A Lot About Nothing » Arts and Crafts

Gettin’ Artsy…

Monique — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 04:08:40 +0000

School is winding down for me, so of course that means that my procrastination is making its rounds. One of my final projects include a creative way to display my professional development. Initially I chose to do a painting, but my art supplies were to big to lug back to Kingston with me from Toronto. So as I was browsing Dollarama, I got inspired to make my own tribal mask (the “mask of teaching” if you will) after seeing some similar trinkets in the shop. My idea was cemented (pun intended) when I noticed that Dollarama had natural modelling clay on sale for $1 (I would think they would bump up that price like they have with some other items in the store). So I picked up two packs, got some beads, paint brushes, paints and a pack of foam brushes and I was on my way.

I don’t think I ever worked with this type of clay since grade school, so my face lit up once I opened the package and got my hands in it. It was surprisingly easy to work with (as long as water was on hand), and I was able to make various shapes for all the facial features of my mask. I’m not sure how long it’s going to take to dry, but it better be soon because I have to hand this project in by the beginning of next week.

I still have to decorate it of course, so once my mask is dry I’ll have loads of fun doing that. Yay for arts and crafts (and Dollarama)!

It’s getting cold out there… I think I’ll knit myself a scarf

Monique — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 23:02:16 +0000

I’m a little more than a novice knitter (the only thing I can knit now are scarves since all those patterns for things like sweaters, socks and shawls throw me off). Although I can “knit” hats, just as long as I have my trusty Knifty Knitter loom. Yesterday I went to Romni Wools, a well-known yarn shop in downtown Toronto. It was like stepping into a kitters dream. There were balls and skeins of yarn everywhere, along with knitting accessories, patterns and books. It may not look like a very large shop when you step inside the front door, but there are so many corners, crevices, back rooms, and a basement all packed with yarn of all colours, materials and weights. I picked up a bunch of yarn since I’m planning on spending some of my Christmas holiday knitting.

I got about 3 skeins of Berroco Peruvia Quick Wool. Today when I unwrapped it from it’s package I’m thinking, “What am I supposed to do with this? It’s gonna get tangled if I start knitting this way!” So I google how to turn skeins of yarn into easily manageable balls and ran across this very informative post on ariadneknits.com that goes through step-by-step of how to wind a skein into a centre-pull ball. It was very helpful and mine came out pretty darn good (the yarn comes out so easy)!

For my scarf pattern I’m using a German Rib stitch (which is a variation of the Fisherman’s Rib). It’s a P2 K2 stitch based on an odd number of stitches. The pattern can be found here. I’ll be sure to post a photo of my finished scarf once I’m done.

Paint me a picture

Monique — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 22:08:14 +0000

Yesterday I took advantage of one of the free workshops offered at my school this month. Kingston artist Dave Gordon, who has had his works displayed in galleries across Canada, taught the various workshops which included watercolour painting, drawing, and acrylic painting. I took the drawing one last week, which refreshed some of the techniques I remember using in my grade 9 art class (Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, the ‘vase’, upside down etc.). The acrylic painting workshop is one that I really looked forward to (I even have a large supply of painting materials at home, just waiting to be used… teacher’s college doesn’t leave much free time though. ).

The workshop was an eye opener. Beginning with painting a colour wheel, we then got the opportunity to choose a scenic photograph, project it onto canvas, and then (with the colour-mixing techniques we learned at the beginning of the session), paint our own work of art. The workshop was about 2.5 hours long, so I didn’t get to finish my painting and I was rushing near the end just to get all of the canvas saturated (there still are some missing ‘land masses’ and a water buoy), but now that I have a lot of the basic materials needed (that I purchased from Wallack’s here in town), I’ll be able to finish it up later.

From what I can remember, I think this is actually my first painting on a large canvas (that’s why it looks like a 6-year old did it ). The one I used yesterday was about 16″ x 20″. I don’t think we did much canvas painting back when I was in high school, and I worked with acrylics on a small canvas on my own (it was a gift for Mommy) years ago. So I can’t wait to tackle more styles and different projects. Practice makes perfect…