12 Months of FFAC

As we wind down 2014, I realize the struggle I have experienced with this blog thing.  It's new to me and I've never consistently recorded all I do, but it's a good challenge.  I want to share my work and experiences, so my new year's resolution is to record these happenings on a regular basis.  Sorry this year went awry.  Rather than struggle to write a new post so many moons late, I will count down the 12 months of FFAC on this fine Christmas Eve eve. ;-)

January 2014 was Duct Tape Designs.  We have done this program in years past.  We worked on a wallet pattern, but the kids always have other interests and goals.  Pictures are lost in space for this program, but I want your attention to go to Duck Brand Promotions.  We were given a case of Duck Brand Duct Tape from ShurTech Brands (makers of Duck Brand Duct Tape) and I really appreciate what the company will do for communities.  As a fashion enthusiast, I am enamored with the Stuck-at-Prom contest.  The ingenuity involved in these creations is mind boggling.  I challenge you to create for this contest.  I would certainly support your efforts!

February 2014 was Needle Felting.  This is yet another photo-less event.  Items made were intended as Valentine gifts.  The video here is a great beginner tutorial.  Needle felting can be a relaxing and meditative craft.  Beware that needle, though!  It's a brutal beast if contacted with skin--OUCH!!

March and April 2014 involved a special guest instructor, Laura Charles.  We worked with character and scene drawing in March.  Those scenes were then painted in water color in April.  I even received a painting from this session as a gift for the library!  Check out the lesson description here.

May was Beads for Mom.  Please check my archive link for the full description.

June was Baskets for Dad.  We celebrate our parents these months leading into summer, so I offer programs to create gifts of appreciation for those special folks.  We purchased these basket kits from Guild Craft.  The kits were a great value.  Special needs students integrated with the usual crew of crafters and this collage shows the results.

July was a month off from First Friday Art Club, because it was Independence Day. It was a momentous occasion for me.  My long-time beau proposed and now we are engaged! We also traveled to Galeton, Pa for the most spectacular fireworks display I could never imagine.  Take a peek at the finale.

August was a fun field trip to the Corning Museum of Glass.  The Summer Reading Club theme for Young Adults was "Spark a Reaction" so I collaborated with the CMoG Youth and Family Programs Educator, Mieke Fay, to create an engaging glass-involved field trip.  

Students watched a Hot Glass show with Gaffer G. Brian Juk.  They visited the Rakow Research Library to view artist's original drawings of pieces in the museum collection.  The group then went into the museum and hunted for the art pieces they first saw in 2-D form.  They sat in the galleries and drew their own glass designs.  This visit was successful and likely to happen again in 2015.  Corning Museum of Glass is an amazing community resource and I like to remind our local youth to experience all the museum has to offer.

September was for Self Portrait Silhouettes.  

Self Portraits are great for the artist in training.  There is no better model than yourself, willing to wait while you perfect your skill.  There was lots of room for expression here, too.

October was Mad Monster Masks.  Check out the event in the archive.

November was Colorful Crayon Creations.  Color a design on sandpaper using crayons; the finer the grit, the better your image will appear.  

Iron the crayon image side down onto a piece of fabric and your image transfers.  

Heat set the image for 30 minutes in a dryer on HIGH.

The results are spectacular and fairly permanent.

December was a First Friday Art Club and Teen Cooking Club combination program called Make & Bake.  The program is documented with images.  Hopefully these gifts will be given out before the year is over.

Thanks for sticking around this long.  Stop back in February when I return with notes from the first session of my Still Life Drawing class.  Students are not very enthusiastic about drawing and rendering.  I remember those days.  Spread the news and help fill these classes.

See you in 2015.  Happy New Year!

Make & Bake

That time of year has come and gone again.  Make & Bake is a program combining Teen Cooking Club and First Friday Art Club into a 2 hour creation fest.  I remember being too young to work and lacked enough craft supplies to make cool things for my friends and family.  Therefore, I scramble through the year for supplies necessary for my teens to make marvelous treasures for those they love.

This year we hosted a special collaboration with Amy Ruza from The Rockwell Museum for attendees to make ceramic ornaments for the holidays.  Although I had several tables set up for various crafts, the ceramic ornaments table stole the spotlight!

The flurry of activity gave way to these:

The tough part of making ceramics is waiting for them to be fired (not like what Donald Trump does to people on The Apprentice!).  We may not have these ready in time for Christmas, but I think gifts are extra fun when the holiday is passed, but there is still something special to give.

Along with these ceramic specialties, there were Snow Bottles to create.

Wine bottles look extra elegant when spray painted and dipped in Epsom salt.  The inspiration came from this blog.  I sourced plain bottles and was very happy not to peel off labels, etc.  We drew in hot glue as a resist for the spray paint.  Then sprayed white primer, followed by spray adhesive and Epsom salt.  The hot glue can be peeled off to reveal the clear glass once everything is dry.  I added LED lights to mine for a festive effect.

Hand sewing skills were required for these cute handwarmers.

Some kids got creative with the fabric designs.  I wish these were made for me!

Scented pine cones were another option, although the ceramics took away any interest in natural objects.

After 1 hour of baking out any bugs, spritz the cones with essential oil water.  We broke tradition and used oil of Wintergreen.  Mmm!

These yummy Salted Caramel Turtle Thumbprint Cookies were a special treat made by me, because we simply ran out of time.  While the kids created, I baked!  These are so fabulous, go ahead and bake them, but please, please, PLEASE share with me!!!

Now you have the sources to make your own hand made gifts for your loved ones.

Merry Christmas!

Love, Erica

Leather Pouches in Honor of Native American Heritage Month

This program was a "day off of school" activity on Veteran's Day.  Registered attendees each experimented with leather making and took home a wonderful keepsake.  This was not a First Friday Art Club event, but artistic nonetheless.  Therefore, I share with you the great projects we created.

All the leather for this program was generously donated by Aurora Shoe Company.  Aurora shoes are so soft and comfortable and Made In the U.S.A.  We are proud to have been given such great quality product to make these pouches.  Thanks ASC!!!

Instructions for a Needle Case are found on Native Tech

Mad Monster Masks....well, Maybe

October is the month for monsters, masks and mayhem!  I LOVE HALLOWEEN!  I also love making my costumes, so I planned First Friday Art Club around making masks this October. I wanted to share my skills and love of costume design, but I was not thoroughly prepared to teach the techniques, just reintroduce the method.   My mask intention involved paper mache', the white glue and paper strip technique.  Technical difficulties abound held back our mask making mode.

It turns out, the Corning Chamber of Commerce asked to introduce their YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS ACADEMY to my group.  I always welcome new ideas to share with my teens, and this program has tremendous value.  I welcome you to further investigate this amazing opportunity.  There is a fee, but certainly a worthwhile program for youth in Corning, NY. 

The mixed media mask (image above) was the intended goal during program planning. Paper mache' is time consuming, extra, EXTRA messy and very difficult to transport while wet.  These hindrances were evident within the first 10 minutes of the program.  What is one to do when faced with too many problems at once?  IMPROVISE!

With less than adequate time to produce a paper mache' masks, I told all participants to make what they wanted with the supplies available.  Cardboard masks, prepped and painted can be a wonderful form of self expression.  We had a flurry of madness and a ton of mayhem by the end of the program.  I had been pulled in more than 20 different directions in 10 minutes, so pictures of projects are lacking.  I have one memory that will always remain.

Clean up is necessary for my programs.  It is expected that attendance lasts the duration of the planned program.  For the kids who follow those expectations, they enjoyed the ever fun shake-the-parachute (a.k.a. camping tarp) game (a.k.a. dry that tarp quickly so it does not mold!)  The giggles and camaraderie involved in this simple step remind my of the innocence of youth and that a little mayhem is good for the soul.

Colorful Crayon Creations are on the calendar for November.

Bring a t-shirt and your imagination, we will provide the rest!

Thanks for stopping over at the First Friday Art Club.

.e.

Paper Beads

Now that I have a chance to focus and reflect after the 6 crazy weeks of Summer Reading Program, (*SRP is FUN, but very busy!!) I can recap some programs that passed.  

Way back (those two words always remind me of the Way Back Machine, have you ever tried it?!?--oh I've digressed)...

Way back in May, I honored Mother's Day with the First Friday Art Club.  I like to consider holidays as opportunities for my teens and tweens to make gifts to give, rather than keep.  Considering May is for Moms, we learned how to make beads with simple materials and instructions, so the techniques could be copied at home.

I collected maps, magazines, weekly grocery ads, even paper from recycling bins to supply the program.  Very cheap inexpensive program potential.  Beads like our examples are available for sale in fair trade stores and online, but whenever I can DIY, I need to share and not shop!

simple supplies and instructions led the way to complete creativity

I began the program with this simple handout showing 3 main bead shapes to give inspiration.

After a few minutes of demonstration on cutting the paper on a protective surface (we want to keep our tables forever and ever) everyone chose their paper and were on a roll, literally.

Bamboo skewers provided a great tool for rolling and drying the beads.

Aside from scrapbook paper, which I purchased for another program, Mod Podge was the critical element used to seal these beads.  We wrapped the paper around a stick, sealed the end with glue, then slathered the bead in Mod Podge to give it a hard feel and glossy appearance.  

Participants got creative with other accessories, like beads purchased from a craft store.

This craft was quick, easy, relaxing, and, best of all, cheap inexpensive nearly free!

The results were just like items found online or in specialty shops.  It's always gratifying to have successes as simple as this program.

The few beads that were left will be saved for another time,

but I did have fun putting them to use. :-)

Watercolor with Laura Charles

In March, I invited Laura Charles to instruct a drawing lesson in my young adult First Friday Art Club.  The house was PACKED!  We had planned to draw and produce a watercolor scene in just an hour and a half program.  Needless to say, we had to extend the session into April. 

Many of the students were given quality watercolor paper to take home and finalize their character and scene sketches.  Then they were expected to return one month later with said paper and drawing, ready to paint.  I am proud to say, they did it!  I am the ever forgetful student who loses the paper, forgets the date of the next session, or cannot recall the lesson.  Good thing my students were better prepared than me.

Laura gave a very brief introduction to the watercolor painting process, which was not a new technique for many of the students.  We then gave paper palettes and small dabs of paint for everyone to create their masterpieces.  Despite the shade of red in our packs being more of an orange, neglecting the ability to create a purple or more cool colors, the kids really enjoyed themselves and created beautiful paintings.  

Ancient Battle Scene, check out the audience!

This Animé Pilot is being submitted in the 4H Fair.

These girls love dogs.  Is that Zena the Warrior Princess?

And so after several minutes of editing issues (have I mentioned I am new to blogging?- do you have editing issues after inserting some photos?) I can continue to brag about these kids and their amazing creations.
There were less kids in this session than last month, which allowed Laura more time to guide each student.  These paintings were well thought out and executed.  I am very proud of the efforts of each student, even the kids who participated as a result of sibling peer pressure.

Here are a few others that I really enjoyed.  

Art is often about the process, not always the final product. 

Skateboard Girl

Mystery Girl and Who Horse

Eagles and Run the Race

With so much talent and creativity in one room, I want to cover the library walls to exhibit these masterpieces.  Eventually.....
For now, I will focus on the next program, Beads for Mom.  We will make gifts for the most special lady in our lives, just in time for Mother's Day.  There is room to register, in case you have an interested student.  (607)936-3713, xt. 503.

Until next month, I will close with a collage including one of my favorite paintings from this session.  The subject is a sleuthing librarian, perusing the stacks to solve a mystery.  Two girls worked on this project together.  Although they would not claim me as the subject, I'm taking the claim.  I am a ninja-near-librarian, hear me "Ssshhhh."  :-)     

I spy a Ninja-Near-Librarian

See you next month!

Young Adults LOVE to Draw

My First Friday Art Club has existed since 2010.  It is designed to entice young adults, ages 10 and older, to explore artistic avenues.  Each month I create a new theme, usually inspired by my own interest at the moment.  Drawing is the basis of most art and design, yet I only visited this theme once, way back in the beginning of this group's existence.

On October 1, 2010, a dear artist friend, Gretchen Halpert, facilitated one of the first FFAC (First Friday Art Club) sessions with a "Drawing from Nature" theme.  It was a small group of 11, more adults than young adults. 

That was the beginning of a club that has since grown strong in numbers and following.
 I now have a steady 25 participants, at least, each month and long waiting list

Nearly four years later, my students requested a drawing and painting class, so I honored popular demand and hired another local artist whom I met at 171 Cedar Arts Center.

Laura Charles is a very talented illustrator.  Her drawings are whimsical and magical, quite like a storybook page, and perfect for a library program.  Talents such as Laura's speak to kids.  We planned a "Character and Scene Drawing" theme to be painted in watercolor.

This class was so popular, I had to stop registration at 30 participants, but 4 more slipped in, and how could I turn them away?!

Over 30 kids crammed in a library community room, little elbow room available, but the results are fabulous!

 Our goals for the students were higher than time allowed.  Drawing is a fine skill, requiring much more than two hours to perfect a character and scene.  These kids were so engaged in the process, I look forward to seeing their finished drawings in April, when we will introduce watercolor and finalize these masterpieces.

 

See you again in April....until then, Happy Pi Day!