Sparks: 008 drawing with straws, a great source of inspiration

Have you ever tried drawing by blowing air through a straw? The process tends to be random and unforeseeable, and the results are almost always surprising and truly inspiring.
After making some of those drawing today, Zoe and her friend Noam tried to find animals and good monsters within their abstract drawings. It was a little bit like finding objects in the clouds. Zoe found a snail and a peacock, Noam found a yellow skinny good monster, and my monster was running I am not sure where too.

^{Zoe's snail}

^{tali's runaway monster}

THE NEXT STEP was to bring their drawing to life by making a doll of their little creature.

^{Noam's yellow skinny good monster he calls Bubi}

This is how:

STEP 1
Making the drawing
You will need:
Plain paper
Straw
Liquid paint, water color. we have been using liquid paint form discount school supply, which is highly recommended for anything. the colors are brilliant, and they are washable. this is the link.

How to:

• Drip a small amount of paint onto the paper (a large amount doesn’t work so well)
• Using the straw, blow air towards the paint and make it spread. Add more paint as necessary, you may use different colors.

• Set aside to try.
• Try few more drawings while you wait. (Be aware… this is addictive
• Stare at your drawing try and find shapes such as animals and other creatures from your imagination

• Use a pencil to outline your creature. 
• Add some details such as eyes, nails, nose, fingers etc.

You may stop here and never go to the next step. But I really hope you do CONTINUE.

STEP 2:
Making your doll
You will need:
Some scraps of fabric (you may use old T shirts, dad’s old neck ties, etc)
Buttons and other embellishments such as yarn, feathers, etc.
Needle and thread (we used embroidery thread. it is very colorful and doesn’t get tangled so much)
Sewing pins
Synthetic acrylic filling (you may use fabric scraps as an alternative)
Background music

How to:

• Select the fabric you would like to work with
• Draw the outline of your creature-doll onto a piece of paper
• Cut around the paper 
• Pin the paper onto your desired fabric, cut 2 pieces back and front.
• Place 2 sides of fabric right side out
• Pin around the doll.
• Stitch around the perimeter of the doll. The kids chose to have the stitch visible as part of the character of the doll and purposely chose different colors of thread.
  
  
  
• Go all around the doll, leaving a couple of inches opening for the filling.
• Fill up the doll with either acrylic filling or some rags. make sure you get all the corners.
• Pin the opening 
• Close up with some thread.
• Add details such as eyes, mouth etc.

^{Noam's 1st sewing project ever}

• Show off at school or on growing up creative flicker group

Thoughts Variations:

The kids had a great time doing this project. the drawing part was a blast, and could be done on any rainy/ snowy day.

The second part of making the doll is a little bit more time consuming and could be a little intimidating for some parents to attempt. if that is the case with you, dont be afraid and just try it, keep in mind the great value in the process of taking a drawing, a fantasy and turning it into reality. and email me of any questions you may have.

over all it took Noam about 2 hours from start to finish (he was determined), Zoe is still working on hers.

After making the straw drawing, the kids may want to exchange and find objects and creatures in each others drawings, and use each others drawings as the base for their doll.

tali.