musings – consume or not?

I was chatting with a friend. We used to work together in a major toy store chain. It was a great place…bright, cheerful  and very pleasant … but somehow we both felt caught up into the unsatisfying side of consumerism. Selling more stuff to people who had stuff, who returned stuff to get credit for more stuff.

In my program development, I have been exploring the Internet for fun ideas that are free and available for download. I’ve found a ton of them. Designers, educators, stay-at-home parents are all developing incredible toys and activities that are just a mouse click away.

The operative search word is ‘papercraft’

I just made this Celtic Knot Heart from the website extremecards.blogspot.ca               Mine is in red and pink.

finished celtic knot heart from website photo source: extremecards.blogspot.ca

Some of my favourite papercraft websites are:

• Canon Creative Park
• extreme cards and papercrafting
• Tektonten Papercraft
• Custom Paper Toys
• The Toymaker
• Chuck does art

Or look for youtube videos on how to make pop-up cards, origami animals or 3D modeling. All it takes is paper (usually cardstock 64 ib weight), a colour printer, scissors of different sizes, glue and tweezers (optional).

Then have some fun.

 

Signage – how great are these?!!!

There are four pillars in the lounge area we use to stage our mini-museums. And there were four themed stations for the Silk Road event. So I thought it would be great if each pillar had a graphic descriptive sign.

I presented the challenge to two Museum Studies SuperGrads and here is what they came up with. Just amazing!

China event sign photo source: Lorie Pierce

 

the oasis stop on the Silk Road photo source : Lorie Pierce

 

When in Rome...are those Papal Guards? I forgot to ask. photo source : Lorie Pierce

 

Welcome to India on the maritime Silk Route photo source : Lorie Pierce

Check out the artists at this previous event….look for the post

sightings – Awesome Animal helpers

 

When to let go

After spending two months developing a program, I find I have lived and relived scenarios as to how the activity areas will work and how the participant/volunteer interaction will occur. Then I get to the event and realize I have to let go.

program materials packed for transport to the offsite event photo source : Lorie Pierce

After the recent Silk Road mini-museum, a volunteer told me she appreciated the variety of materials she had at her station. It gave her a richness to work from…..not restricting her to a single activity. The station was built to have historical information, touchables, a craft, a take-away colouring page and a mark of completion (a stamp in a passport).

This allowed the volunteer to tailor her interactions with whomever came along. To the level of interest, age etc. At my station, one child was keenly interested in the Chinese horoscope stickers I had available, to the exclusion of everything else. And especially with an audience like ours which is composed of families who are going through a trouble time, it is important that we meet them where they are.

However, it does mean that I might have spent a lot of time and effort in developing an activity, model or other aspect of a program that does not get much use or attention during the event. All of these are things that we need to drag with us to and from the venue. But it is worth it to have the richness present.

After all, the other activities can be used at future events.

Recycling a Junk

I was impressed by how much of the Silk Road trading was actually done by the Maritime Silk Route passing Southeast Asia and India. So when I setup the Ancient China and Silk Road program, I decided to add a section on the sea route.

Ideally, I would have a model ship to demonstrate that this was a different type of route. No camels, no oases to hunt for in search of water. Ocean going vessels of different types plied the Indian Ocean. In a happenstance kind of way, I came across a Megablocks ship hull in a secondhand store. Missing most of its identifying features, I could not tell what type of vessel it purported to be, but it looked vaguely like a Viking ship.

the boat - as is photo source : Lorie Pierce

Would it be possible to turn it into anything that would resemble a Chinese junk?

Without substantial rebuilding, I couldn’t really attain the squared off prow and stern required….so I will be fudging that angle. However, what appears to be most distinctive about the junk is the sail. I set about looking for a version that I could use on this hull.

pttern for papercraft junk photo source : Lorie Pierce

Online, I located a pattern for a papercraft Chinese Junk. This is a downloadable and printable model that requires only cutting out and gluing.

http://kakibogen.de/images/Chinasegler.html

But the model itself was much too small for the activity table. So I cut out the sail, scanned it and then printed out a copy at 160% onto card stock paper (64 lb).

mast support photo source : Lorie Pierce

The obvious choice for a mast was nearby in the kitchen. A single wooden chopstick with flat sides. The sail was glued along the flat side and left overnight. In the meantime, I raided a LEGO Contractions kit for a wheel and other bricks to support the mast. Fortunately, the Megablock and Lego bricks are compatible and easily snapped together. The skinny end of the chopstick was inserted in the wheel and the sail was hoisted on the hybrid junk.

completed ship photo source : Lorie Pierce

Here is the completed version, ready for the event this Sunday.

Ancient Rome – homemade Laurels

At the upcoming event, a toga will be available for children to ‘dress like a Roman’.

Since our galleries have wonderful gold laurels from ancient times, I decided to try to add one of these amazing head ornaments to the costume. Studying the real items, I saw that the gold leaves were connected in sets of three. Some looked like bay laurel leaves (like the kind you pop into a stew but take out before serving). Others looked like oak leaves. The leaves all pointed towards the centre of the brow.

Now to recreate the effect with craft materials. Here’s what I chose.

craft materials photo source : Lorie Pierce

I had set out to find a thick card stock with gold foil on one side but they were sold in large inflexible sheets that were too big for what I needed and too difficult to transport. The retail clerk suggested foil origami paper. It was still gold on only one side but could be formed better into a curling leaf shape.

Back in the gallery, I traced out the oak leaf shape with pencil on paper. Before transferring the design onto the origami paper, I folded the paper in two and glued it together so both sides were gold (see photo above). A pencil tracing around a completed leaf was used to outline the next leaf for cutting. Cuticle scissors worked best for the small oak leaf lobes.

a single gold oak leaf photo source : Lorie Pierce

I cut 6 sets of 3 leaves – 18 in all – for the head wreath, then attached them with cellophane tape to a gold glitter chenille stem. The leaves, taped together in groups of 3, pointed towards the centre of the stem, starting with the central sets first.

After the three sets were attached on each side, I wound a second gold glitter chenille stem around the first to hold the leaf sets in place.

The last task was to find a subject to wear the laurels for a victory photo.

Winston Churchill with laurels photo source : Lorie Pierce

Churchill was an obvious first choice. He is a resident hero at our house. But I found another candidate who seemed eager to try the headgear.

carved cat (yet unnamed) with laurels photo source : Lorie Pierce

Here they are side by side.

Churchill or cat? photo source : Lorie Pierce

 

Disney Darling

© Disney

A good friend has started a blog about all things Disney.

Reading the entries about her fascination with the world Walt Disney created has sent me on an interesting trip down memory lane.

Being of a certain age, I am one of the Disney generation. I would come home from school to watch the Mouseketeers. Annette, Cubby, Lonnie, Darlene, Cheryl and Jimmy too. Spin (or was it Marty) was my first crush. My 8th birthday party featured a trip to the movie theatre to see Bambi with my friends. I had a punch-out cardboard pumpkin carriage from Cinderella and many Disney books.

© Disney

In the days of the lone family TV…the one and only entertainment portal to the outside world … the Sunday trip to the World of Disney was a magical experience. It helped me forget my angst of having the TV tied up every Wednesday and Saturday nights with hours of hockey by the four males who inhabited the house with me.

In fact the whole evening was a magical transportation to other worlds. First at 5:00 pm was College Bowl. As the smells of dinner started to permeate the first floor of our house, we kids would gather with teams from colleges across the US (a Toronto version called Reach for the Top would follow) to answer skill-testing questions on important academic topics. Then a couple of family-oriented sitcoms before the Ed Sullivan Show – that grand showcase that brought world-class entertainment from opera stars, to circus acts to rock and roll upstarts like the Beatles, into our living room. Finish the night with Bonanza at 9:00 pm helping Ben, Little Joe, Hoss and Adam handle business on the Ponderosa. A lot of TV back then was preoccupied with cowboy life. On special nights, Bonanza would be replaced by a Wayne & Shuster Special.

Sunday was ‘the’ night for entertainment and Disney was the anchoring element for us kids.

Follow the adventures of Disney Darling at      disneydarling.ca

 

 

The Roman World – Mosaics

In the exploration of the Roman stop on the Silk Road, the children will be making a mosaic picture. It will also be used as a stand alone activity to be left for families who could not attend the event.

Mosaics can be a bit time-consuming so, in order to make it easier to complete, the activity has been fashioned like a paint-by-number. Four colours and two shapes provide a nice three dimensional effect.

basic mosaic with 24 tiles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The coloured pieces are cut from coloured paper stock that has been photocopied with the square and diamond shapes. Then the children need only attach the ’tiles’ using a glue stick. To cut down on the activity time, the shapes will be pre-cut and the squares may be glued ahead, leaving only 16 pieces for gluing.

finished mosaic in four colours

And the paint-by-number version?

Or should I say paint-by-letter?

final version of activity sheet source : Lorie Pierce