Salaric

Spiral snakes are very easy to make and can be hung up around the place as jungle or halloween decorations. When I was little my Welsh grandmother used to make a variant of these for Christmas (less snaky 😉 ).

Draw a circle and cut it out – pre cut circles save a lot of hassle when doing this project with small children.

Draw a spiral and then add snake makings and face to it – this can be done with pens and pencils or with stickers or ink/paint stamps or even embossing for a more subtle patterning.

Then cut around the spiral. There are many templates that you can by or find for free download on the internet but I find free hand ones work just as well 🙂

To add string either punch a whole and tie the ribbon or thread onto it or use tape. They will dance and move in thermals air currents.

A few years ago I donated a piece of my art work – yesterday it was returned to me – as it had spent the last couple of years sitting in a store room. The piece is called The Cricket Gear and was the first piece I painted for my GCSE’s. I was 14 and it took me a terms worth of lessons plus a holiday of painting on the kitchen table to do. I had it in mind as a present for my Granddad but unfortunately he died before it was released from the school (they kept several of my pieces for a while and the teacher even offered to buy them off of me!)

It is framed behind glass so I can’t get a good photo of it and it is somewhat sun faded compared to how it was. It is a picture I would be annoyed to paint now – I look at it and see mistakes but at the same time I know it surpasses stuff I have seen for sale for alot of money.

I’m not sure how I feel about the return – I am hurt as I think any artist would be to be honest but at least it is no longer sitting in a store room. And I wonder about art and society – my husband points out that it is hard for people to tell the difference between a print and a painting and that even hand painted stuff is cheap as cheap from other countries and is bulk bought in. I put a lot of work into this piece and part of me was arrogant enough to feel that I was leaving a legacy by donating it.

Fortunately this as happened at a time when there are many brilliant things happening to me in the creative world so it is not as devastating as it could have been. Also I feel like I am being childish in being upset – I can’t expect people to want my stuff after all.

Of course my mother is over the moon as she had been annoyed I’d given it away in the first place and has a place set aside for it on her wall.

I had my second and final week of running Centre Arts in Cheltenham – and boy did we pack alot of stuff in! We had crotchet, knitting, weaving in the circle, mini pompom making, a fantastic turn out for my story tree, weaving paper to make bags and baskets, creating cards, bookmarks and hanging plant pots. We learnt two different types of stitch in bead work and my cake baking improved drastically with feedback on what worked and what didn’t 🙂

These ones even got mistaken for being an art display!

Recipes and decoration how to for the cakes is here.

Here are some pics of what we got up to 🙂

And of course more cake pics.

My little girls loved it all too and proved time and again that kids really can make a noise with anything!