A Butterfly Birthday Party

I closed the studio for the month of September which is why I haven't posted for so long.  My husband and I went to Europe, rural France, Madrid, Barcelona, and Amsterdam. I am quite excited to share the many projects inspired by the amazing art and beauty I saw while on this trip.

Meanwhile, I have some catching up to do on the blog.  Although the studio was closed, I have had quite a few birthday parties and I have lots of great artwork to share from them.

The party below was for a 10 year old girl. The original plan had been to go hiking in the mountains, but all that beautiful weather we had during the summer was suddenly replaced with a horrific wind and rain storm. 

Isn't that always the way?  The minute you plan an outdoor party, the weather is guaranteed to be uncooperative. It's the same when you wash your car, guaranteed rain the next day.

Anyway the mother called me in a bit of a panic and luckily the studio was open. I was quite thrilled to share in this young girls birthday, as she and her sister had taken a summer camp with me and I quite enjoyed working with them.

I figured this butterfly project would be perfect for what was suppose to be a day spent outdoors in nature.

The girls first created the body with white oven baked clay.  I put out wire that they could attach for antennae and legs if they desired. It's a light weight, so easy for them to cut with scissors.

Then while the bodies were baking in the oven, I gave each girl a piece of watercolor paper with a palette of liquid watercolor in the primary colors.  I also put out some salt, water, and paper towels and quickly went over some different techniques they could try on the paper.

Before they started painting, they cut the wings out of the paper and then they had a great time adding color.  By the time they were finished, the bodies were out of the oven and ready for some black paint. Once finished they had some cake and snacks, giving the paint a chance to dry and me a chance to hot blue the wings onto the back of the body and mount the butterfly onto the frame.  The girls can choose to hang their butterflies on the wall by the bit of burlap string or just cut that off and place on a shelf.  The girls were quite proud of their work when finished, not the nature hike first intended but the girls stayed dried while creating beautiful nature inspired butterflies.

clay and watercolor butterflies

While on a journey through the jungle at the "Jungle Jive" art camp for North Vancouver Arts Council, we discussed the beautiful butterflies that make their lives in jungles around the world.

I thought it would be fun to "capture" our own colorful jungle butterfly.

The Programme Director and I diligently collected our empty jars over a period of a month for the students to use to hold their wild butterflies.

And the kids were so excited to pick from them to hold their fluttering creation.

First using air dry clay, they created a body for their creature.

I told them to keep looking at their jar and making sure the butterfly would fit inside.

I said this over

and over

and over

and over.

Some added wire for legs, antennas, and even tongues!

Then I handed them a small piece of watercolor paper and a palette with the liquid watercolor in the primary colors only.

I quickly went over some of the techniques they could use with the watercolor and also a quick lesson on symmetry.

And then just so they didn't get to upset if their butterfly didn't come out symmetrical, I also talked about how artist Jack Shadbolt created asymmetrical butterflies.

Then off they went with me once again reminding them to remember the jars they wanted to fit their creation into and double checking that what they were creating would fit inside.

I said this over

and over

and over

and over.

Once the bodies were dry, they painted and I hot glued their wings onto the body.

The results are lovely

Even if very few are actually contained in the jars we worked so hard to collect for them because like my kids when I remind them over and over to clean their rooms, my chant of, "double check your butterfly fits into your jar" fell upon deaf ears.

9 year old

8 year old

9 year old

6 year old

6 year old

9 year old

9 year old

6 year old

7 year old

9 year old

7 year old