Creations

One of the cool things about the boys getting older is that the creations that come home from school keep getting better and better. Brian did this sculpture of a tennis player in 7th grade. It is made with a wire frame and covered with some sort of paper. Can't you just feel the action?

Last year Billy brought home the same type of sculpture. His is a football player running with the ball. Long and lanky...sort of like him.

When Brian was in 8th grade one of the classes that he really liked was Wood Shop. Billy is taking it now and really likes it too. This is one of Billy's projects, it's a marble game.

Brian made one just like it, but I couldn't find his, so I'm showing two pictures of Billy's. That's how I do things....usually with no rhyme nor reason.

Another Wood Shop project was building a Jelly Bean dispenser. Billy's on the left, Brian's on the right. They are really cool. The hole on the top is threaded and the top is a mason jar that screws right into the wood base. There is a cam inside of the wood base with a slot that the jelly bean falls into when you turn the dial. Don't tell Billy but I snitched a jelly bean from his jar today...just my luck I turned the knob and a black one came out. Yuck. Oh well, I ate it anyway.

I like jelly beans...just not the black ones. Jelly beans remind me of Easter, which reminds me of Spring, which reminds me that it won't be too much longer until the weather gets warm again. I like the pretty colors too. Except the black ones. Is black really a color or just the absence of color?

The next picture is an African Clay house. Both of the boys made these in 8th grade art class. The first one is Brian's. His teacher liked it so much she kept it in the class room for two years. When Billy saw it he asked her about it and sure enough it was Brian's. Billy brought it home for him. I thought that was pretty sweet of him. Do you see Africa?

This is Billy's clay house. I think that it was done around Halloween...it has sort of a haunted look don't you think?

I didn't have wood shop in school, but I loved art class. Loved working with clay, loved painting, loved learning about different types of art and different materials that you could use to create things. Even thought I didn't have shop I did build things with wood when I was a kid....a tree house, a fort....I was always making something... well, according to my mom what I usually was making was a mess....but I thought I was making some cool stuff. I'd like to take credit for my boys creativity...but I'll let you in on something that you might not know....I think they get it from their dad. Eric doesn't take time to do creative things very often anymore, but he has some hidden talents.

This is a clay sculpture that he did in high school. Dad is carving a ham, son is playing with a car at the table, and mother is scolding the son for tipping over his milk.

There is a lot of detail in the sculpture. He started out with a block of clay and carved away the extra material until the figures emerged.

The figures were painted with glaze and the whole thing survived being fired in a kiln. Seems like my stuff used to explode in there. Eric's mom was pretty proud of what he had done....so proud that she entered his sculpture in the State Fair in the creative arts building. And you know what, it won a ribbon!

And it wasn't any old ribbon...it was a championship purple ribbon! First Premium in creative activities. That's a pretty high honor for a high school art project if you ask me. So when the boys bring home all that cool stuff from school...the credit goes to Eric.

As for me, I'll just keep shaking my finger at 'em at the table and tell them to quit making a mess. After all, I've got to contribute something around here!