Kevin & Nida, This Heart is for You!

When seniors Nida Fatima and Kevin Tang built these Twig Sculptures separately they honestly didn't like them very much, so both kids donated them to me to teach with this year.  Well over the summer I had stacked them on top of each other and when I pulled them out the other day I liked the way they fit together, like a big heart.  So I took some wire and laced them as one.  What do you think??

Here is the place I have displayed it;  over top my fresh new dye garden.  Sorry about the shady cast shadows.

Also this summer I spun up a bit of art yarn and made bunting triangles, then used the clothespins that we over-dyed in our Tye-Dye unit to hang them with.  Pretty clever, huh??

I've brought in some new dye plants to work with this year, a deep red African daisy, an ornamental chili plant, marigolds, begonias and basil.  so we'll see what happens.

In the meantime, I miss your infectious smile Nida, and your crazy wonderful laugh Kev.  

Can't wait for you two to visit and tell me all about college life  :)

Lots of love to you both!

A Litter of Bugs Born in Room 18

While visiting super gardener, good friend and co-worker Mary, I spotted the coolest stick with an interesting pod shape on it and asked her what it was.  She told me she and her husband Gary collect these Praying Mantis hatched pods from their garden and lay them around as decoration.  I asked if I could take one home.  So Mary gave me two.  I wanted to share them with my art students, but I forgot to take them home.  Guess what?   The pod hadn't been hatched yet, and after a few days laying on my back table, I had a good 50 baby praying mantis crawling around my table and art supplies.  You can imagine the delight when my students learned they were there, especially for my bio kids.  So I very carefully scooped them up and put them outside in my dye garden.

And boy oh boy, did they love all the bugs in those leaves.  In a couple of weeks they grew quite a bit, and were very happy campers.

And so were my plants  :)

School Dye Garden - Springtime 2013

Incredible transformations have taken place these last 2 1/2 months since I posted my Holiday Dye Garden in December.  The Scroll bulb above that was only a nub has grown at least a foot and fanned out into tropical foliage (below behind red tulips).  The yellow and orange marigolds have dropped their seeds and disappeared, hopefully to come back during early summer. 

More bulbs are coming up, red and yellow tulips, pink, orange and yellow rynnoculas (sorry, my spell check can't find this word, I tried my best), red and white cyclamen that were planted this winter continue their blooming,  pink primroses were added, as well as alyssum and sweet little violets in various colorways. 

I've been saving all the windfall and also picking many of the blossoms and drying them out.  And as fast I can pick them, sophomore Karisma Dev in Special Studies 3-D is using them to dye with.  Can't wait to show you what she's up too.  :)

What's really amazing to me is that the community, who walk thru our school in the afternoons and at night time to get to the gym, the sports games and the park, respect our garden and have not touched or picked any flowers or stolen any of the pots.  That's pretty darn cool in this day and age.  So thank you Cerritos, Ca. 

2012 Holiday Festivities in my Classroom

First I wanted to dress up our dye garden outside my classroom door.  I bought cyclamen  begonia  and a poinsettia plant to dress up the existing planters. 

You can see the giant scroll bulb is really coming on strong during it's growing season right now. 

I also tried to dress up the spider plant and trellis using recycled cotton string from our shibori unit.

I crocheted a chain stitch and added buttons along the way.  I actually made these in my car at stop lights to and from school.  I placed a button at each light then chained while I drove.  I know, pretty crazy, but that's how I roll.

My students asked for a live Xmas tree, so Jim and I went to home depot and bought this beauty.  I placed it atop my Lockerbee potter's wheel so the tree could be spun around and admired from every angle.

I offered extra credit to all for homemade ornaments.  For many of my students this was the first live tree they've ever decorated.  I told the kids that I considered the tree an empty canvas and that it's all about surface decoration to turn it into a piece of art.  One of my favorite pieces that came in was senior Tiffany Lee's reindeer antlers complete with it's own battery pack for the top of the tree.

The first ornament that came in was made by senior Kevin Tang.  He knitted a very cool bow, and below junior Anne Allen brought in her hand painted bulb.

Senior Sheila San Agustin also knitted a bow and trimmed hers in silver.  And below senior Halah Elsahhar made a glitter banner at senior square during their festivities to add to our tree.

Also showing in this pix above are senior Sally Chou's amazing glitter ball, sophomore Reis Misaka's origami bird and senior Rita Labib's chopped up dyed Popsicle sticks glue ball mix.  Pretty darn creative there Rita  LOL.  I love it, already have it on my tree at home.  Thanks for the gift  :)

Senior Eddie Ponce crafted this wonderful snowman from clay and glaze, and that's my hand edged crochet leaf inspired by UK artist Susanne Bauer, whose work I will be showcasing this next week.

7th grader Ananya Raghavan made this magnificent paper ball from recycled Xmas cards, and junior Deena Younan made the lovely cloth beaded pouch above.

And I had saved this puppy that my own girl drew when she was 5, it was missing a tail and ear.  Senior Phoebe Liu was kind enough to make new ones that blended well with the old, then laminated it for me to preserve it.  Thanks Phoebe!

We also managed to save one of Danielle's old snipped eraser pieces from when she was 7 years old with a bit of Mod Podge, then backed it with posterboard so we could hang it from the tree.

All in all, it was a wonderful season with my students.  I wish all of you a Happy Holiday, and relaxing time off.  I will miss you and be thinking of you as I celebrate with my family.  

Here's to good food, lots of chocolate, and making great memories with family and friends.  

Thank you all for the heartfelt cards and gifts you sent me home with yesterday.  Looks like I will be able to afford my favorite Starbucks's drink for a good while, as well as see some good movies and get my nails done thanks to you and your family's generosity.  Lot's of love to you all, Mrs. A/S  xoxoxoxo

Thanksgiving 2012 - Only a Memory

Our School Dye Garden...

dressed for the Holiday with a very unusual colored pumpkin. 

A wish from our ASB kids...

and our giant Scroll bulb starting to sprout.

The Bird -Before

Marinated overnite inside and out with olive oil, rosemary from my garden, fresh garlic, sea salt and pepper.

Stuffed with more rosemary, onion and lemon wedges.

The Bird - After

After 4 hours of being roasted in the bar-b-que with rosemary sprigs soaked in water then placed on the grill to steam and infuse favor into the bird.  It works.  Moist & delicious!

The Pies

Kahlua Cheescake from Maria Calender's from Zach

Apple from Dani's boyfriend Steven

and Homemade Pumpkin courtesy of Dani's Cal Poly Bestfriend Megan 

and they where um um good!

Turkey Soup getting started in the Crock Pot two days later.

Delicious!

Thanksgiving Day from our Front Porch

Beautiful and Sunny

The Cooks (Inars and Deb)

The Guests (Zach, Dani, Jim, Megan And James)

 and The Help (Zach on Dishes), (Bogie and Sophie) on licking those paper plates clean

and a very Happy and Full Boy that night in his Snuggie on his guitar, singing his heart out to Sophie and I.

As junior Kaya Quarles would say"  It's gonna be good!", and it was  :)

A Dyer's Garden

I thought it would be fun for my students to have a garden right outside the classroom door to harvest plant matter from.  So at the beginning of this school year I brought in a pot of flowers from home and have been adding to it since.  The kids have found the trellis for the morning glories quite handy for all sorts of things, to dry their yarns and towels, to hang their tye-dye pieces from, and so forth.  So the trellis has become it's own sort of art work that changes on a daily basis.

Since the beginning of school, I 've added a few more pots, as well as a large zip lock bag which houses a spider plant with many babies hanging off.  A couple of kids have taken an interest in the tiny garden and I've been giving them marigold seeds and baby spiders to plant in their own gardens.  And then one day I noticed a new variegated spider plant in one of the pots.  I thought how cool, someone has brought me a gift.  It turns out it was one of my seniors, Kevin Tang.  Thank you Kevin for your thoughtful addition.  :)