The Creative Year

St. George's Day

2008-04-21T07:27:00.000-07:00

is April 23rd. He is the patron saint of several countries including Catalonia in Spain, England, Portugal, Georgia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Republic of Macedonia. St. George's Day in Catalonia is especially rich as it celebrates three things: St. George who fought and slayed the dragon and the day of the deaths of Miguel Cervantes and William Shakespeare (April 23, 1616). Boys and men give their girlfriends and wives roses; girls and women give their boyfriends and husbands books.

MAKING THE BOOK

You'll need two pieces of paper (it's okay if they have writing on one side), a piece of ribbon or yarn (mine was left over from an chocolate Easter bunny package), a glue stick, a piece of scrap paper, and assorted decorative paper scraps for collage. A piece of candy wrapper foil or a bead for the end of the bookmark is an optional extra.

Follow the directions to make two hot dog booklets.

Insert a piece of scrap paper under the first page of one booklet. Cover the entire surface with glue. Place a piece of ribbon on the top of the book along the spine with the ribbon extending up beyond the book. This will be the bookmark.

Place the other booklet on top lining up the spines. Rub your hand over the surface to help the glue adhere.

Glue assorted pieces of cut and torn paper to the front and the back to make covers. Start with a not too small piece and wrap it around the spine.

Continue gluing on pieces until the front and back are covered.

As an extra touch, wrap a piece of foil from candy around the end of the ribbon or tie a bead to the end. It is helpful but not necessary to place the book under a heavy book or other weight for a few hours.

MAKING A PAPER ROSE

Use a rectangular piece of paper for the rose. I used newspaper (1/4 of a page made by folding the paper in half and tearing it, then tearing the half in half). I used a peppermint tea bag package for the stem. The leaf was cut from a mint medley tea bag package and held in place with a green elastic from vegetables.

Fold the newspaper piece in half to make a long rectangle

Roll it tightly around your index finger once and then more loosely around until the paper is all wrapped

Twist the bottom tightly.

Place the end in the open part of a tea bag package or wrap the bottom of the rose with green paper

Cut a leaf shape with a small stem.

Place the leaf stem on the stem and bind together with a green elastic.

Read the legend of St. George and the Dragon as written by Agnes Grozier Herbertson in London in 1908 here.

April

2008-04-11T10:39:00.001-07:00

Of all the poetry I was required to memorize in school, this short bit from the Prologue of the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is only thing I still remember. I always think of it when April comes especially when rain is falling. You can hear the Middle English being read here and read a translation into contemporary English here.

About the Creative Year

2008-04-11T08:10:00.000-07:00

Three things that many of us can say about our lives are:
We consume too much
We create too little
We are losing our connection to the seasons

The Creative Year aims to take a small step toward righting these wrongs by making things with seasonal significance using recycled and reused household materials. I believe that everyone is creative and everyone has a need to create. Creative has become a word with value judgements. If you are creative, you make things that are beautiful or original. I take a more basic view, to be creative is to make things. Period.

Random House Unabridged Dictionary
creative: having the power and quality of creating
create: to cause something to come into being

The Creative Year is not about making art; it is not about making keepers. In my many years as an artist, I have learned that the process is more important the finished product. The true life is in the work itself. Make something, enjoy it, and when its time and purpose in your life has passed, pass it along or recycle it.

First Day of Spring

2008-03-20T13:29:00.000-07:00

Spring comes this year on a cold grey day. With nothing blooming outside, I made flowers from assorted discarded bits and attached them to a branch. The branch went into a pot which was the former home of a rosemary plant that did not make it through the winter. You could also use a can or a jar.

I used circles and squares of assorted materials including Britta water filter packaging, netting from cherry tomatoes, a plastic bag that held grapefruits, oreo cookie wrapping, tea bag containers, and the protective foil under the lid of the yogurt container. I used ties saved from bread and bags to twist and hold the flower.

St Patrick's Day Cross

2008-03-17T05:53:00.001-07:00

Young girls and small children wear on the right shoulder "a St Patrick's Cross", consisting of a single or double cross formed of pieces of narrow silk ribbon stitched to a circular disk of white paper, nicked at the edge, and measuring from 3 to 4 1/2 inches in diameter. At the ends of the arms of the cross a very small bow or rosette is stitched and one a trifle larger at the junction of the arms; the more and the brighter the colours of the silk, the more handsome is considered the St Patrick's Cross.
Journal of the Kildare Archaeological Society 1908

I made my cross from a piece of white shirt cardboard. I used pieces of plastic bag instead of silk ribbon. Even though I make an effort to carry a bag with me shopping, plastic bags do seem to multiply. I went through my bag of bags before I took them back to the supermarket and selected ones with color to make the ribbons and bows. I cut narrow strips and tied them into bows. The plastic I used for the center bag wasn't long enough to tie a bow so I just shaped one. I stitched the plastic ribbons and bows onto the circle but you could also use a stapler.

Information about the St. Patrick's Day Cross from The Year in Ireland: A Calendar by Kevin Dannaher

Folded Heart Valentine

2008-02-14T05:38:00.002-08:00

Hearts and Valentine's Day go together. Here's a simple folded heart for the occasion. Once you get the hang of it, they are easy to make in quantity. I used the label from a large can of tomatoes. I cut it down so that the paper was about twice as wide as it is tall.
Turn the paper over and fold up a flap about 1/4 the height of the paper. To be more precise, you can fold the paper in half, open it, and fold the the bottom edge up to the center fold.

Fold the paper in half with the flap on the inside.

Open the paper. Bring the bottom right side of the paper to meet the center fold and crease.

Bring the bottom left side of the paper to meet the center fold and crease.

Turn the paper over.

Bring the right edge to meet the right edge of the folded flap and crease.

Bring the left edge to meet the left edge of the folded flap and crease.

Fold the inside folded edge of each flap on the diagonal to make a triangle. This is the center of the heart.

On each side, fold the outside edge on the diagonal to form a triangle.

Turn over the paper to see the heart.

If you attach your heart to a card, it is helpful to glue down the triangle folds first. You can also combine hearts to make a wall piece. I used tomato can labels again. There are two layers of cereal box pieces. One is covered with plastic netting from a grapefruit bag. The hearts and the box pieces were attached by poking two holes with a needle and inserting and then twisting wire. You can also use white glue.

View a video on how to make this heart from a dollar bill.

Directions for a more (but not too) complicated folded heart.

St. Brigid's Cross

2008-02-01T05:25:00.000-08:00

February 1st is the first day of spring on the Celtic calendar and St. Brigid's day. The day is celebrated in parts of Ireland by hanging a cross woven of rushes on the door for twelvemonth's luck. This is a simplified version using recycled paper.

PREPARING THE STRIPS

You can use newspaper (I used 1/2 page), catalogs (I used double page spread), or brown paper grocery bag.

1. Cut the paper into four equal sections. I did it by folding the paper in half and cutting it along the fold and then folding each half in half and cutting along the fold to make four pieces.

2. Fold each piece into thirds the long way. Open the paper, cover it with glue (I used a glue stick), and fold it and smooth it out to help the glue adhere.

3. Fold each piece in half.

MAKING THE CROSS
1. STRIP 1-VERTICAL
Place it so that the fold is at the top.

2. STRIP 2-HORIZONTAL
With the fold on the right, place it inside Strip 1.

3. STRIP 3-VERTICAL
With the fold on the bottom, place it inside Strip 2.

4. STRIP 4-HORIZONTAL
With the fold on the left, place it outside Strip 1 and inside Strip 2.

5. Pull on the ends of the strips to tighten the cross.

6. Keep the two layers of each strip together by tying the ends (I used pieces of NY Times delivery plastic bags and twist ties) or with glue. Because the strips will still shift a little if you move the cross around, you may want to add a little glue (white glue on a toothpick or strip of heavy paper) inside the center of the cross.

See an authentic cross made from rushes.

Learn more about St. Brigid's crosses

St. Brigid (Brighid, Bridget) was preceded by the goddess Brigid. You can find more information about the goddess and the saint at The Celtic Well and
Irish Culture and Customs.

I found information about St. Brigid and her crosses in the following books:
All Silver and No Brass by Henry Glassie
The Year in Ireland: A Calendar by Kevin Danaher

Robert Burns Day

2008-01-25T15:14:00.000-08:00

January 25 is the birthday of the Scottish poet Robert Burns. To celebrate the day, I wrote out one of his poems. Although I now do most of my writing on the computer, it is still satisfying to put pen (or marker) to paper. I placed these guidelines under the paper to make it easier to write in straight lines.

When I did calligraphy making leaf borders was something I enjoyed. I first learned how in Writing & Illuminating & Writing by Edward Johnston. Here are some modified directions:

Woven Newspaper Vase

2008-01-18T07:58:00.001-08:00

After I started forcing forsythia in a jar (see previous post), I decided I need something a more attractive container to put the jar in.

Because it didn't need to hold water, I thought about doing some kind of weaving with plastic bags. Even if I carry totes to the grocery store or ask for paper bags (I reuse them in book projects), I still find that plastic bags collect. And we subscribe to the New York Times (we haven't been able to give up on the pleasure of reading an actual newspaper) which is delivered in blue plastic bag. After I finished a half-gallon container of soy milk I had an inspiration. I covered the soy milk container with a page of the Times and used the blue plastic bags for the weaving. The vase took about 45 minutes to make and was done in three parts: preparing the soy milk container, preparing the bags for weaving, and the weaving.

To make your own, you'll need:
a paper milk carton (I used a half-gallon size)
a piece of newspaper
several plastic bags
white glue
scissors

PREPARING THE CONTAINER
Cut the top off the a paper milk carton.

Cut a piece of newspaper so that it will wrap around and cover the sides of the container with some extra at the top and bottom.

Put white glue on all the sides of the container and then smooth it with your finger so that you have an even coat of glue covering the container.

Wrap the container with the newspaper and smooth it down to help the glue adhere.

Put glue where needed on the newspaper to cover the bottom as you would wrap a package.

Put glue on the paper extending over the top and fold it down over the edges.

Cut down the side edges of the container so that you have a base and four separate sides.

Cut each side into strips. The total number of strips needs to be an odd number. I cut three sides into eight strips and one into nine. Since I didn't want to calculate or measure, I cut each side in half, then the half in half again to make quarters and the quarters in half to make eighths, and one quarter into thirds for the side with 9.

PREPARING THE PLASTIC BAGS

Cut several bags into strips about 1-inch wide horizontally across the bag. You will have a series of large loops.

Put one loop inside of another.

Pull the top of the inserted loop around the first loop and into itself.

Pull evenly to make it tight.

Continue attaching to loops to make a plastic thread for weaving.

WEAVING
Loop one end of the plastic thread around one of the corner strips at the bottom.

The plastic bag thread around the container strips is woven in an over/under pattern. When you looped the bag end over the first strip, you create an over. You'll go under the second strip with both layers of the plastic bag and continue on.

Continue weaving until the vase is complete. It's helpful to push down the plastic thread occasional to keep the weaving fairly tight. Attach additional loops to the plastic bag thread if you need to. You'll find you get into a rhythm as you go but I found I needed to pay attention as I sometimes went over a strip I should have gone under or vice versa. When I was finished weaving, I opened the loop so I had two separate pieces and tied them together on the inside of the vase.

Forcing Forsythia

2008-01-15T08:47:00.000-08:00

The vibrant yellow forsythia, which blooms here at the end of the April, is always a sign of spring. In January, I like to bring some branches inside and watch them slowly bloom.

Cut stems on a diagonal.

Pound the ends with a hammer or a rock. This will help the woody stems absorb water. I covered an old catalog with a plastic bag to protect the table.

Place in a jar of water or a vase. I don't always do it but it's a good idea to change the water every week to keep it fresh.

Tea Light Snowflakes

2008-01-10T12:47:00.000-08:00

The new year is always a time of beginnings and resolutions. I have been becoming increasingly aware of the impact we have on the environment and the amount of waste we generate. In 2007 I began to use recycled materials almost exclusively in the bookmaking workshops I teach in schools and libraries. Since I have become more aware of the creative uses for things that were headed for the trash or the recycling bin, I find myself looking at things with fresh eyes to see what else they can become. In 2008 I am extending my creative use of household waste in new directions.

When I went to replace the burnt candles on the Christmas mantle, I was struck by a discouraging thought. These candles are wasteful. For that little bit of wax, I have a small metal container to dispose of. Before I even had a chance to see if they would be able to go in our recycling bin, I had an inspiration. Snow has been on my mind as of late as we have had lots this winter. The metal containers would make wonderful snowflakes!

MAKING THE SNOWFLAKES
Because snowflakes are hexagonal, cut the sides into six equal parts. I find it easiest to use one pair of opposing dots to determine where to make the first two cuts. Then I just judge by eye to cut each half into thirds.
The next cuts you make will start to design your snowflake. Snip a triangle or other shape away from the edge of each of the six parts.
Continue snipping away shapes until you have a snowflake you like.

CAUTIONS
1. I do not recommend this as a project for children.
2. The edges of the snowflake are not particularly sharp, but the little bits of metal pieces can be. I did my snipping over a cardboard box so that the little pieces wouldn't go on the floor but a sweep or vacuum after is a good idea.
3. Because the metal is thin, it is easy to cut but not particularly sturdy so the finished snowflakes should be handled with care.

SNOWFLAKE BOOK
Because I spend much of time teaching and creating projects for making books with children, my first thought was to make a snowflake accordion book.You can find out how to make one on my Making Books with Children blog. Since I only wanted to make one book and I had lots more candles, I needed more ideas.

IN A VASE
The vase has a cuttings from the red twig dogwood mixed in with pieris. The snowflakes are tucked in among the leaves. They could also be hung with wire.

ON THE DOOR
The snowflake is on a purple square cut from a gift box on a square cut from a Lindt chocolate wrapper on a square of cardboard wrapped with a mesh bag that contained red potatoes. I attached the snowflake through all the layers with wire and a push pin at the end. It was a little tricky but I felt it would be more secure than if I had used glue.

IN THE WINDOW
The snowflakes were strung on thread and hung in the window.