Paper Cherry Blossoms

 It is Cherry Blossom season and today in San Francisco's Japantown there is a festival going on.  It will go on for two weekends  ending with a parade. For nine years our family walked in the Cherry Blossom parade with our children's elementary school representing the Clarendon Elementary Japanese Bilingual Program. I am missing the delicious udon noodles that our school sold at the festival. I might just go over there and get some. So the last week we made some pretty cherry blossom branches and cards  in my craft classes at ruthstable.org and at the San Francisco Carlisle retirement community.

I collected branches from my parents yard and I also picked up fallen branches on my dog walks. My dog was going crazy grabbing the from me!

                                                           

I carved a cherry blossom center with an eraser and we stamped the flowers.

Yasko Gamo works on her blossoms.

Lucinda poses with her finished branch.

3 more Valentines workshops coming!!!!

Workshop #1 coming this Friday!

Join me at Ruths Table where I am fortunate to be the Artist in Residence. This Friday the Feb 8th from 6:30-8:30 pm we are hosting a Craft party to make Valentines at ruthstable.org. Register online or at the door. As usual we craft green using all sorts of fabulous material saved from the landfill!!!! We are going to decorate candy bags made from ordinary envelopes, construct heart zipper pins and more...
Sue's Tasty Treats will be there! And we will have a raffle too.

The bird is made from wall paper and the red heart from a paint chip. The zipper pins are easy to make for gifts.

Workshop #2
If you live in Marin-- this one is for you!!!!    Saturday from 12-2 pm at the O'hanlon Center for the Arts
Join us at the ohanloncenter.org for a Saturday afternoon workshop at the beautiful O'hanlon Center.
Just like at Ruth's Table you will have the opportunity to make zipper pins and fabulous DIY valentines
cards. I am bringing two suitcases of goods of interesting paper, fabric, twine, wallpaper to create one of a kind Valentines. And the typewriter bar too.

Workshop #3
SCRAP fundraiser this Sunday!!!!!
A live band, food and a Valentine Workshop with the Typewriter Bar!!! Use the cool stuff from scrap-sf.org and make some Valentines....


So EVERYONE I hope you can join me at one of these great workshops this weekend. It will be so much fun!!!

This card is made from items bought at scrap-sf.org
Made from a coffee bag, velvet remnant and twill tape. I bought a GIANT roll and
it will last forever!

These are some of the Valentines we made this past Saturday at the Bethany United Methodist Church.

Repurposed materials used: wall paper, library file cards, discarded books, coffee sleeves, junk mail, maps, music sheets, fabric remnants, twine, buttons, coffee sack and more! Many of these cards were donated to a shelter for women and children in transition from domestic abuse. It was great to make and SHARE! Thank you
Gloria for inviting Dorothy Yuki and myself to host this event. It was a lot of fun and the participants were very creative and people had a great time.

"Green" Valentine Workshops the DIY way!

I have four Valentine workshops coming up this February. I love giving these workshops and hopefully there will be one or two for a lot of people to choose from. Come and make your own Valentines.
The stores have plenty of nice Valentines cards but they are so expensive and definitely not one of a kind. Check out these simple Valentines I made as samples. These are just a few of them. Can you guess what repurposed items I used?

Materials used to make these Valentines Day cards: playing card, junk mail, fabric remnant, coffee sack, reused greeting card, candy, rubber stamps, wall paper, old calendar, discarded book pages and a toilet paper roll.

Here is a schedule of Valentine Workshops.


First one!    This workshop given with Dorothy Yuki from dots rainbow.com


Bethany United Methodist Church                            Adults $10.00 and children $5.00
MAKE TAKE GIVE                                                RSVP at Marshall@bethanysf.org
Saturday February 2, 2013                                         (415) 647-8393
10:00-1 pm
1270 Sanchez at Clipper Street
San Francisco, CA



Second one!

Ruth's Table at 580 Capp Street in San Francisco                                                                    
Valentine's Craft Fest
Card making, gift bags and pink and red zipper pins                   Raffle prizes!
Friday evening:  February 8, 2013     6:30- 8:30 pm
$15.00 adults and children  $7.00 each
Register at www.ruthstable.org


Third one!

O'hanlon Center for the Arts                                  Valentine Craft Projects
616 Throckmorton Avenue                                 TIME CHANGE (due to Superbowl Sunday)
Mill Valley, CA.                                                New time: February 9, 2013  time: 12-2 pm
$30.00 adults and children $15.00
www.ohanloncenter.org


Final one!

I  heart SCRAP Party
801 Toland in San Francisco
February 10, 2013
Valentine card making party and other festivities with food and a band and more...
www.scrap-sf.org
Noon to three

Every work shop will have a special "typewriter bar" to type out your special messages to your Valentine.

I hope to see some of you at these great workshops.

Paper Trees for the holiday and beyond

Today I had a workshop at www. ruthstable.org where I am the Artist in Residence. We made tiny paper trees. All you need for these trees are skewers from the $ store and some old corks and your choice of paper.  I took a nail a little smaller than the skewer and drove a little hole in the cork. Push the non pointed end into the cork. The pointed end on top allows the paper to easily push down the skewer.

Tree number 1--- made from a thin paper bag, cut with shredder scissors
Tree number 2---punched round circles from music sheets with different size punches. You could hand cut the circles as well with scallop scissors.
Tree number 3---made from a Asian newspaper. Fold long strip of paper in half, cut on fold but not all the way through. Glue spirals around the tree from bottom to top.
Tree 4 & 5 are made from discarded books. I chose different books to get different colors of pages. Cut squares in various sizes so your tree will taper.


Leave a comment if you need more details. I may take photos of the steps and post later. It was really fun to make. You can make a tiny forest of trees!

Rubber Stamp Mania coming!!!

Join us at Ruth's Table for a fun workshop called Rubber Stamp Mania
We will make our own rubber stamps using a variety of techniques. Also
on hand will be several  huge collections of rubber stamps to use throughout
the workshop. Register at ruthstable.org and have some fun!

Use your new rubber stamps for postcards, greeting cards, mail art and collage and tags.

Here is a card I made using a readymade rubber stamp I found at scrap-sf.org many years ago. It is a mason jar. I "filled" it with my newly made rubber stamp using a piece of a flip flop. I used a heat gun and heated the flip flop for approximately 15 seconds and the pushed the warm foam into the keys, buttons and paper clips making an impression. It the impression it not deep enough simply reheat the foam and start again. Using a regular ink pad ink the foam stamp and stamp it inside the jar. I was amazed how realistic it looked. It has has a look of a film negative to me.

Bulletin Board

Last week a group of us tackled the Ruth's Table ruthstable.orgruthstable.org bulletin board. Dorothy, Liz, Margie and Sue and Tomoko combined our efforts and came up with this idea....

The bulletin board is a tree branch repurposing a old dictionary. The book
pages were scrunched and twisted and the leaves are photographs of activities,
projects and people at our workshops at Ruth's Table.

We used the Sizzix sizzix.com bird and butterfly and cut birds and butterflies from wall paper.

We also added buttons and a few sprigs of green to our tree branches.

Repurposed Book Workshop

Join us this Saturday the 9th of June at Ruth's Table for a 

Repurposed Book workshop from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm.

We will take books that were being discarded and transform 

them into greeting cards, envelopes, sculptures and more.

Give an old book a new  life!

Here are a few examples of taking a discarded book and transforming it into a new
life---- envelopes, greeting cards, bags and package toppers.

Ruth's Table Retrospective Show 2012

 On June 1, 2012 there will be an opening at Ruth's Table to celebrate the past years events at Ruth's Table. There will be works on display from past shows and workshops. Join us in the celebration if you happen to be in the SF Mission District. 580 Capp Street at 21st.  The opening will be from 6:30-8:30 pm

Go to www.ruthstable.org for more information.

                               

                                             

One of the highlights of the show will 

be Tomoko Lipp's Paper Rose Tree.

Crafting a green world in glass- Terrarium Class

HURRY on over to Ruth's Table in San Francisco for our first open vessel terrarium class this 

Saturday the 28th of April. I will be assisted in the workshop by owners of 

the Succulent Sisters. In the tradition of Ruth's Table we will be repurposing glass found at thrift stores and rummage sales and adorning our miniature green worlds with succulents and an assortment of wood, glass or shells if desiredl

Go to Ruth's Table website and click on programs. The workshop is $20.00 for adults and $7.00 for children accompanied by an adult.

Check out all the succulents at Claude Geffray's green house in Chico, Ca. I had such
a hard time choosing the succulents for the class!

Here are some of the succulents that I chose for the terrarium class.

Valentine and Birthday celebration

Last Wed a group of my girl friends came and helped me celebrate my birthday by coming to my Valentine Craft class at Ruth's Table. We had a full house of residents of the Bethany House and a lot from the community. It was so much fun. The two hour workshop went by quickly that we dubbed the class-- Speed Crafting! Everyone had a great time. 

Craft workshop sign 

Everyone busy recreating and speed crafting.

Olivia's cards.

Lucinda's card

I made special clothes pins for Ruth's Table to hang

 the sample cards.

TV SHOW

My friend Megumi Inouye is a host on a televison program called the Japanese American Journal on KTSF in the San Francisico Bay Area. She invited some of the staff of Ruth's Table where I am the Artist in Residence to be on her program and discuss how Ruth's Table was founded  and the programs it offers to the public.

Megumi made it easy to appear on the TV show by asking great questions and keeping the conversation flowing. I am hoping that the program will make more people aware of what a great place Ruth's Table is for the community and to honor the artist Ruth Asawa.

The set for the Japanese American Journal program.

Dorothy Yuki and myself in front of the table with our art projects from Ruth's Table. Our segment
was last and the table was wheeled onto the set where we did a show and tell for the audience.

Aiko Cuneo, arts educator and Ruth Asawa's daughter, Dorothy Yuki, Lola Fraknoi director of Ruth's Table, 
host Megumi Inouye and  Monica Lee. We just finished the taping of the segment 
that aired on Saturday the 11th of February.

Lunar New Year

Happy Year of the Dragon!

Today at Ruth's Table where I am the Artist in Residence we used the Chinese New Year money envelopes to make fans and lanterns at our craft workshop today. My friend Janet picked up a lot of different sets for me on Clement Street in San Francisco for 69 cents a pack.

I grew up getting these envelopes with crisp one dollar bills in it on Chinese New Years. Now my mom and dad  give them to my children and their six other grandchildren.

Announcing todays workshop.

We started making the lanterns and fans by choosing from among

all the different patterns on the envelopes.

We folded ten envelopes for the lantern and used fifteen for the fan.

We had a nice crowd of people at todays workshop.

Here are the first to finish their beautiful fans!

The finished fans and lanterns for our afternoon of crafting at Ruth's Table.

 Next week Valentines crafts.

Crafting for Valentine's Day

Next week I am giving four Valentine craft events so I am busy preparing samples and gathering supplies. Three of them are open to the public. All are in San Francisco, CA. Everyone of the events will be "green" using repurposed and found materials.

February 8, 2012 : Valentine Crafts at Ruth's Table from 1:00pm-3:00 pm. $15.00

February 11, 2012: Sunnyside Conservatory on Monterey Blvd from 2:00-4:00pm. We are having an Eco Valentine Card Party and it is FREE to the public. 

February 12, 2012:  I heart SCRAP fundraiser on Sunday from 1-4 pm. $10.00 donation. I will be volunteering for the event. We are going to have some great valentine craft stations. Come and check it out...and support SCRAP my favorite art supply source!

These Valentines were made using an old coffee bean bag,

wall paper and old math book and some twill tape.

These Valentines were made using a mason jar rubber stamp and 

a small heart punch. The jar give endless ideas of what

could be spilling out of it or be in the jar!

This last set of cards were made with made from pages of discarded books.

I just used scissors and glue and some twine. I looked for books with

different shades. The heart was from a very old dictionary

where the pages were brown from age and acidity.

Paper Rose Party #2

Last Friday on a cold and stormy night almost 50 people braved the storm and came to Ruth's Table to make beautiful paper roses. Tomoko Lipp from 3Rartfukuoka.blogspot.com once again was our teacher leading us all in spreading the words of reduce,reuse and recycle. This time she trained six of us to be teachers to help at the event. Look at the results. It was another workshop. Thank you Tomoko! 

This is a group photo of all the paper roses made that night.

Paper Rose Project returns

Friday night  January 20th Tomoko Lipp's Paper Rose returns to Ruth's Table due to the overwhelming response to the first one. Everyone loved the workshop.

Please register online- go to programs at Ruth's Table. 

Here is the paper rose I made at the teacher instruction session with Tomoko.

Here is  Kenan's rose that she made at the session.

I love that angled cut for center of the rose.

I hope to see you there. I will be one of the teacher volunteers helping the participants make their newspaper flowers.

Paper Rose Project coming (again)!

The Paper Rose Project is coming back to Ruth's Table in the San Francisco's Mission District. Tomoko Lipp from 3rartfukuoka.blogspot.com will be teaching the paper rose made out of newspaper. It will be January 20th from 6:30-8:30. Please go to Ruth's Table and click on programs to register for this FREE event. We had a huge crowd last time so register for a seat!

Ruth's Table Craft NIght with Tomoko Lipp

We had a huge turnout at Ruth's Table for our second Craft Night with guest artist Tomoko Lipp from 3R Art Paper Rose Project. Almost 50 people turned out to make wonderful paper roses from the colored sections of newspapers. It was a wonderful evening of food and art and all of us joining in to spread the words of Tomoko "Let's Reduce, Reuse and Recycle". Thank you Tomoko for all your hard word and teaching us all how to make a paper rose. You will see by the photos how great all of them were-- everyone of them different and beautiful.

The Paper Rose team for Ruth's - Dorothy Yuki, Monica Lee, Tomoko Lipp, Megan Coss and Lola Fraknoi

Tomoko demonstrating the paper rose project.

Lily, Olivia, Corey, Leslie, Dana, Yuriko and Megumi making thier first paper rose.