Day 1:   Today we gathered around opening CDs and sorting the cases, CDs and papers.  Some friends used the cases to make frames to hold their work from this week.  (Returning friends have frames at home.)  In small groups we made paper cloth and snakes out of bottle caps.  We also hammered bottle caps into a log.  One friend said, "Real hammers?  I'm not allowed!"  Well, they are allowed at UpCycle and they have gotten the hang of hammering.  During free exploration, we explored colored film on the light box, built a house boat out of materials and worked in the message center.  See you tomorrow!

Day 2:  Today we gathered around books to get ideas for our sculptures.  We then made a plan by drawing our animals and machines before we began building.  We also embellished our paper cloth from yesterday with stitches and beads.  During free exploration time, we added to our bottle cap snakes, made a group piece of paper cloth and watched a repair man work on a nearby roof.

Day 3:  Today we gathered around upholstery samples.  We took the papers and staples out of them, and then we sorted them by color.  There was interesting debate about whether certain fabrics were brown, gray, light or oddballs.  In one small group, we added details to our found object sculptures.  In our other group, we pieced the upholstery samples together to make a back for our pillows.  We also stuffed the pillows ourselves.  During free exploration we continued working on our bottle cap snakes and we explored punches and stamps in the message center.

Day 4:   On Thursday, we gathered around clay.  The group developed a story about eggs and a nest that evolved to include a mama bird, several baby birds, lots of worms and extra nests.  In small group, we did observational drawings of our sculptures and painted them with liquid water color.  Did you know you can make your own liquid water color out of dried-up markers?  In our other small group we made prints with found objects.  We tested out the materials and then made a final composition.  

Day 5:   Today we gathered around clay again.  Many friends made impressions with various items we had available for mark making.  In small groups, we explored the effects of water color and salt on a hunk of ice.  We also moved water in a large bin, using basters, pipettes and PVC pipe.  In our other small group, we selected, traced and cut out a piece of our prints for our frames.  We also sewed a piece of paper cloth we made as a group, and put this small sample in our frames.  Our bottle cap snakes also came home today.

We had a wonderful week with your children.  Thank you for sharing them with us!

Kelley & Susan

Our second week of Fun With Junk camp ended with some clever creations as well as some beautiful work.

Our friends worked on sculptures of creatures.  We looked through books for inspiration and drew the animals, looking carefully at the shapes that made their parts.  These drawings became a plan that we referred back to as we sculpted.  

We also did some sewing: paper cards with beads and monogrammed pillows.  We used upholstery samples and scraps of fabric to create letters for the pillows.  We also used a variety of stitches: running, couching, blanket and the French knot.  Our friends were very pleased with their work.

More Fun With Junk

Thanks for sharing your children with us!

Water was our common medium for exploration this week.

Watercolor Work
What water based camp would be complete without using watercolor?  We spent a day exploring different watercolor techniques: wet into dry, wet into wet, washes, wax resist and adding salt.  Everyone chose his or her favorite to mount on mat board.

On another day, we made use of some of our beautiful watercolor explorations, by sewing our artwork to cards.  Sewing is an amazing challenge for children to accomplish and great fun to watch.  Our campers rose to the occasion of working with sharp metal needles, and they took great care while diving into the experience.  

We noticed that one of the challenges for children when they sew is that it takes two coordinated movements. They must grasp the needle securely with their fingertips while their arm pushes the hand holding the needle forward into the paper.  As adults we often take the ability to do this for granted. We liked sewing on paper because it is stiff and holds its shape, which eliminates the frustrations of working on limp fabric. And, sewing with paper provided immediate satisfaction. All results are beautiful.

Capturing Bubbles - Large Paintings and Prints
Using projected bubbles for inspiration, we filled large pages of paper with marks, following the shapes and lines we saw on the paper.  

Then, we used water color to fill the spaces that were created when we drew the bubbles.  This was a large piece of work and it required sustained attention and revisiting to fill the page.  It was hard work for many friends.  With encouragement, we were able to fill our pages.  Everyone was satisfied with themselves and proud of their big and beautiful results. 

Pallet Water Wall
Throughout the week we worked with balls and tunnels in our workshop.  This laid the foundation for later experiences with our pallet water wall.  The children were challenged to make water move from one place to another.  We connected tubes and bottles with plastic pipes and string to make paths for water.  We were challenged by squeezing the detergent bottle valve and focused intently to get the water out.  One group worked to make "booby traps for poisonous snakes."

Observing Changes in the State of Water
On several days we observed and experimented with blocks of ice.  We checked on our ice throughout the day.  We made a hole that went all the way through one block by pouring a small mound of salt on the ice.  We noticed that the blocks had shrunk quite a bit by the end of the week. "They got tiny!" 

And, we observed another change in water when it became a tasty treat.  A friend noted that we made it turn from a liquid to a solid!

Sink and Float Boat Show
After exploring which materials sink and which float, we set off to our construct boats.  We started with cork, foam and wire and then we tested our designs.  Many friends had created boats that did not float.  We contributed ideas to correct our friends' design problems, made adjustments to our boats and named them.  On the last day, we had a boat show and tested our boats - AND THEY ALL WORKED!  

Our boat names:  Speed Boat, Goldy, Rosie, Speedy, Speedy 2, The Fire Truck Boat, The Zach Zach, Fluffy, The Claire and The Celia Willem Mommy Daddy.