{this moment}

a friday ritual: a moment to savor and share.

inspired by soulemama.com

{these words}

Be careful what you think, your thoughts become words.
Be careful what you say, your words become actions.
Be careful what you do, your actions become your character.
So always work hard on who you are becoming,
Because your character becomes your destiny.

Alternatives

I've been fascinated by alternative shelters for decades. When I was in high school I came across the book Getting a Roof Over Your Head: affordable housing alternatives in my Uncle Jim's vast collection of books. Kindly Uncle Jim gave me this mind-altering treasure that very day. It is one of the few books remaining in my shrinking collection. This book opened my mind to the possibility of doing things differently. Not just in building a home. Also taking an alternate path to journey through life. Building a home in this way (different than most) takes commitment and an alternative outlook on life and how it is lived. Our society is often so overpowering that one can loose site of her own values. Wants translate into needs in our culture. We plant this seed in our children early and cultivate it in our homes. I am no stranger to this way of thinking, I've lived it off and on. I grew up in suburban America in the seventies, after all. These days I'm safely off that band wagon. Presently on foot (or in that darn van) trudging my own interesting path.

I memorized the homes in that treasured book when I was a girl. The stories behind the homes. The people who dreamed them up and made them happen, often with their own hands. It's a skill making your dreams reality. It takes perseverance, drive and believing in yourself. Often you have to step outside of the expected in order to accomplish great things. And when things are not going as you planned or hoped, you have to push your way through it or be flexible and patient and quiet enough to discover what is needed in that moment. Our choice to homeschool is a little like building an alternative shelter. Some days I wonder how so many families manage this homeschool world. I have found it isolating and lonely at time. I crave the community I imagined yet have not made enough of an effort to join the community, not seen an easy way into it. I think I can, I think I can...

Check out this alternative shelter:

Eliphante in Arizona

Eliphante

Creative Writing & Metalwork

 This past week, while I was busy doing the final touches on the auction projects I gave Coleman the opportunity to lead himself through several school days. He spent many hours reading - his favorite subject. He also decided to make some quill pens with our chickens feathers (selected from the ones lying about the yard). Inspired by the book he's reading, Eregon, he also began illustrating dragons. It was a creative week for both of us. He also made a beautiful copper pendant while practicing his metalsmithing skills - my favorite subject to teach. In his Wednesday nature class he began working on making a knife with carbon using tradition blacksmithing methods.

 

Surprise Bellydancer

Thursday nights Coleman has karate and Max and I read at the coffee shop downstairs. It's a special night for Max and I, he gets a sweet drink and I get one on one with my little guy. This week we had the most delightful surprise! There was magnificent music accompanied by belly dancers.

Yuma Art Symposium Getaway!

I thought it was interesting that they need to post this on the front door of the gallery. Arizona.

At the end of February I made my way to the Yuma Art Symposium. I've been wanting to go there since I learned of its existence almost three years ago from my friend and teacher Dawn. Firstly I would like to mention that taking a night class at Cabrillo College changed my connection to the place I call home. I started making roots here when I started taking classes there. I made friends who I really believe will be lifelong friends...back to Yuma: I found a way to get myself to Yuma this year for the symposium. A cheap flight, and free car rental and hotel (via Chris' air miles), and a student scholarship for the conference. It's the first trip I've taken without the boys. It was both exhausting and exhilarating.

Sandy Luehrson table totem

I was excited and a little nervous to go. No, not because I was leaving the boys behind. Because there is a pin exchange on the arrival day. Everyone makes pins - lots of them - and brings them to trade for other people's pins. Your pins can be rejected if it they suck. Mine didn't suck, but they were not up to par for my own expectations. There were so many amazing pins there, and some that sucked. The most amazing thing about the long weekend (other than the evening solitude) was how warm people were and how easy I found people to talk with. Some pretty fantastic artists and craftspeople.  I was also able to read and finished not one, but two books! (Weird how I have to leave the house to be able to finish a book in a reasonable amount of time.)

Every year there is a pin auction to raise funds to keep the cost of attending the symposium affordable for artists and students. Dawn has been running it for years and I was able, along with a slew of others, to help her with the auction. We all got to see the pins as they arrived and met the artists who made them. The whole experience is worth repeating again and again!

The pin auction just before the crowd arrived.

On the way home we stopped at an interesting store, this is a view from inside.

Dawn with one of the five or so dogs who live at the store.

A portion of the wall of the interesting store. Neat bell.

The storefront.

Clay Totem: Auction Project Completed!

 The auction has come and gone and the totem was completed just in the nick of time (as is my MO)! It has a new home and is living happily there, I might add. It stands a whopping six and a half feet tall.

From top to bottom:
Otter; Playful, friendly, dynamic, joy, helpfulness and sharing
Sun; Protector of the Earth during day
Seal; Love, active imagination, creativity
Owl; Clairvoyance, insight, messenger
Frog; Sensitivity, medicine, hidden beauty, peace, adaptability
Moon; Protector of the Earth at night
Dove; Communication, spirit messenger, peace, gentleness, love
Hummingbird; Messenger, timelessness, healing and warrior
Bumble Bee; Organizer, productivity, wisdom
Bear; Industrious, healing, power, self-preservation, courage
Loon; Serenity, good orator


The children chose the positive qualities they identified with first and then found out what their animal was. The meaning of the animals comes from Native American tradition. The children observed and talked about Northwest Native American art before they began this project.

{this moment}

a friday ritual: a single special moment to savor and share.

inspired by soulemama.com

(Another) Auction Project: PMC Jewelry

These are the Sculpy stamps the kids made in class, I mounted them on wood dowel pieces.

The foreground pieces are dried copper clay with the kid's stamps, these haven't been fired or "worked", the background three have been fired and cleaned. These were rejects or samples for experimenting. I would like to enamel some of these.

These are the pieces after they have been fired, cleaned and had a patina applied to them.

This is the bracelet. There was a surprising amount of work put into this, mostly because I changed my plan about how to put it together. Originally I was going to make it more like a charm bracelet but didn't like commercial chains available.

This is the neck piece. This took me a while to figure out, but I was happy to use a piece of hand-woven chain I had made recently. I really love this necklace, the spontaneity of the kid's art alongside the more planned execution of the piece.

Mandalas. That's where it's at. Mandalas were where our minds were focused when we began this project. Each child had three discs of Sculpy to press objects into to make a mandala pattern. We used pens and pencils and other small, every day objects that have details you may usually miss. Take a look at the pens in your pen cup, check out the diverse detailing on the ends of those pens and pencils. We used those patterns to create more patterns. This part was my favorite and the only portion of this project the kids were involved in. The reason I enjoyed this part was the amazing creativity the kids displayed. They were all little master pieces in their own right. I won't go into the details of how I made this, it's not complicated but not all that interesting either. If you'd like to know more then do email me, I'm happy to tell you about it.

I'll update this when it's been auctioned off to let you know how much it went for!

{this moment}

this moment: a friday ritual, a moment to savor and share

insired by soulemama.com