpture from some stickytape, feathers and a large cardboard box ...

what you see - around and about

Aerosol Arabic and Crooked Rib

We walked up Spark Lane to see this fantastic street art project starting up. The Crooked-Rib team were sitting in the lane cutting a stencil of a verse from the Koran. The verse describes how, even if the river flows abundantly, it is best to take only as much water as you need. They had picked it because they felt it was relevant for Melbourne today. They said it was difficult cutting the script - lots of swirls and curls - hard on the hands. Aerosol Arabic had just started the mural. It'll be finished next Monday.

bag painting

Two bag artists stand proudly by their work. I keep paper bags and every now and then we get them out and decorate a few for gift-bags. It was hard getting the logistics of this art project sorted out because Ella had everything carefully set up on a special little table that Jamie wanted access to so mucho shouting, shrieking and paintbrush snatching. This isn't the kind of vibe you hope for in a chilled out spring garden art project, but we pressed on. I hung the results to dry on the climbing frame and decided to take a few pics - both artists quickly edged into the frame to appear with their work.

It's spring in the Pirate Park

Let be creative

How happily this pair set to creating their own masterpieces after we'd been through the Art Deco exhibition at the NGV. What a pleasure to find, outside that exhibition, an amazing, full-size glossy car and a whole Deco-inspired workshop for kids. Inspired by the incredible auto, Ella dashed off a quick picture for our latest aquaintance - Johnny Z - who builds Californian Street Rods and who's new Bridge Road store we visited the day before.

Trees with love

the house in the city

Ella writes: This is Ella's drawing - she did it by herself on KidPix. It's a rainbow picture.

Doing ArtTivities

Ella writes: Bookmaking and activities. Headdress with an aeroplane - that was very fun. I made a book by myself. i love making books. i love doing activities. I've been learning letters a lot.

The Mars Project

We went to see The Mars Project at RMIT. Our favourite exhibit was Phillip Allan's delicate depictions of the 'mythical canals of Mars.' Phillip combined images from the Hubble Space Telescope with early drawings of Mars, in particular the drawings of Percival Lowell.