Tiki Tiki!!( again)

 I've done a few posts already about my love for Tiki designs. Its been one of my most popular posts ever, here on my wee blog. (See here!). So when the theme of this years Feile na Bealtaine parade was announced, as 'Masks', I knew immediately what I wanted to do.


For a few years now, I have worked with the local boy's school here in Dingle, designing and making their Feile parade costumes and props. I thought the theme of Tiki masks would suit the boys down to the ground.

Paper Chains, the tutorial

I said I'd post a few tutorials, and since this is a Christmas one, I better get it in before Christmas.

Paper chains were, pretty much the decorations of choice when we were growing up. It was officially Xmas when the ma came home with crepe paper, and we started the relentless folding. I thought these were just bog standard DIY decorations, but surprisingly, my post about paper chains, in 2010, has become my all-time most read blog post, and I've had people email me about how to make them. Well, finally, here's a little tutorial. (Only took me 2 years to get this together!).

Kids Origami Game and Tralee Harvest Picnic

Have spent the week unpacking and sorting after last Sundays Harvest Picnic, I had to catch up on housewifey/motherly duties. On wet and windy days, trying to amuse the child, in a non electronic way, can be tough. But sometimes the simplest ideas, the old ideas, are still the best. Remember these?

I made several of these with the child and his friends, and in doing so made several observations. Making these requires making clean folds, and, therefore,concentration. Precise folds, the essence of origami, are a great indicator of hand/eye concentration, and well, simple listening skills. Its also about simplifying moves. Make a wrong fold and the paper permanently creased, wont work as well. It took making a few before the kids got it; that slow precise moves were better than fast rough ones. However they got well stuck in, becoming more precise with each one. Using them is also incredibly good for dexterity of the fingers, at first they couldn't use them, but after about 10mins, they were pros.

We all wrote different things inside them, and, funnily enough, mine was the rudest. I wrote things in it like you're a smelly pants, the worst thing the kids wrote was 'bad luck'.. but that will probably change once I'm out of range...I'll probably be able to get another week out of these before I have to come up with something else, 'from the old days, back when I was a kid' as the kids refer to my childhood.

We're off today to another Harvest Picnic! Transition  Kerry are hosting their foody day, and well, they are pros. Incredibly well organised, efficient, and downright revolutionary in their action plans. A fantastic group, and some lovely people. It'll be a fun afternoon.

How to draw a Tiki Head!

As I said in a previous post, I got my son to help me design the tiki stuff I made for the last Retro Romp. So here's is the method I worked out, so he could help me. He picked the features and I drew them out. Its an incredibly easy system, and a great one to do with the kids and for just general doodling. The diagrams I've drawn are a bit rough, but what the hey, you'll get my drift. This is tribal stuff, the rougher the better.

And don't be fussing about the lines! Kids are constantly told in school to stay within the lines, and unfortunately this can stay with us as adults. When one neighbours kid got upset because he coloured outside the line, I just gave him the big black marker and said, change the line. He was chuffed...

Good Advice (from my most honest critic)

This is the conversation I had with my 5yr old, the other morning, whilst getting him ready for school

Child: What are you doing today?

Me: I have to meet a few people

Child: Are you going to be chatting about 'the thing'

Me: Yes, I'm going to be chatting about 'the thing'

Child: You are doing a lot of chatting about the thing. Are you going to do any work?

Me (laughs)

Child: You haven't done any work in ages. You haven't made anything in ages.

Me: (not quite laughing) I know. I'd much rather be making something

Child: Then stop chatting and make something

He's right! He's bloody right! I gotta stop chatting and make something. I have been so caught up with 'the thing', talking/planning/writing/dreaming about 'the thing'. Its eating away at my making time.

You just gotta love kids! If we brought kids to meetings, they'd be honest, over very fast, and probably have ice-cream and fizzy drinks. I think we should always bring a kid to a meeting.

And to cheer me up (because he knows me too well, and knows I'll start going crazy if I don't make something soon), he drew me some pictures. I know mothers naturally love their kids pictures, but well...its tear jerking stuff....

a jumper for each of us

a rug for each of us

( he pointed out the knots on the rugs in his picture...)

My most honest and most inspiring critic

Lá le Bríde - Crosóg Bhríde

(I'm editing this post, because I had a revelation! Because I didn't bother cleaning up the mess until the day after, I discovered how to tie the knots....read on....)

It's that time of the year again. There's a great demo on how to make a St. Brigid's Cross, and a some blurb on Brigid Of Faughart and the Celtic Festival of Imbolc the original celebration to mark the coming of spring on http://newgrange.com/imbolc.htm

There is something that always bugged me though, knotting the arms. I just can't bring myself to use an elastic band. And I find making the knots fiddly and annoying if you havent got a great range of supple, knotable, reeds. So, after 24 hours of a messy kitchen table, I discovered the secret... This is probably a very silly revelation to an experienced cross maker, or anyone that has worked with reeds before, but for me, years of annoyance has finally been solved....The trick is to use day old cut reeds!

Here is the difference between a cross made with fresh reeds and day old reeds.

Fresh reeds

Day old Reeds

I prefer the cross made with fresh reeds, I find the day old one a bit flat. So, the choice is yours, you can use fresh or day old. BUT for the knots use day old reeds, the thin tips. Dont use if theres any brown bits, they are too brittle. So, here is how I tied the knots:

If you dont have day old reeds and you want to make your cross, tie up like this, and then the following day, tie your knot.

Then, the night of Lá le Brid, burn your cross from last year, and hang your new one up in the kitchen. And dont forget to leave your red rag out! (More info about the tradition on The Woolly Way here)


New and Old St. Brigids Crosses

and because you know I like patterns, and mess, I had to take a pic of the floor.

One too many paper chains, perhaps...

In a previous blog post, I had talked about the fun we had making our Halloween Decorations, and talked about bringing back the paper chain. Well, over the past 2 weeks I have gone a bit mad with the Christmas decorations. It’s my first year in my new house (and hopefully the first of many, many years in the same house...). So, because of a combination my Yarnaholics Programme*, and the appalling weather we’re been having over the past month, I have managed to have nothing to do! I don’t mean nothing to do, but no crazy community projects or deadlines, having to be here there and everywhere. And my god, it’s tough! Its way harder than working hard. I am usually rushing around chasing after projects as time slips away, but now I am humming and hawing about what to next. So, for my first year in my new house, I have managed to make nearly all the Christmas decorations.

Firstly I made these....

Then I made these.

Lots of these. These were my favourites as a kid, and with a few different coloured packs of crepe paper, it’s amazing how many you can make, and get carried away with...

The tiny little synthetic tree was unwrapped, and we made angels

Then a lino-printing session to make all the Christmas Cards

Then, I had to crochet some snowflakes, and well, got carried away with that too, and made a few for the tree, and the window by the front door, and a bunch for token presents to friends and family

Snowflakes blocking

Oh, and we painted the front door...

Inside and Outside

PHEW! To top it off some Christmas tunes from The Rat Pack and Leon Redbone... It’s a festive, very cheap and cheerful Christmas. I'm almost ready to be snowed in...

*Must update the Yarnaholic Programme, it'll be my New Years Resolution...

Happy Christmas

Belated Halloween Post...and Bring back the Paper-Chain this Christmas!

We were the last on our road to put Halloween decorations, and the last to take them down. (finally got it together yesterday). Another point, is we were the only ones to put up only hand-made decorations.

Everyone else had the same plastic/glow-in-the-dark tat from China. I didn't buy any, because I dont believe in buying all that crap. It's not just the money, I'm not being a miser. It's well, the 2nd reason, what better projects to do with the kids on a rainy day!

For me as a kid, that was the whole thing about celebrations. Spending days up your eyeballs in paint, glue and glitter... So, anyway, here's some of the stuff we made, now safely stowed for next year, and now it's time to get going on the Christmas decorations.

Having a chat with a friend, we were talking about the ole days, the days of the paper chain. The days of cutting and stitching, tears and repairs. It's about creating memories for your kids. Kids are so confined these days, because of our fears, safetly from cars, strangers, etc... We dont realise they dont have that sense of being kids that we had. So, I'm saying for the sake of giving kids happy memories, this most memerable of Christmasses (the Christmas the IMF came), don't buy the plastic tat from China, bring back the paper-chain this Christmas.

Culture Night 2009 - Tralee

Culture night is a great thing...if you don't have young kids. My fella has a very short attention span. I am quite willing to bring him all kinds of places, but he isn't.... So, it doesn't matter what time it is, day or night. He's not very interested, or so he says....

I had to drag him out to go to Dancing on the Streets, an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the largest Irish dance.... Don't know how many turned up, but we had a great time. Dancing, face-painting, ice-cream... What more could a kid want! They had been looking for folk to do free demo's and stuff, but of course I didn't hear about it in time... Maybe next year...

Lion-face

St. Patrick's Day stuff

I said when posting some pics for Valentines Day, I would get it together to post some pics for St. Patrick's Day. So, here they are. These are some projects I made for kids art workshops.

Tips and Hints: If you are working with a larger group of kids, you can have somethings pre-cut and printed off already to help save time. It also makes the cards look better. (You try writing Happy St. Patrick's Day with small hands on a small card! Don't expect a small child to.)

• For getting thin strips of paper, simply shred different coloured paper and card in a normal paper shredder. Kids love shredded paper.
• For the mobiles, I did the shamrocks on the computer, just copy and paste 100 shamrock shapes onto one page, and print it off on green card. This might seem a bit time-consuming, but once you have it done, save it and pull it out every year for Paddy's Day, football matches, etc..
  
• The greetings were all printed off as well. Same thing, copy and paste it as many times as possible onto one page. Then print.
• The Ireland motif was also printed off and then cut.
  
• Most of the cards were made using a stick glue, but if you wanted a bit of relief, for the motif to stand slightly away from the card, you can use thick (slightly papped) double-sided tape. Use a stronger glue for St. Patrick's model, eg Bostick,
  
• Sometimes its easier to stick things onto a card, and then trim down the edges. Rather then trying to cut it to size
  

Painted Stones - couldn't be easier

* Get a large stone, paint it green
* Paint on a mouth and nose
* Glue tufts of wool/fleece on the top for hair
* Stick on googly eyes


How to cut out a Shamrock
This is a nice easy way to cut out a good shamrock. If you use card, then you can use it as a template. All you need is to fold a page, draw on half a shamrock with a pen, cut out, then fold out.

Shamrock Card

*Using the method above, cut out 3 shamrocks. You can use paper or card. Try make them slightly bigger than the next. So cut out the green 1st, then cut the white a bit bigger, then the orange a bit bigger than white.
*Cut a card shape from green paper. Fold in two.
*Get 4 strips of yellow paper/card and glue them on all sides

*Stick the shamrock shapes down in order, largest to smallest.
*Print off a page with the words Happy St. Patrick's Day
*Cut this out and glue down onto the card.



Another Shamrock Card

Not that different from the card above:
*Cut out 2 shamrocks. I used a gold card and green card. Again, cut the gold slightly bigger than the green
*Cut a card shape from white paper. Fold in two.
*Get 3 strips of paper orange, white and green, cut them down to size and lay them in sequence.
*Stick these across the card
*Then, stick the shamrock shapes down gold first, then green
*Print off a page with the words Happy St. Patrick's Day
*Cut this out and glue down onto the card.


Ireland Card

This is a bit more difficult for younger kids to cut out, so you could have some pre-cut.
*Cut out 2 Ireland shapes. I used a gold card and green card. Again, cut the gold slightly bigger than the green
*Cut a card shape from white paper. Fold in two.
*Get 1 strips green and glue this to the card
*Then, stick the Ireland shapes down, gold first, then green
*Print off a page with the words Happy St. Patrick's Day
*Cut this out and glue down onto the card.


Crock of Gold Card

*Fold a sheet of card in half and paint sky and fields
*Paint a rainbow onto a piece of card, then cut it out.
*Cut out a crock from black paper
*Cut out a triangular shape from gold card. You can draw circles on this so it looks like coins.
*Stick the gold triangle to the back of the crock of gold.
*When the card is dry, stick on the rainbow
*Finally, stick on the crock of gold.

ShamrockMobile

*Cut a paper plate in half











*Stick down several strips of rainbow colours, and while the glue is wet, sprinkle on gold glitter. Leave to dry

*Get some large beans, such as broad beans and spray gold. Leave to dry.
*Cut out one big shamrock and several small shamrocks.
*Glue the large shamrock to the rainbow
*Cut several long lengths of string and tie these around the each bead
*Using a needle, thread the string through a few small shamrocks, and then tie onto the bottom of the rainbow
*Repeat this until you have as many beans as you want!

The Main Man himself chasing snakes out of Ireland!

To make St. Patrick:
*To get the nice pattern on St Patrick's body and hat, you simply get some old lace curtain. Lay this down onto a sheet of green card, and spray with gold paint. Lift off the lace and you will be left with the pattern!
*For the body, cut a large cone shape from green card
*For the hat, cut out two triangular shapes from green card and glue the edges
*Glue some gold thread around the end of the hat and body
For the face cut out and oval shape, and paint on eyes and a beard
*Glue this in place to the hat
*Glue the hat and face on top of the body
*Get a green pipe cleaner, bend into a hook shape and glue it into place

To make the cross:
*Cut out 2 shapes of a cross from black card.
*Using thick double sided tape, stick them together.To make the snakes:
*Get some coloured pipe cleaners and bent them into snake shapes.

To make the box
*Get a small box, cover the top and all the sides with green tissue. I used leftover green napkins, and a glued it down roughly. Don't cover the bottom. Leave to dry

To finish
*Stick it all in place!











Please remember these are all my designs so hold some copyright thingymabobs, but I don't mind you using them with your own kids or students. If you' re not sure, just ask me! And if you do use them, I'd love to see some pics!