Our First Workshop

Robbie here egg-in!  
Last egg post for a while... I promise!

We did it.  
The day before Easter we invited a few of our friends together with their children for an egg decorating workshop/gathering.

 

After months of experimenting we were super excited to share what we had learned.

 

This time we used 6 different natural dye baths and we did it outdoors on a propane camping stove. 

It was just too beautiful of a day to be indoors! 
Holly even donned the rabbit ears.

Our selection of natural dyes included: 
Onion skins, Red Cabbage,
 


Beets, Mint leaves,

 

Turmerick and Coffee.




Thanks to everyone who came out!  
We had a wonderful time and we learned so much!

 

Eggsperimenting

Robbie here.  

Easter is approaching fast and Holly and I have been exploring some new, natural egg dyes to use in an upcoming workshop.  

We can't help ourselves.  It is too much fun!

This go round we had some hits 
(beets, mint leaves and coffee)

...and some misses (paprika, pomegranate)  

 Luckily even the misses are hits.  
The results are always surprising.

Space Age Snail Mail meets Valentine's Day

Robbie and I were thinking about projects and he mentioned that he likes to make postcards to send to his friends. Do you remember how it felt to open the mailbox and find something special and unexpected hiding between the bills?

We found a small pile of these postcards, unsent and they inspired me to create a small experimental series of my own collaged Valentines cards.

Now you will begin to notice that although we share a great many enthusiasms, Robbie and I have some striking differences too.

Where he simplifies... I complicate

 

Where he can spell and adhere to some common linguistic rules.

I resize, cut up and stick words instead in paintings where they remain free of  ANY code except for the secret ones I make up. 

 

 

 See?
 

There are all sorts of ways that we can express love and appreciation for our friends, we think that reaching out in your own unique way is what it's all about.



Robbie here. 
We used to write letters to each other and it was different and better. 
You can do wonders with a glue stick, an old magazine and a piece of cardboard. 
This last one is my favorite. 
I call her Wildfire.

Project Menu 2

Projects and workshops 2

Painting on Cardboard

Introduction to oils

Felting fun

Make your own comic book

The fundamentals of drawing

Upcycled flowers

Outrageous Robots

Hand Made Tattoos

Project Menu 1

This is our first 'menu' with visual examples of some of the projects and series we can lead. The projects are also listed below.

We encourage you to print this image out and let your children have fun trying to find all the things hidden in there. Then, you can hang it on your wall as a reminder that there is a world of making out there just waiting for you. 

More will be posted soon.

PROJECTS AND SERIES OF WORKSHOPS 1

Animal portraits in pencil

Beetlemania

Block Printing

Cardboard wall houses

Material monsters

Milk carton flowers

Pattern making

Parent child collaboration

Collage 

Photo stories

Soap sculpture

Workshops are 1 1/2 hours each
Contact us for more details: thelittlestarmail@gmail.com

This is Robbie

This is Robbie. 

This is Holly talking about Robbie.

You know how some things in your life stand out and make you feel warm inside - like you have a purpose and your potential has what it needs to be realized?  Those times that you ARE NOT fighting everything - school schedules, your own failed plans, your body or the people around you.

Think about the memories that erase all that negative, weighty and tiresome chatter. Those memories are what make your life rich - that give you hope and some levity.  

Every year Robbie grabs a bunch of friends from San Francisco to San Diego and goes camping with them in the back country.  Because they are all really creative - the whole thing becomes this dreamy music and art filled weekend - shrouded in what ever elemental event is occurring at that time: wind, drought, fog, just missed fire.  It is a time when you can stop and just experience the details of your surroundings and the people around you in what ever way you want.  It feels like a complete break from life as you know it...you have room to be who ever you are - and play.

It is a place and time in which you can let your defenses down and absorb: the dust of the creek bed, the crackle of the fire, ground bees, waste deep mud holes, and the continuous stream of music - as old band mates play together - this time, often, accompanied by their children. You carry on singing and laughing and being together until exhaustion or grey meat take you down, and then you do it all again. 

Robbie is responsible for this.  It is silly, it is magic and it is generous. What a great way to get to know new people - to be sitting in the dirt next to them hearing them play...the guitar, the ukulele, the keyboard...sharing the heat of a fire when the sun goes down, sharing food.

I wanted to introduce Robbie in this context because all of this is behind our shared vision for these project series that we're pulling together.

We believe in creating community by being in our bodies together, sharing things that I've described above, and more, unplugging and reconnecting to the world around us with all of our senses firing. 

We believe that art and music are both practices that facilitate this kind of connectivity and growth. They hone our senses, grow our attention and ultimately give us better tools with which decode the world around us and communicate with our fellow human beings.

Can you tell me what is more important or life affirming than that?  

And More Egg-in

 

Robbie here again. 

Listening to LOVE and making bad puns.

 

Our New Year's Day Egg project left us with so many new ideas. 

 

So many natural dyes left to try.

 

...and then blueberries went on sale.

We learned a lot from our first rodeo.

We got a nice tint from the blueberry bath.

 

The leaves and flowers act like a silk screen.

 



Not just for Easter anymore.

 

Stay tuned for egg workshop details!