A jack-o’-lantern (sometimes also spelled Jack O’Lantern) is typically a carved pumpkin. It is associated chiefly with the holiday Halloween. Typically the top is cut off, and the inside flesh then scooped out; an image, usually a monstrous face, is carved onto the outside surface, and the lid replaced. During the night, a candle is placed inside to illuminate the effect. The term is not particularly common outside North America, although the practice of carving lanterns for Halloween is.
In folklore, the myth says that Jack was getting chased by some villagers from whom he had stolen, when he met the Devil, who claimed it was time for him to die. However, the thief stalled his death by tempting the Devil with a chance to bedevil the church-going villagers chasing him.
Jack told the Devil to turn into a coin with which he would pay for the stolen goods (the Devil could take on any shape he wanted); later, when the coin/Devil disappeared, the Christian villagers would fight over who had stolen it. The Devil agreed to this plan. He turned himself into a silver coin and jumped into Jack’s wallet, only to find himself next to a cross Jack had also picked up in the village. Jack had closed the wallet tight, and the cross stripped the Devil of his powers; and so he was trapped.
Jack only lets the Devil go when he agrees never to take his soul. After a while the thief died, as all living things do. Of course, his life had been too sinful for Jack to go to heaven; however, the Devil had promised not to take his soul, and so he was barred from Hell as well. Jack now had nowhere to go. He asked how he would see where to go, as he had no light, and the Devil mockingly tossed him an ember that would never burn out from the flames of hell. Jack carved out one of his turnips (which was his favorite food), put the ember inside it, and began endlessly wandering the Earth for a resting place.
He became known as “Jack of the Lantern”, or Jack-o’-Lantern.
Visit: How to make a pinch pot HERE
Our first R-tworx session of the season began with bold colors and interesting textures inspired by the art of Wassily Kandinsky. This artist is best known for his painting “Concentric Circles” which is the most reproduced abstract artworks in the world! Our students played with bold rainbow colours and texture plates to achieve a layered background. The circles were painted on separate paper, cut and assembled after their backgrounds had dried. The class had children from ages 6 -12 and each child was able to contribute a stunning and original piece. For a complete tutorial please visit: HERE
Last Thursday Rachel and the kids tried their hand at watercolour on canvas. I must say, the results turned out very well! This week will be our last R-tworx session before the Summer Club begins. I just can’t wait! Hope to see you all there.
Cheers,
Jenn S.
Not all garden projects turn out the way you’d expect and our gazing stone project was definitely one to remember. (What a mess!!!) As I had made up an example stone I already knew that the grouting process was a little messy so thankfully Rachel and I divided groups and she went off to make sun catchers in the kitchen. I set the kids to work gluing their stones with the most heavy-duty, fastest drying, best glue I could find – actually two different kinds. (We tried No Nails instant grab quick dry and weather proof rain ready clear silicone)
For the next 20 minutes I heard a chorus of “Mrs. Jenn, my gems keep falling off!” Egads!!! Well, we managed to remedy the problem (somewhat) by just using our grout instead of relying on the glue to hold the gems. But this, of course, made things very messy and did not allow for us to clean off any excess as the gems would’ve shifted around. So what we were left with were some gooey blobs covered in glass gems. Excellent. Now that they are dry we will be able to rub away the excess grout from the stones… but, really… what this project needed was some good – old-fashioned – hot glue.
So here are the do’s and don’ts for this project:
Do: Purchase a large quantity of vinyl gloves to prevent sticky fingers.
Do: Keep a rinse bowl of water handy nearby when grout or super sticky glue inevitably gets where it’s not supposed to be.
Do: Keep this activity to a small group. (It’s messy, even when done right!)
Do: Use a glue gun with adult supervision ( Older kids can handle a low temp gun safely enough)
Don’t: Use cold glue to adhere gems to your Styrofoam ball… it just takes too long for it to dry and the kids aren’t patient or careful enough to work with it.
Don’t: Do this inside. Go Outside! Unless you are awesome, in which case, craft on my friends!
Click HERE to visit the site of someone who’s project turned out a little better than our first try. (Next week we will give it another go!)
Cheers,
Jenn Sedor
Our garden is beginning to take shape. In the last month we started our seedlings, did our Spring Clean Up, chose our bedding plants, made clay pot wind chimes and have now hung the fairy houses. (I couldn’t find enough large bird houses for everyone… so the children are quite excited to have fairies instead.) Please enjoy these progress photographs. Next week we plant our rainbows!
On May 2nd the Library R-tworx group practiced watercolour blending techniques. This class helped to teach the importance of painting the background first. We taught different brush strokes and water colouring techniques for background and foreground.
Sometimes we get carried away with the structure of craft projects for our kids. Every now and then it is ok to let little hands explore their creativity, without the boundries of pre-planned crafts.
This clever little peice of work was created using tempra paint and roller brushes. (which can both be found at any dollar store) This artist decided only to use one color, but could you imagine what two, or ever three colors would have made?
Grab some paint and go find out!
cfyprograms.com 