I Took My Teenager to Otherworld

Tbh, I thought for sure that she was going to ask to go to the Columbus Zoo, or at least the bookstore so large that they give you a map. 

But on the way home from our college visit we had enough time to do only one activity in Columbus, and Will chose, for perhaps the very first time ever when such a choice has been presented to her, not animals or books, but Otherworld, an immersive postmodern art installation.

It was SO GREAT!!!

The premise is that you're exploring a mysteriously abandoned research facility, one that you learn has been exploring a connection between two realities, with results that seem to have gotten wildy out of hand. There's no handbook--or map!--to guide your explorations, as you wander between rooms, interact with what you find, and discover secret passages and hidden connections of your own:

Different artists designed different rooms, so there's no overarching organization to lull your senses:

I really loved this room, which had lighting that made you, too, look black and white:

Will discovered a secret passage in the guts of an arcade game that led us into the world inside the game:

The entire warehouse was a terrific multi-sensory experience, with the ever-expanding premise good for keeping your intellect engaged:

The mirror mazes were also pretty epic:

My favorite room was designed to look like a museum, with displays created by the research team's archivist:

I also really liked the mad scientist's laboratory:

It looks like we'll be traveling through Columbus pretty regularly over the next four years, as Will is now officially a Denisonian(!!!), so I guess we'll have plenty of time for the giant bookstore and the zoo on future visits.

Not gonna lie, though--I am MOST excited about Will being in shouting distance of an NHL franchise. I am thisclose to buying season tickets for next year so I can 1) have an excuse to visit my kid every home game, and 2) have an excuse to go to a LOT of hockey games by visiting my kid.

Go, Blue Jackets!

Non-Seasonal Craft Alert: Plaster of Paris Sugar Skull Models, Because We're Studying El Dia De Los Muertos in April

Okay, what we were ACTUALLY doing was putting together a Mexico-themed take-home kit for another Girl Scout troop as part of our Service Unit's World Thinking Day celebration, but as my kid was researching stuff we might want to include, she said, "We should study El Dia de los Muertos sometime."

Let's just ignore, for the moment, the fact that we HAVE studied El Dia de los Muertos before--many times, actually! With this kid, you have to strike like a viper when the iron is at its very hottest. 

Seriously, remember just the other day, when we went to the local historic cemetery so the kid could take reference photos for her AP Studio Art classes? While we were there, she was literally griping that these photos wouldn't come in handy at all, because her special focus for the class was absolutely going to be mushrooms, which she was super interested in and spent all her free time sketching in various forms. 

So after the cemetery, we drove to the public library to find her a couple of reference books on mushrooms that had big, glossy photos, but then I also put some other big, glossy mushroom reference books on hold for me at our local university's library. Those finally came in for me a couple of days ago, but when I excitedly handed them to her, she was all, "Ugh! More mushroom books?!? I am not even interested in mushrooms why must you always task me with these unendurable burdens blah blah blah gripe gripe gripe!"

And that is why, the very second that my kid mentioned wanting to study El Dia de los Muertos sometime, I was all, "OMG what a coincidence you said that! Because our very next project actually happens to be El Dia de los Muertos! Weird that I didn't bring it up before. Oh, right, and the project actually begins now! Yeah, yeah... you're going to... write a research paper, that's right. Definitely a research paper. And, uh... also you're going to model a themed craft for our take-home kit."

Her research paper is quite good, although I do not understand why I have to beg both of my children to include in-text citations and a Works Cited page--surely it's so much more effort to go back and remember all your sources and add the citations later?

Anyway, along with the research paper, the kids and I made sugar skull models from plaster of Paris, and then Syd embellished them with dimensional fabric paint. It's a super easy project that does have some prep time, but the results look really, really good. To make your own plaster of Paris sugar skull models, you will need:

• plaster of Paris. Any brand is fine, but Dap is what my local hardware store carries. When my kids were little, I used plaster of Paris to make them little figurines to decorate all the time. Plaster of Paris is pretty eco-friendly, and it takes all kinds of artist media like a champ. 
• skull mold. I used the skull mold we've had for years, most notably to make our mashed potato skulls every Halloween dinner. It was already on its last legs, and I wore it into the ground with this project. I'll have to keep my eye out for a new skull mold before next Halloween, because we can't do without our mashed potato skulls!
• dimensional fabric paint. These stick great to the plaster of Paris, and have a cute, puff paint look to them. They're a little spendy for what you get, though, so if you've got younger or messier kids, you might as well put tempera or dyed school glue into little squeeze bottles for them. 

The main job is to make the plaster of Paris skull models. My skull mold held about four cups of plaster, and took several hours to harden, so it took me a couple of days to make the seven skulls that I needed:

Fortunately, embellishing the skulls is a lot less work--and a lot more fun!

Because the paint is dimensional, it did also take a few hours to dry, so if you're doing this in a shared space with a group, bring a cardboard box or tray so everybody can transport their skull home to finish drying. I noted that in the instructions I wrote to go in our Mexico take-home kit, and included a plaster of Paris skull for each kid and a large set of dimensional paint for them to share.

If I had this project to do again, I'd embed twine or wire into the plaster of Paris to use as a hanger when it dries. For Syd's sugar skull, though, I think I'm going to sand the back flat and then glue it to a bookend. 

Crafting with Kids: Make Your Own Plaster of Paris Figurines

I originally published this tutorial on Crafting a Green World way back in 2010!

Summer is for kitschy children's crafts. Popsicle sticks, pom poms, the ubiquitous lanyard, plus a few thousand mosquito bites are all that's necessary for the perfect summer. 

Kids' crafts, however, can compete with the eco-friendly lifestyle that we try to teach them. They want foam stickers and plastic beads, and we want them to craft with twigs and pine cones! 

One of the ways to teach children to craft positively is to teach them the DIY mindset. Plaster of Paris is a kid-friendly material, made from powdered gypsum (just like the dunes at White Sands, New Mexico!) that you rehydrate and then dehydrate again in a mold, and those little plaster of Paris figurines that craft stores sell are cute and fun to paint. But what sweatshop were they imported from? Who knows? 

Here's how give your kids the fun of making your own plaster of Paris figurines, all with stuff that you already have around the house. 

You will need:

• Plaster of Paris. I bought mine half-used from a garage sale, but it's an inexpensive and easily found craft supply to find new or used.
• Measuring cups and stirrers. You can either use cups and bowls and spoons that you can rinse off with the hose outside (NOT down your drain!), or you can do what we do and give one final use to stuff that we're just about to throw away, anyway- souvenir non-recyclable plastic cups or decorative tins or toothbrushes or used-but-dry popsicle sticks, or paint stirrers.
• Kitchen or postal scale
• Household objects for molds. Silicon muffin molds work well for this, as do conventional metal muffin tins, as well as any plastic or metal container. Be creative!

 1. Using the kitchen scale, measure out your plaster and water in a 2:1 ratio. This means that you need to have twice the weight of plaster that you do water. If you measure out 12 ounces of plaster, for instance, then you'll need to weigh out 6 ounces of water. 

2. Combine the plaster and water into one bowl and stir well until they're combined and there are no lumps. 

3. Pour the plaster of Paris mixture into your molds, smoothing out the tops with a popsicle stick or the flat end of a knife. 

4. After at least 30 minutes, the plaster of Paris will be firm to the touch and can be unmolded and painted with acrylic paints.  

Plaster of Paris figurines make great paperweights, party crafts, and grandparent gifts. To make them extra crafty, you can embed found objects in the plaster before it's completely firm. May I suggest twigs and pine cones, perhaps?

Trashion/Refashion Show 2022: Mothic

One of my favorite Syd retrospectives is her path through creating, constructing, and modeling her original designs in our town's Trashion/Refashion Show. She's gone from a four-year-old who used up most of a pink marker to draw what she wanted me to make her--

2011: Fairy Princess

2012: Rainbow Fairy

2013: Rose Dress

2014: Upside-Down Orange

2015: The Awesomes

--to a nine-year-old who took over some of the work of construction and embellishment--

2016: The Phoenix

2017: Supergirl of the Night

--to an eleven-year-old capable enough to be the sole artist at work, responsible for all the design, sewing, and styling of her garments:

2018: Medieval Maiden

2019: Gibbon Girl

2020 would have been the debut of her first work designing a garment for someone else, with three of her designs accepted into the show, and two friends excited to model with her.

Happily, the Trashion/Refashion Show came back in 2021, though in a new location and diminished capacity:

2021: That Girl from The Ring

So 2022 was when we got to enjoy our Trashion/Refashion Show back at capacity and back where it belonged in our town's 100-year-old theater. In 1922, people packed the seats to watch silent movies, but a few days ago, they were there to watch the designer of Mothic model her original creation on the runway.

Her garment originally started out quite different. Here are some of her application photos:

Syd later decided to change the undershirt to black, as well, but the bodice and skirt set stayed the same in the final garment. The biggest change, though, was the wings. Here are her original wings:

She could not figure out how to construct the look she was going for, so settled on highly embellishing wings that would remain closed and function like a cape:

Syd finally solved the construction issue by moving to the lightest fabric we could find--old cotton bedsheets--painting them with a combination of fabric dye and artist's acrylics, and creating a light structure from corrugated cardboard to give them the extension she wanted.

I think she achieved the look she was going for:

And here she is in motion:

It was a special day and a beautiful night, and I'm glad that we got to have it again.

Syd is still interested in extendable wing forms, particularly articulated ones that can be controlled by the wearer, so it looks like we've got our summer engineering project all figured out!