Becka’s Project Journal

Welcome to Blog Give Away Day!
I’m Becka. I am an art teacher. Specifically I teach fiber art. I know, cool huh? I make a lot of samples as I am teaching so my students can see how things work step by step. My Give Away Day prizes are some beautiful projects made as samples in classes I have taught. Pictured are:
- a shibori dyed silk scarf. Fuschia/lime/deep purple.
- two handwoven cuff bracelets made on an inkle loom. One is classy grey/blue stripes, one has a pick up pattern of diamonds that “float” on top. Cotton warps.

This giveaway is open May 27 through May 31. I will draw three winning names at random and announce them first thing on June 1st. All you have to do is leave a comment telling me about your favorite art class project. What did you make? Why was it the best thing ever? (Be sure you leave your email or some way I can contact you so I can mail your prize!)

P.S. I will ship internationally!

Visit more blogs and enter some more!

I am going to be participating in:

Check back on May 27 for more details. You can win fun stuff here and at about a bazillion other blogs.

I heard this interview on NPR a while back and forgot about it. I love what he had to say!

Somewhere along the way, we all were artists. Everyone picks up crayons or chalk as toddlers, but at some point, we just stop drawing. Radio cartoonist and children’s author Mo Willems says that’s a pity.

Willems is obsessed with why adults don’t draw — and he wants to do something about it.

“One of the interesting things about cartooning and doodling and drawing,” Willems tells Michele Norris, “is that people stop when they decide they’re not good at it. Nobody stops playing basketball when they realize they’re not going to become a professional. The same thing should apply to cartooning.”

Willems says just sitting and drawing a character brings out empathy in people, and that’s something the world could use more of right now.

One of the biggest reasons children stop drawing is that they see that adults don’t do it, Willems says. When he goes into classrooms, he says, teachers often ask him to get the kids to draw. But when he does, many of the teachers don’t participate.

“Well, now the kids realize that this is just a baby activity,” he says.

He reminds us that parents are actually cool in kids’ eyes — for a while — and kids want to imitate what they do.

“If your kid comes home from school and you say, ‘I’ll be right with you; I’m just finishing a doodle,’ the kid’s going to go, ‘Dude, I want to do that, too!’ ”

Every year I get fabric from the Textile Center’s garage sale fundraiser and make a skirt. This year was a blue chambray with embroidered flowers. Wrap around with fabric ties. My own pattern, based off of a skirt I like.

petunias – pink
allyssum – white
delphinium – purple
scabiosa – blue
strawberries (relocated)
forget me not
anemone – white
zinnias – yellow
tomatoes
lettuce
sunflowers – assorted

also planted last weekend – bachelor buttons, violas (deep purple), moss roses, lupine (mystery color), columbine (mystery color), snapdragons (red & yellow)

time for drinking iced tea (welch morning) and reading a book (georgette heyer)

• Sushi (not weird for us, but weird for some other people)
• Andean Pan Pipe Concert
• Stumped the comic book experts by asking for a knitting comic
• Phantom of the Opera, we went to see the Broadway touring company. Our inner 16 year old selves appreciated the experience greatly. Our jaded older selves were slightly hysterical at the over-the-topness.
• Ran in to friends at a restaurant in an odd place at an odd time for lunch yesterday
• Had a lesson in “chatoyant” polymer clay techniques at Art-A-Whirl. Fascinating, but who knew?

Off to greenhouse now to buy a waterlily.

This weekend I spend an afternoon at the Shepherd’s Harvest Festival in Lake Elmo MN. It’s a haven for fiber geeks. Several buildings packed with yarn, fleece, spinning wheels, spinners, weavers, knitters and more. Then walk across the fairgrounds a little way and it is barns full of sheep, goats, llamas and more. I taught two mini versions of my “technology for artists” classes in a 4H barn with no internet connection, but despite that, I think they went really well! (Hello class!) I didn’t take a camera with me, so no photos of the sheep!

We also had a couple of cute visitors over the weekend. My nephew, who just turned 6 months old, and his mommy came up for his first trip to the big city. We went to a couple of greenhouses and hung around the house with Lucy. Evidently, when you are 6 months old, Lucy is the funniest thing ever. Every time she would look his way, he would burst out giggling.

This week should be a little quieter. I finished my Pioneer sweater and it is drying from blocking right now. Pictures soon. It turned out great, although I did a couple of modifications.

It’s also time for another book report! Recently finished:

Dissolution, Dark Fire and Sovereign by C.J. Sansom.
Mysteries set in the time of King Henry VIII, just after he had beheaded Anne Boleyn. Having watched The Tudors recently, I was instantly familiar with all kinds of characters from these books. Matthew Shardlake, the main character, is a lawyer who gets noticed by “those with power” far too often for his piece of mind. Great mysteries with lots of interesting incidental characters. The King and the Court are really minor characters, which I like. Often these kinds of mysteries have a talented commoner interacting with the King or Queen and this was a nice change. Matthew deals with underlings who are grasping to stay powerful and often they do not care how that might cause problems for those they order around. I look forward to reading more.

Firebird by Mercedes Lackey. A retelling of a classic fairy tale, another favorite genre. This one was a very easy read. Our main character, Ilya, is clever, the ending has a nice twist, the story had a very classic feel. I am not familiar with the Firebird story, but it had that traditional kind of feeling. I usually like Mercedes Lackey’s writing and this was no exception.

Silent on the Moor by Deanna Raybourn. I loved the first two. The third was equally compelling. I read it nearly in one sitting. Lady Julia epitomizes “curiosity killed the cat” as she herself acknowledges in this book. I would call these a romantic mystery. Once again, great twists to the plot, witty writing that make me laugh out loud. The covers to these books in paperback are ridiculous -don’t let that turn you off. They are smarter than they look.

The Snow Queen by Mercedes Lackey. Part of her “Tales of the 500 Kingdoms series”, which is truly delightful. The series follows fairy godmothers and the kingdoms they oversee. Not true fairies, but clever magically talented girls who find themselves doing an unusual job. The “Tradition” is a magical force that tries to recognize bits of traditional fairy tales happening to regular people and then it jumps in and tries to force their story fit the fairy tale. A girl with a grumpy stepmother can find herself reliving the Cinderella story. Light, funny and packed with snippets and characters of fairy tales, which makes it fun.

I wove enough on Saturday for two belts and a smattering of cuff bracelets. (Maybe I will do a giveaway!) There weren’t as many kids as anticipated at the Craftstravaganza, so we ended up doing more demonstrating and less hands-on. I did a ton of weaving. This is one of the pieces I finished. It is about 1 1/2 wide and 5+ feet long. Andy snapped a picture of me and Jen while we were hard at work. Jen was spinning fine merino-alpaca yarn in a kind of earthy colorway.