For Natalie's birthday, Auntie Christina gave her a tie-dying kit.
Showing posts with label art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art. Show all posts
Marguerite Makes a Book
Friday, July 27, 2018
Last term, in Natalie's history, we worked through a picture book titled Marguerite Makes a Book. This is a beautiful story about a young girl who helps her ageing father decorate an illuminated book in the 1400's. We did a chapter a week and at the end of term tried to recreate making our own paints as Marguerite did. (Even though it was part of Natalie's curriculum, Erin did it with us too).
Like mixing any potion, pounding and mixing up the "paints" was fun. We may not have been quite as successful as Marguerite, and definitely not as skilled with our "quills", but we enjoyed ourselves.
In the book she uses parsley for green - this was definitely our best colour.
And Marguerite used powdered lapis lazuli for blue - I skipped blue altogether!
The parsley and marigold petals were pounded in the mortar and pestle and then mixed with egg white, as Marguerite did. Then we cut some feathers into quills and attempted to decorate our names - this was more difficult than expected, it's quite a skill to get the paint/gloop onto your "quill" and then to be able to put it where you want it to be on the paper!
Here are our final pieces.
Like mixing any potion, pounding and mixing up the "paints" was fun. We may not have been quite as successful as Marguerite, and definitely not as skilled with our "quills", but we enjoyed ourselves.
In the book she uses parsley for green - this was definitely our best colour.
She uses dried saffron flowers for yellow. If I'd been more organised I would have been able to track down saffron, but the regular supermarket didn't have it so I supplemented with some frozen marigold flowers I had kept for dyeing - this sort of worked.
Madder root and vermillion powder were used for different reds, and these we definitely did not have so I tried paprika - this did not make red, more like a muddy brown gloop.
And Marguerite used powdered lapis lazuli for blue - I skipped blue altogether!
The parsley and marigold petals were pounded in the mortar and pestle and then mixed with egg white, as Marguerite did. Then we cut some feathers into quills and attempted to decorate our names - this was more difficult than expected, it's quite a skill to get the paint/gloop onto your "quill" and then to be able to put it where you want it to be on the paper!
Here are our final pieces.
A Little Bit of Art....
Friday, June 8, 2018
A few weeks ago we went with another homeschooling family to visit the local art gallery. What piqued the other mum's and my interest was an exhibit of photos taken by artist Janet Tavener in and around Iceland's ice caves.
While these were certainly beautiful and interesting, we were unexpectedly taken by a series of hand painted linocuts that told the story of a puffin family, with a message about ocean pollution and global warming. The artist, Rew Hanks, has made a book to go with the exhibition called "The Big Catch", but it seemed to be a one off; though we did put our names down on an "expressions of interest" list - so maybe it will be printed in the future. I didn't want to take photos of every linocut, but this links to a gallery's website where you can see them all.
The gallery has a beautiful Japanese garden attached to it which is always calming to walk around (even when you are feeding the apparently starving monstrous carp).
Vivid
Tuesday, June 5, 2018
After our trip to Cockatoo Island, we lingered at Circular Quay and explored Vivid - an annual event that lights up Sydney with light displays on buildings, including the Opera House, as well as various interactive installations. There is always a queue for these, but fortunately they weren't too long when we went.
It is great to be out in our city with people enjoying the sights and atmosphere. It was a wonderful night - though we were all very weary by the time we got to our beds that night.
You'll have to excuse my photos - they do not do justice to the light effects.
Cockatoo Island
Wednesday, May 30, 2018
Initially we were going to be divided into two groups - one primary and one high school, but on the day we only had one tour guide, but it worked well and was very informative.
I had never been to Cockatoo Island and was always curious...now I know - a mix of indigenous, convict and industrial history all crowded into one little island in the middle of Sydney Harbour.
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| Waiting for the ferry |
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| A silo dug out of the sandstone by convicts to store wheat |
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Charlie and Natalie in the convict barracks   
And then, after the tour, there was time to wander around the art exhibits for the Biennale, and play a bit of chess!
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