Catnip - it's not what you think it is

Today was our big demonstration day at Creative Connections Arts Academy! We were scheduled to be at the school, set up, and ready to go by 8am. So I was so thankful that when Cy arrived at my house to carpool, she brought what I lovingly refer to as "huge-ass" mochas!

After we set up each of our stations in the Dragon's Lair Art Gallery, we were able to visit with each other for a bit before the hoards of children arrived. Here's Cy trying out Lisann's needle punch felting machine.




Dy gets ready to show off her hand beading and lace work used on her one-of-a-kind costumes.




Kim prepares her fabric creations.




The plan for the morning was that over a course of 4 hours, each grade would enter the gallery for a 20 minute demo. It was fast-paced with a small group rotating to visit each of the five stations. I was pleasantly surprised at the students' enthusiasm and articulate questions.







Cy's demo explained how she presses the laundry lint from her dryer until it becomes paper-like. She then showed how she carves images out of wood blocks, applies ink with a roller, and presses it onto the lint canvas. The students were fascinated with her ability to re-use something that most people would just toss into the garbage.




I did a demonstration of my Evie's Ark organic catnip toys. I shared my stencil templates and showed how easy it is to trace the shape onto the backside of the fabric and cut it out with pinking shears. Quite a few of the students had taken sewing classes, so they understood what I meant by "whipping each piece of fabric through the sewing machine." The students had a lot of questions about the 1-pound bag of organic catnip that I brought with me. Along those same lines, I'm always overly cautious about driving anywhere with a gallon size bag of catnip because it looks so much like, well, you know! The younger students said the catnip smelled like their hamster's cage. The 8th graders just looked at the bag and giggled.

Here's a photo of the students who helped me to stuff Fiberfill into the pre-sewn cat toys. They were very cheap labor and I was thankful for the help!




Throughout the morning, we did demos for nearly 350 students. And boy, were we beat, even after our mochas! Overall, the morning was a blast. I hope that we inspired a few young minds.