We are firm believers in this sentiment. Art, and the creativity behind it, keeps life interesting and it’s the best tool we know of to explore the world around us whether you are a child or an adult.
We love to meet kids who have a passion for expression and use art to explore what interests them. We were lucky to be asked to do a very unique birthday party for a wonderfully unique kid- Avaa. Interested in mermaids, Venus, and mythology and history, Avaa wanted to create a project along with her friends. One of our unsung party themes is “Collaborative Craft” where we introduce a project designed to be communal and interactive among the entire group of party goers, rather than each child making their own individual craft. We’ve done communal pinata making and big scale paintings with various objects, but we tried something a little different for this party. In fact, Avaa’s cool interests made it easy for us to come up with a new collaborative idea: we invited the kids to create a Totem Pole dedicated to Venus and the ocean/nature themes at the root of her mythological story.
To create the totem we gave each child a length of cardboard tubing and set out every kind of craft supply imaginable from sea shells and sand to tiny, shiny beads, crepe paper, felt, and artificial flowers. Big craft spreads inspire big ideas and the kids quickly got to work designing and creating their own section of the larger totem pole. Despite being offered the same craft supplies, no two sections looked the same. Once we pieced them all together the result was a dynamic, and impressively tall, Totem Pole–the perfect collaborative gift for the birthday girl to keep and hopefully an object that will inspire her to continue to learn about Venus and mythology!
