Why hello everyone!
At the beginning of February, I had an great opportunity to meet some awesome young ladies from Montana's first chapter of the Navigators USA scouting group (more info of what they are about here: http://navigatorsusa.org/ and their Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/NavigatorsUSAChapter62 )
While these scouts are normally working with nature and preserving the great outdoors for their activities, thats a little difficult to do in the harsh Montana winter. So when its cold and wintry outside, what else can one do but some awesome arts and crafts?
This was my first time ever preparing and teaching a workshop of any kind, so I was unsurprisingly nervous. I decided to hold the workshop on my mini top hat tutorial (here), with a bit of a show and tell with some of the cosplay props I've made. These decisions weren't out of the blue; it was after I learned from the scout's leader, Peggy, that the girls were excited about costuming and arts and crafts that I went with this theme.
For assistance, I enlisted the help of my friend and fellow mini top hat enthusiast, Aubray. We dressed up in our most girly, frilly, top-hat-themed finery, loaded up her car with cosplay props and craft supplies, and embarked on our journey to the meeting place. One map mishap and a phone call later, we made it!
Thanks to the kind parents in this scouting group, we had a warm place to have the workshop, and another parent donated some marvelous materials for all the girls to use. Five girls were able to attend, around the ages of nine and ten. All of them were very nice, but most importantly they were enthusiastic! After I did a little show and tell of the props I brought, including my Buster Sword (kudos to Aubray for lugging it from her car!) we jumped right in to crafting time! There is a little fashion show that Peggy caught on video, check it out below!
Everyone had so much fun, so I was really relieved! Things got a little sticky with the hot glue guns, not even I came away unscathed from the wrath of super-heated glue, but I think despite that all the girls had a great time! They were all so energetic and creative, and all their hats came out so unique. Mine looked almost boring in comparison, haha! At first, I wanted to jump in and give advice on how I thought the hats should look and be made, but then I remembered that my original intent for this whole workshop was to show that you can do anything you want when you are creating art or costumes. There is no right or wrong way to do art. So when you set a pack of ten year olds loose with glue, feather, beads, ribbon, and fabric....magic happens! It happens so often in today's schools and society that you are corralled into doing things a certain way, to conform to certain standards, and I think we lose a lot of our creative freedom as we grow up. I can only hope that Aubray and I showed these young girls that you can still have creative freedom as a "grown-up," and that if you want a purple leopard print top hat with pink and green feathers and polkadots all over, go for it!
As for myself, I learned a lot from this workshop as well. For example, I'm better with kids than I first thought I was, or so I hope! Secondly, I'm really thankful that I asked for help from Aubray and that she agreed to help (thank you soooo much! ^.^) Also, if I ever do another workshop with the mini top hats, I would probably prepare the pattern and basic structure of the top hat beforehand so we have more time to focus on what is important-- creating your unique top hat style!
A big thank you to Peggy and the Navigator scouts for arranging this and having Aubray and I for the workshop. It was a great honor to be able to do that. Thank you to the parents who lent us their house and donated materials! And thank you to Aubray for assisting me the whole day long. I was seriously impressed by your mad glue gun skills!
Sincerely,
Alycia
No comments:
Post a Comment