The 'Ellas Workshop'

A special intimate workshop with only 2 girls - 2 Ellas. One Ella a 'seasoned' mermaid having done a few workshops before, the other Ella a brand new mermaid. What a beautiful workshop it was. The new Ella really 'got it', the freedom, the fun, the total lack of performance pressure -the Art Play - proving yet again how natural mixed media art play is to young girls.
We played an 'art game' of Collage Potpourri and made some punched paper flowers. We even got to paint a rock to take home.



The girls showing off their beautiful flowers.


A close up of some of the flowers




The amazing art journal spreads - the result of the 'art game'. So many fun layers: paint stamping, colour washes, hand-tracing, bubble wrap stamping, magazine images, ribbon, buttons.



The rocks (I need to brush up on my photography skills, sorry)


The most popular activity with the younger mermaids. My lounge-room floor strewn with scrap-booking paper, punched shapes everywhere. Paradise. I think the girls could be happy to spend the whole workshop punching paper ;)

A peek inside the Art Journals

After decorating the covers of their journals and preparing punches and art papers, the girls came back the next day and completed a full spread inside.

My instruction was very open: a girl, on the hill, perhaps with flowers and a house. I was in awe of the process - the imagination and the creativity and the end result was just adorable.

They drew gorgeous folk style girls, got to use their art papers for the houses, had so much fun 'planting' their flower punches and finished it all off with glitter (of course).

More

Here the girls are making the covers of their journals pretty.

Happy Mermaids busy at play

Some images of happy Mermaids having a wonderful time at one of my previous workshops.

Lots of paper punching and art papers were made to decorate their new journals.

Collaged Letters

In a recent Workshop, younger mermaids had a wonderful time collaging the first letter of their name. There was much squealing and excitement when the buttons, rhinestones and other bling came out.

Art Journal

I am truly passionate about Art Journaling. Having taught the concept and techniques and having spent many hours journaling myself and with other women, I have seen incredible results. It is a beautiful therapeutic tool for self-discovery and exploration. It has the power to bring out all your ‘stuff” and challenge you in so many ways. It is truly transformative and healing…

By teaching art journaling to young girls, I hope to equip them with a way to express themselves as well as a ‘friend’ to turn to when they need to sort through issues and their feelings as they inevitably arise in their teenage years and beyond into adulthood.

Here are some pages from the older Mermaids' journals.

Art Doll Collage Canvas

This is a really fun project, suitable for one-off sessions.
Here is a sample I made for the class.



First, I take the girls through layers of background where they choose colours and placement to their liking. We use paint, collage, stamps etc I then provide them with a choice of image elements – vintage girl face, wings, party hat/crown. The girls then make up their own dress, arms and legs from the scrap-booking paper stash. They then finish off the canvass with sequence, rhinestones, buttons etc. It’s quite a balancing act for me at this stage to let them have freedom of expression yet impart the “less is more” message (they like to throw as much as
possible onto the canvass) ;) (As can be seen in the slide-show).