Another wild week behind us!

This week was crazy! A few things from the week:

Firstly, my dear husband and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary on Wednesday.  Chance sent me a sweet surprise to work.  Chocolate dipped pineapple is delicious!  We also spent a night out at the Melting Pot for fondue.  After receiving the dessert spread, Chance exclaimed "What?!  Is that red velvet cake??"  Apparently they serve red velvet in place of the pound cake around Valentine's day.  So the waiter brought us back 3 mini plates full of the red velvet squares.  Happy anniversary Chance!

Below was what took place during the kid's specials time period on Monday.  We weren't really aware of what the "rhythm drum" would be when we were informed that it would be done during our class time.  Turns out, it was really neat!  Each kid got to use a jimbe and we played music together as an entire grade level.  The teacher had great control of the kids, kept them entertained, and even managed discipline!  That is rare in an assembly of any kind, even without each student having a drum between their knees.  The kids loved it...and I had a headache when I left at 4.

Art club has their final meeting tomorrow after school.  Whew! Thank goodness!  It is a rough group.  They are pretty checked out by 3:00 and some of them seem to only want to be in art club to act crazy with their friends.  It can get pretty wild.  Here are a couple pictures of the bottle cap murals we are constructing.  I am hoping to have them installed in our hallway upon completion.  We glued down the bottle caps with extra tacky glue, which holds it decently.  I intend to go back and nail in a little tack to each cap.  That will be time consuming, but all other adhesives were toxic or "known to cause cancer in the state of California".  And we cannot have that!

This is the design that the girls chose!

And this is the design the boys chose!

And lastly, I had a smidge of time today to finish one of my own creations. I am loving this blue jay!  I know they are mean birds, but they sure are gorgeous.  I left a border suitable for framing, if I ever feel so inclined.  

I have a short 3 day teaching week, since I have the privilege of attending the National Art Educator's Association convention in Ft.Worth.  I am super excited to get some new ideas and material to bring back to my classroom.  I will be posting PLENTY I am sure.  

A tidbit: scratchboard workshop

Work and Hobby

As I've said, art show preparations are in full swing. While I have been working in bits since September, there are certain aspects that can't be done until the month before the show. I am torn! My type A personality insists on organizing my art show to the point of obsession, but my right brain says, "It's good enough! Let's play!"

So tonight, I spent a moment to work on sketching various thumbnails for the future and a little blue jay illustration in watercolor.

And at last, a little snuggle husband time and the walking dead. Goodnight all.

Matting the thousands

Well people, sorry I have been absent the last week.  It has been busy as usual.  I have had to put all my personal creations on hold, since I realized that I have 2 months until my annual art show.  As a result, I am crunching down on finishing up the matting and getting the pieces hung on string.  That is the best way I have found to hang work with ease.  I glue 5-7 pieces on a piece of jute so that I can easily tack the top of the string to the wall.  At my campus, the walls are made of plastic panels, which are very hard to stick things to!  Hot glue works okay, but hot gluing thousands of pieces of art sounds miserable.  The other option is to tape them up, using masking tape or duck tape.  Again, very time consuming even with parent volunteer help.  

I hope everyone had a splendid Valentine's day this week!  My husband and I don't tend to celebrate Valentines like it is something special.  We have plenty of special dates throughout the year when the flowers aren't overpriced and the restaurants aren't all reserved :)  We decided to stay in, order pizza from a favorite pizza place (Atomic Pie), and watch a movie.  A perfect evening!

Create something new everyday!

New blog header up!  Started it last night and had to cut my work time short, due to the need to sleep.  pshh! Who sleeps, anyways? 

Here are a couple of pics from my instagram, @iveybyrd, as a little progress of clay birds.  I found this project on another blog that I will have to go back and find to give credit where credit is due.  I have modified the lesson a bit, but still looks so stinking cute!  We used one of my favorite artists, Charley Harper, as our inspiration.  These are what is hanging on the tree display in my last post, Teacher Talk! 

www.charleyharperprints.com

Keep checking back to see the finished product!

Teacher Talk!

Happy Monday!

Sometimes you just gotta keep telling yourself that on a Monday.  Today was a long day back to work, but it was nice to get back in the swing of things.  Upon looking through my calendar today, I realized that I sure have a lot of prep work to do for the annual art show.  I have been matting artwork since September, but still need to get the pictures hanging on string and decide any display changes for the year.  I got rave reviews last year about the displays I used, but I like to switch it up a little still :)

Here are some of my favorite displays from the 2012 show.

 



So tonight is composed of netflix, hot glue, and LOTS of little kid art.  I love their fresh approach to new mediums and ideas that are hidden within their work.  So fun to ask questions about why they are creating.

I have been getting farther along on my crochet blanket and am getting seriously addicted!  I think it's the idea of my small little chains becoming a large blanket that is so exciting.  Trying to fit in a day full of art teaching, matting artwork at night, creating illustrations, and my new crochet addiction is sure hard to schedule in. Don't know how I'd do it with kiddos :)  Guess it's a good thing I dont have any yet!

Better get back to work! These little munchkins await....

Fare the well!

-iveybyrd

January is already gone??

It has certainly been a wild week around the ivey household.  I have been home sick for 2 days, which would be a fun time to get some hobbies and art accomplished, except that whole being fatigued and sick part. :P  This afternoon, however, I have been working on getting my blog up and going and preparing some doodles in my sketchbook.

I have also embarked on the world of fibers! I have always been attracted to the texture of fiber arts and crafts, but had little knowledge of the medium.  Of course I have done my share of elementary weaving projects with my class and taught myself to knit once, but never really pursued either.  I decided to take a chance on crochet.  Turns out people were serious when they said it was way easier than it looked!  I have just begun a crochet blanket.  I know you are supposed to work in loose stitches, but they look so good neat and tight!   This will be a lesson on letting go of my habitual perfectionist work.  It's so funny that I want my work to be "just so", but my office is a mess.  Ah, the life of an artist :)

Here are my 2 favorites pieces of art from this January.  Doggie Portraiture diptych.

 

Since I am trying to fight off this illness, I had better get to bed! ...well...maybe after a little crochet :)

Until next time!

-iveybyrd