Friday Art

My finished mask! 

          Friday is a wonderful day of the week for most people. The standard working week is coming to a close, and there are two glorious days of adventure or lounging ahead. I adore Fridays for this very reason. However, I happen to have class on Fridays. Fortunately for me, the college purposefully gave us less rigid classes on Fridays. So what are my less rigid classes? Educational Technology and Expressive Arts. Pretty fun right? Pretty fun, indeed.
          If you're reading this then you are reading one of my assignments for my Technology class. Surprise! I tried creating a website instead of a blog, but it was a major fiasco. I ended up having to buy a new operating system, and beg my parents to send me the discs of all of the Office systems. It was just a bad situation. So, a blog it is. In my tech class we have also learned how to create a movie using iMovie. My partner and I created a video called, "The Blair Ghost Adventures." Basically, we went into the boiler room and went "ghost hunting" a la the Travel Channel's Ghost Adventures. We really do have a ghost on campus. She actually resides in the office where I work. Her name is Vera, and she happens to be quite friendly.
          In Expressive Arts, we've done quite a few fun things. One week we read several books about hedgehogs, and created our own band after reading the story "The Happy Hedgehog Band." Another week we focused on Aboriginal art. The past few weeks we have done masks and tie-dye. Mask making was a two week process, but a very fun one.
          The first week of the process consisted of the actually formation of the masks. Our class spread out allover the floor, and got our supplies ready. We had to slather our faces with Vaseline beforehand, but it made the mask not stick to your face. Definitely worth it. Then we used warm water and strips of plaster to create the masks. The plaster is pretty easy to make smooth. All you have to do is dip your finger in some more water to smooth out what you have already created. If you want to create your own mask make sure to do several layers of the plaster to create strength.
          For the second week of mask making we decorated our masks. I chose to make an ombre design on my mask since we had to mix our own paint colors. It allowed me to get exactly the colors that I wanted! Then I added a very cool feather piece that I found at Joann's. Finally I topped it all of with rhinestones surrounding the left eye. It's a pretty good representation of my personality I think.
         The following week we did tie-dye projects. Many of you have probably created some sort of tie-dye shirt during your years. One of the reasons I liked this particular tie-dye experience was because the dye was placed in squirt bottles instead of large buckets. This was so much more manageable! I would definitely suggest this method instead of dipping the material into a large bucket. For my project, I bought a canvas tote a Joann's. The picture I had in my mind was a bullseye design with navy on the outside, yellow in the middle, and hot pink in the center. Here's what I got...

Not exactly what I had in mind. Terrible? Absolutely not. But I'm sure you've had a picture of a project in your head, and then it doesn't turn out exactly how you want. Instead of navy, yellow, and hot pink I got royal blue, greenish/yellow, and red. A couple of issues happened. I don't think that I tied the rubber bands tight enough. See how my blue and yellow ran into one another? So sad. Also, my professor and I apparently have a different idea of what the color magenta/fuchsia is. I think it is a hot pink/purpley mix. He thinks that it is red. Hence, the red in the center of by bullseye design. Another issue may have been that I used 100% cotton canvas instead of just 100% cotton. Perhaps this was an issue. Regardless, the experience was fun and I now have a cool new bag. I think I'll give it to my mom.
         So hooray for Friday art! I would suggest that you all get a little creative throughout your week, and what better day than Friday? We will be doing more body movement in this class for the next few weeks, but once we start art projects again I'll post some more pictures of my handiwork. It's Friday, go get crafty!

The forming of my mask, not for the claustrophobic.

Ombre pink, rhinestones, and feathers. That's definitely me.