Sometimes you just have to sit back, shut your mouth and let a kid do her thing

Giggles had a music project for school a couple of weeks ago and the instructions were pretty straightforward – make a musical instrument, an interpretation of an existing one or create a new one, write about your instrument and how you made it, be creative and imaginative in your design. Those last few words are shining beacons to my artistic daughter’s soul.

I started to get a little nervous when she began collecting the empty gallon milk jugs, the empty liter soda bottles and numerous smaller water bottles and hoarding them in a corner of the kitchen. When I questioned her about this stack of recyclables, she told me about her design and showed me the sketches she had done. I was skeptical of her chosen path, I admit. The scale of the project, the amount of labor involved and knowing my daughter’s time management skills, made me think she had bitten off way more than she could chew in the time available. I asked some questions, made some gentle suggestions on altering her design and expectation and was met with a solid wall of obstinate. So be it, I thought, let her manage this.

As she continued to gather supplies and the hand-in date grew closer, the only development I could see was the growing pile of recyclables. No building of required project. I asked a few more questions, met the same obstinate stance and decided to just remind her of the date and back away slowly. She is her mother’s daughter after all and like recognizes like. Time to back off. But I doubted, oh! did I doubt. You would doubt too if you asked yourself the following question: what musical instrument can a 12 year old girl create with a pile of bottles and a roll of duct tape?

The beginning phases of this project looked something akin to a battered science fiction space ship that got spanked a recent battle, limped through hyperspace to survive another day but may never make it back to the home planet. I swear. Plastic bottles duct taped together and on and around each other to form a shape vaguely resembling a giant sausage with a broken carriage wheel on one end. If only I had taken pictures, but my concern was so huge that this was going to be such a flop that I didn’t want any lingering reminders in the future.

Doubt spread further when she took it to a friend’s house and the girls’ father asked me why my daughter was raiding his recycling can and asked me what her project was supposed to be. I just told him she had a vision and we felt it important to let her express herself. Because, frankly, I agreed with him. Completely oblivious to the lack of adult confidence in this project, Giggles was thrilled with some of the craft material she snagged from her friends craft bin and the supply of materials she foraged from her grandfather’s basement.

The weekend before the due-date - of course it was the weekend before, when else does a 12 year old finish a project, I ask you? – she hauled ass finishing this thing, taping and stapling, cutting and covering, gluing and painting. A quick trip to the dollar store to convince the manager to sell us the broken wind-chimes laying on the floor for half price rounded out the materials she needed to complete the vision that had been stewing in her head for weeks.

Her Music of Nature Tree.

She made a 3 ½ foot tall tree out of plastic bottles, duct tape, cardboard and found items from friends and family that made different sounds when the dangling wind chimes were hit with a variety of materials. Sometimes if the movement was right the wind chimes would make their own music as they clanked against each other. She made a musical tree, mostly out of recycled materials. It was so cool, and so funky in design, I kept expecting to see the checkle patch at the base of it. (Extra points to anyone who knows what I hell I was just talking about let alone has fond memories of The Magic Garden)

It was too big for her to carry to school on the bus so I drove her in that morning. The pride on her face, as she carried this magical musical tree, that was almost as tall as she is, through the hallways of her school, was such a beautiful wonder to behold it brought tears to my eyes, because she had had this vision from the very first day, stuck to it and did not let anyone convince her to scale it back, or to change her mind. We tried to stifle the effort of this vision and it would have been the worst parenting ever had we succeeded. As teachers and students oohed and aaahed at her project as we passed, the beaming glow she wore kept getting brighter and brighter. One older student yelled out “A PLUS FOR SURE!!” as she hauled it down the hall. Teachers poked their heads out of classrooms to see what was gathering so much attention and shared their amazement. I think she floated on clouds the rest of the day.

When she got home from school, her pride in herself as she told us that her teacher said that in all her years of teaching, no one had ever handed in such a creative project, a sense of accomplishment that had been filling her up all day, practically spilled over. And she deserved that pride, I told her later that night, because she held fast to her vision, never letting anyone convince her it was too much, never letting the doubt sway her. She deserves whatever praise and self-satisfaction she receives for this project because she made it her own. I admire the dedication to the vision she had, the ability to let the nay saying wash over her head and keep moving forward.

My kid is pretty damn amazing. If I do say so myself.

got me some gnome of my own

Meet The Gnome.

He currently resides just under my computer monitor at work. I think he's repelling all the annoying emails asking me to do stuff I don't really want to do.

He makes me smile everytime I look at him.

My daughter made him. You know you want one for your desk, too.

Molten Breath

Some years ago I stumbled across pictures of glass sculptures that were so different than anything I had ever seen, I was mesmerized. Glass blowing has always fascinated me, breathing form into molten glass, using fire and color. The ability to create, in any medium, is an incredible gift as far as I’m concerned. But the art of glassblowing remains mysterious and mystical to me.

Breath, fire, sand, color…Art. How amazingly spectacular.

I spent time researching the art of Dale Chihuly online after that first glimpse. I pulled up images online, devoting quite a bit of time reading up on the artist and the techniques. Not to mention oohing! and aaahhing! over the colors! The forms! The styles! My fandom is encompassing and geeky. I may not idolize, but I will certainly know as much as possible about the new thing that has captured my attention. It’s my own particular brand of obsessive crazy.

Imagine my surprise when this was one of the first things I encountered when we went to Atlantis for the aquarium tour during vacation. (Atlantis, by the way, is massive and pretty and ridiculously overpriced.) ((No, we didn’t stay there, just visited.))We were headed, at a crisp pace, toward the main hotel to get tickets and as I walked into the room, I just stopped and stared. SuperHubby and Giggles had to come back for me because I just stood there, taking pictures, looking and looking. They didn’t even know I stopped.

This is called Crystal Gate. It just shimmers in the light, right there in one of the main hallways. It’s really breathtaking, like an explosion of crystal water surging from the floor, glimmers of rainbow light dancing on each tendril. And huge. I could just hang out right in that room for a few hours, thank you very much. Just bring me food and drink.

Here are the Sun and Moon, standing tall atop monolithic pedestals smack in the middle of a casino. Which disturbed quite a bit actually, as the noise was loud and clanging and I wanted quiet to take in the color and light of these. And to remind my husband and daughter that I NEEDED TO ADMIRE THE ART, THANK YOU VERY MUCH and now stop rushing me!! The aquarium can wait.

The colors and detail, well, they speak for themselves.

I know there’s a chandelier in the hotel, but either I was too clueless to find it or too rapt in what I did encounter to see it. It’s supposed to be very detailed, and elegant, and flowing with sea shapes. Internet, do you know that that means? It means SuperHubby has to take me back there so I can take pictures for you.

Yes? YES!

There’s more about Chihuly's work here

Claymation

Giggles can spend hours making art love with Sculpey Clay. It's one of her favorite things ever. When we bought a case of it to have on hand for her marathon creativity sessions, her eyes glazed and she might've drooled like a junkie anticipating that next high. It was hard to tell as she was shoving me out of the way so she could get her hands in the box to haul out one of the sample color packs.

Here are some of her recent artistic expressions for your viewing pleasure.

(Santa's picture didn't come out so well. he might have eaten too many cookies)

Sculpey makes these great sample packs that contain 32 one ounce bricks of different colorful clay to mold and twist and form and bake into artful posterity. I am grateful to them for the hours of entertainment this stuff brings to my daughter. Not to mention the satisfaction it brings her when she makes gifts for others.

Here's an Apple Pie for them:

We love the clay.

Blue Flower Sculpting

Miss Giggles is a creative kid. She likes to draw, write and make what ever comes to mind with clay. We like to support her creative impulses as best we can. When her friend's birthday's roll around, she makes these elaborate cards for them that include Pop-up elements

She made this awesome flower using Sculpey clay last month. The detail in the petals and leaves is not really visible in the photo but it's there. We were able to bake it so she can keep it.
Sculpey clay is every parents friend! How cool is it that we can keep these momentos?

Normally if I point the camera in her direction she turns away or makes the a face that turns her into Golem from Lord of the Rings. But it's her art work so she will pose with it.

That white stuff on the deck? Locust tree flowers. EVERYWHERE. They rain down like snow every June. Love the scent, hate the clean-up.