{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

Soapmaking Fun

At the end of January Coleman and I, along with a few other families went deep into the Aptos woods and up a mountain to make soap. Another homeschooling mama was gracious enough to invite parents from our homeschooling community to share in soap making for the day. Never having made soap Coleman and I were very eager to learn. The big block we made still sits in our studio awaiting the six weeks required for it to cure. Lye was involved so it was a potentially dangerous procedure, though no one was hurt this day. I am eager to try it again with a little less chaos surrounding the process and an essential oil or two to spruce up the bacon fat aroma.

There were so many wonderful things going on this day. My favorite part was that there were so many people around and the kids were playing together, chickens and dogs were wandering, moms were helping each other and there was general cheer. Coleman met a couple new boys who he really enjoyed spending time with. I was wishing for Max, but he was at school, perhaps this summer...It was all good.

Here's what we used in our soap:
3 cups water
1 1/4 cup lye
12 cups rendered fat (we used bacon fat from a local restaurant)
2 cups goats milk
2 Tbs olive oil
.5 ml cinnamon essential oil (it wasn't really enough, I could have tripled the amount or more)

Because this is a dangerous process, I won't actually go into it. But I can recommend a great site that will give you all the safety tips and directions on how to go about doing this: Soap Queen's four part video on cold process soap making is the perfect beginning step in learning how to make soap. There are a lot of safety precautions you have to take and she goes over all of them. We were way lower tech than the Soap Queen, we just used spoons to stir (I used a wooden one, but you should use a stainless steel one). But we did use gloves, eye protection and face masks to protect our lungs. We also did this outside where the ventilation was good. My next soap is going to have coconut fat in it and aloe...

{this moment}

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

Plastic Series: Bioplastic From Your Kitchen

We made plastic today! At least we think we did. It hasn't cured yet - hours later. The instructional YouTube video didn't go into how long it would take to dry out and feel like plastic. Somehow we're confident that it will be plastic in the end. Before it biodegrades.

Here's what you'll need:

Tools:
Hot plate or stovetop
pot
1Tbs measure
1tsp measure
silicone spatula
silicone mat or silicone cutting board
(you can even find textured surfaces to use, or make your own molds with plasticine)


Ingredients:
1Tbs Tapioca Starch (or Corn Starch or Potato Starch)
4Tbs Water
1tsp glycerin (we could only find the liquid suppository kind at the pharmacy today:)
1tsp white vinegar
optional food coloring

Directions:

1. Add all the ingredients, in order, into your pot.
2. Stir until completely mixed
3. Turn the heat up to medium
4. (if using food coloring this is when you plop it in)
5. "Stir your head off" until it becomes translucent
6. Pour onto your surface and smooth it out to desired thickness. This step is actually slightly challenging, it's rather goopy and difficult to get a consistent thickness. But it was fun, just the same. It cools off pretty quickly. 

We don't yet know how long it takes to become plastic, it's been about five hours since our first batch and it's certainly getting there, but not quite. We also made molds of minifigs using plasticine, and I can see learning how to make molds for something like this being yet another interesting avenue of learning. I think you could do this experiment with young kids, as long as you feel safe with them at the stove. I think the hardest part is waiting for it to set (it is for me, anyhow). Though I must admit, it was difficult for me to sit back and not help at certain moments, maybe that was the hardest for me. (But maybe the best part for Coleman)

{this moment}

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

inspired by soulemama.com

{this moment}

A Day at the Beach

Were you wondering where I've been? Mostly I've been hanging around the house with the boys. And on many glorious days we make it out to the forest or the beach. I even enjoy going to these places when the sun isn't shining. But the pictures from the sunny days are so inviting. Don't you think?

It's been unseasonably warm and sunny here in our neck of the woods. The rain finally began to fall last week. Big, fat rain. It didn't last long, but we got dowsed. It was good.  These pictures are from before the rain, a couple weeks ago. We were at Hidden Beach with Kitty. It's a beach we enjoy because Kitty can be off leash and there are often dolphins just off shore. And we could walk for miles if we wanted to...

{this moment}

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

 This moment brought to you by Chris. He took the boys to Nevada over our winter break - (just the boys!) and I'm going through the pictures tonight. Look how big they are.