woodcarving... so far

sketch for what I'm working on now! ^

practice piece ^

my first steps in Armenian woodcarving:)

dancin, catchin stars

Everything about the Art School in Koghb inspires me:) The picture is from an event they held this past week. For 3 days they hosted a traditional Armenian dancing group to teach the local children(/local Americans) the dances. The ladies I've met at the school are some of the most free-spirited and talented people I've ever met.

other inspiration (cheesy delight):

"Catch Your Star"
Catch the star that holds your destiny-
the one that forever twinkles in your heart
Take advantage of precious opportunities
while they still sparkle before you
Believe that your goal is attainable
Commit yourself to it
Though barriers may stand in your way
remember... your destiny is hiding behind them
Accept that not everyone will approve of your choices
Have faith in your judgment
Take pride in your accomplishments
They are steppingstones to your dreams
Don't let your mistakes discourage you
Value your capabilities and talents
for they are what make you truly unique
The greatest gifts in life are not purchased
but acquired through hard work and determination
Find the star that twinkles in your heart
You are capable of making your dreams come true
Give your hopes everything you've got
You will catch the star
that holds your destiny.
-Shannon M. Lester

Kirovakan and Alaverdi

:) in Kirovakan

Alaverdi- a mosaic face on the hill. I think it's Hovannes Tumanyan!

It's too bad Peace Corps Volunteers can't be placed in Alaverdi (well it's good they can't because of the copper mining and arsenic dump)... but the surrounding areas are very beautiful and everyone I met was nice. I only spent a couple hours in Alaverdi waiting for a taxi to come get me because there is no public transportation from Kirovakan to Noyemberyan on Sundays. I saw the cable cars running, ate a really good meal at a restaurant for 1000 AMD (about $2.50), and watched kids playing on the large sports fields.

My bus trip was so long going from site to Kirovakan on Saturday I had to resort to playing with my camera. I thought this guy's shirt was funny to look at on the 3 1/2 hours I spent sitting behind him. On a good day, it should have been almost 2 hours. It says "Never confuse fashion with personal style expression". Sir, I agree. But which one are you trying to accomplish?

Check out the (very basic) webpage called "Give a Squat" I made for the Kindergarten's Bathroom Renovation project here: https://sites.google.com/site/giveasquat/

Goris Leadership Camp Arts & Crafts

This is a picture of Austin, the brains and brawn behind the Goris Leadership Camp, stapling in the final row of soda-bottle-patio-lights on our bookshelf.

As an activity at the Goris Leadership Camp last week, within just (4) 2-hour lessons children created artwork to decorate a "leadership bookshelf" which would remain at the school as testament to the camp.

Materials needed to decorate the entire bookshelf:

2 strings of Christmas lights, 15 soda bottles, scissors, markers, glitter, glue, paper, ribbon, printing paper, transfer paper, box cutters, stencil paper/cardstock, cut 8x10 cardboard lengths, pencils, masking tape, paint, paintbrushes, paint thinner, play-doh, craft wire

Day 1- Patio Lights

We decorated Jermuk sparkling water bottles with markers, glitter, glue, paper, and ribbon to make the patio lights from this link: click here .

(During working time we compiled a list of the children's heroes. Later, we found the heroes' pictures online, uploaded them to picnik.com and edited the pictures with the "posterize" 2- color tool. For the next day we had these pictures printed out)

Day 2- Stenciling

Children were given their black & white pictures of their heroes, and instructed on whether they will be cutting out all the black areas of the photo or all the white areas (based on which I thought would make a better stencil).

Transfer paper was sandwiched, black side down, underneath the top layer printed photo and the bottom layer of the cardstock. Children traced all the black (or white areas, depending on the photo) with a pencil- the image of only these areas was transferred through to the cardstock.

Students taped the cardstock to a section of cardboard and were given small boxcutters to carefully cut the areas out which they traced.

example of student's artwork: Charents

Day 3- Painting on the Stencils & Origami

Student artworks were chosen, arranged, and carefully taped onto pieces of the disassembled shelving before the children arrived.

Katie's origami flower lesson took place while pairs of students were chose to leave the origami to paint stencils. Students each chose a color of paint, and painted over the stencil as a team (whether they had cut that stencil out the day before or not, due to the unequal number of finished stencils and present children). We started painting from inner-most images and worked our way to the furthest towards the edges. When children finished painting the stenciled image they were led to a different activity by Michael to keep traffic away from the working area. The cardstock stencils were not removed from the shelving after being painted, they were left ontop to dry.

My example I showed the class: Martiros Saryan

Day 4- Superhero Day
Students were given ample amounts of play-doh to create their own superheroes. At the end of the lesson, students from teams gave short presentations about what superhero qualities and strengths their sculpture had and why they thought those were important traits.
Two of the camp's counselors had superheroes made of them- Alex and Austin :)

(Meanwhile, cardstock stencils were carefully removed from the shelving. Pools of paint which had gathered underneath wrong areas in some of the stencils were worked off with paint thinner and box cutters.) Other parts of the shelving were painted, and we prepared for construction of the bookshelf the next day.

Day 5- Bookshelf Unveil

On the final day of camp students conducted civil service projects in their community. During their final activities, I was inside the school with a couple handy Armenian counterparts and free PCV teachers assembling the bookshelf. After it was put together, the Christmas lights were strung through and the patio lights were wired into place, then stapled onto the shelf. Play-doh superhero sculptures were moved and placed onto the shelves.

When children entered the building for the final slideshow and announcements they saw the finished product! Pictures of Tumanyan, Charents, Shiraz, Cher, Saryan, Arshile Gorky, Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, Justin Bieber, Tyra Banks, Inna, Demi Lovato, Salena Gomez, Sirusho, Enrique, Putin, Pitbull, and more were stenciled onto the shelf blinking with decorated patio lights and play-doh superheroes!

cinnamon peach jam fail, woodcarving

i worked on a cinnamon peach jam this week. this was my first time canning without experienced help, so i think 50% success rate is alright! i only had 2 jars worth, and while sealing the first i was a little too forceful with tightening and.... fail! the other is cooling & waiting for me- i'm hoping the lid doesn't pop up and down!


this is a little woodcarving a guy at Koghb's Art Camp made for me when i learning the basics from my new teacher, Artur. i've took a couple stateside woodcarving/woodworking classes in my time but Armenians really seem to have a specific, direct way in which they teach and expect a student to learn. i'm sort of used to "anything goes", and find its a bit refreshing to learn a process from step 1. everyone seems to think its funny i plan to make a stone hotchcar before i leave, because women usually do not carve. the kid who carved my name above was carving in stone and i was carving little X like nautical stars like the two above but in a row and much deeper... should have took a picture of what i did, but there will be better things in the future!

Bathroom Remodeling & Sanitation Education Project

Please help Noyemberyan's Kindergarten #1 update their bathrooms!
Would you want your 2-4 year old using the facility pictured above?

Click on the link below to get more information about our project and how you can help (donations are also tax deductible and all recorded donors will receive a thank you letter from a Kindergarten student!):

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=305-076

June 30th English Recital

(From our June 30th English recital)
we did:
Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes
the ABC's
& we read the Very Hungry Caterpillar then colored the paper butterflies:)

This event is my most favorite accomplishment to date!!