Join me at CReATE STUDIO tomorrow morning at 10am for our last Messy Toddler class of 2018!
Beginning January 10th we’re moving Messy Toddler Art Mornings to to Thursdays at 10am but tomorrow we’re turning socks into snow people and other messy stuff.
Seasonal Greetings from CReATE STUDIO! We hope your holidays are filled with love.
Happy First Day of Winter from all of us at CReATE STUDIO!
I recently visited Borderline Memorial. I was so touched by the love and community essence that enveloped it. I had never been to a memorial before. It was profoundly personal to me. There were stories and accounts and prayers for each of the victims and so many hand-made treasures that I felt came from the deepest places of love. Art heals. There were hand crafted pieces contributed by people out of state as well as local artists too.
I thought about the victims that I don’t know personally but I have gotten to know just a little through stories and this memorial. I have been thinking about Borderline since it happened. I have been reconciling the event in my mind and of all the other shootings we’ve heard about and been affected by. Visiting the memorial left me feeling that I had to create something- a way to contribute to honoring the loss and building the foundation of love that had been created. I reached out to my friend Alison and asked if she wanted to create something with me because I knew that she had been processing grief and loss about Borderline. She and I got together and collaborated on a project to contribute to the memorial and to heal our own hearts. It was healing indeed and something we could do. It was an opportunity for us to process the magnitude of Borderline and the weight on our community. I had heard it many times in my life but now I have an experience to draw from and to heal as a member of our community. Art heals indeed.
We created the art on a piece of wood that used to be part of our counter at the studio so it had a chalkboard finish. Alison and I thought that could be a space for more healing as we are an entire community trying to process this event and explore how to grow forward. If you see our piece out there we hope it helps you heal too.
Packing up the gift of creativity! Gift certificates available in single or multiple studio sessions to fit your budget. Starting at $10 they make great stocking stuffers!
Call us and we’ll get them ready for pick up!
818-575-9566
Dr. Maria Montessori’s quote “Education is a natural process carried out by the child and is not acquired by listening but by experiences in the environment” resonated with me.
I have long thought the home-assigned school project was education’s way of connecting children back to process by providing parameters that kids could explore on their terms in an environment that was outside the school setting-thereby creating space to figure out the task in their time. Now, as a parent it wasn’t always convenient or easy for me and my kids to do the project but it was a vital way, I could see, that my kids could take all the information they had collected in their minds at school and put it together in their own way. I have my daughter, Maisy’s 4th grade mission project hanging on the wall at the studio. It was a shoe box, a sheet of thick paper and a few pieces of moss, drawn out and arranged to look like a diorama. That was a project that taught both of us that value of keeping it simple. We went over the concept of creating a curve in the paper that would serve as a background and by doing so, we created the illusion of a bigger space-just like at the Natural History Museum. We worked together to plan the project but she did all the drawing. Maisy figured out the details of her project in her own process and we had the space to trouble shoot it. I imagine if I asked her she would remember making it. I still do because it was a hands-on experience with various elements to include and parameters to keep. She learned so much more than Missions during that project and I haven’t forgotten it.
Today, we love having kids make their projects at the studio because it adds an element of fun and ease to the “to-do” of a home-assigned project that everyone (parent and child) would love to have check-marked off their to-do list. The time they spend together at CReATE, talking, planning, figuring and creating are rich beyond words. They are deep in learning which is food for the brain, and they always leave feeling a sense of achievement and pride and I like to think, a little bit of connection too. Dr. Montessori had it right, experiences in the environment are golden.
* learn more about our win/win school project program here.
Meet us @shoppesatwlv from 3-6pm for ornament decorating using our favorite salt dough recipe and cookie cutter shapes for Happy Holidays fun!
Don’t be fooled by this Kleenex box full of…used dryer sheets! We love the ease of use we get when we grab a dryer sheet to pick up gooey glue from our work tables and for dusting our counter jars-yes, dryer sheets have multiple uses! Catch our next Creating at Home idea later this week were we’ll give you a crafty idea for creating with dryer sheets.
Tis the season!
It’s time to grab one or two of our CReATE STUDIO Eco Craft Kits for your maker, creator, S.T.E.A.M. fan explorer, tinkerer or builder.
Our kits contain a myriad of recycled and crafty materials for days of creating! $20+tax (and shipping if applicable)
Get yours by calling us at 818-575-9566
We’re putting the reuse in creativity because it just makes sense. It’s is our mission.
Reuse is to creativity what peanut butter is to jelly or crackers are to cheese. They belong together and help each other flow.
I’ve shared how reuse was common place in my family, it must have trickled down from the generations before me. I am so glad it did. It’s ultimately how we got CReATE!
In the awesomeness that reuse is there lies unexpected hidden gems that benefit humanity like presence, connection to yourself if creating alone and to others if you are creating together, to mindfulness either way. What could be better than that! It also removes the potential for comparison. As Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Comparison is the thief of joy”. When we are creating anything we are in our vulnerability. Vulnerability comes as we express ourselves and share who we are through what we make. When we’re all creating the same kind of thing, comparison has a tendency to sneak into our psyche, even at a young age. I saw that process throughout my kids years in school, especially with art because of it’s expressive nature. There we guard our vulnerability. Using recycled materials in it’s one-off and random nature means two creations tend not be alike and when they are I see collaboration. Self expression is comfortable here. Since we each see the world through our own lens we can look at the same kleenex box a different way that leads to very different creations. This is where I see independence being strengthened as creators find themselves trusting their own ideas and process. There is an overwhelming sense of pride when the idea that inspired the creation comes together the way it was planned. Presence, connection, healthy vulnerability, self confidence, self expression and independence make a good foundation for experience.
Creating with recycled materials is like a peanut butter and jelly experience, it goes perfectly together and it’s oh so good.