Flying Lessons and the Art of Giving Back

This is our month. Our Flying Lessons group one year anniversary. The earmark that we've made it...and we've made it together. There's been lots of laughs, some growing pains, family issues, kids, and all the things that make up life. We've built a community and can call each other friend. This kind of thing doesn't happen all the time and we decided as a group that we want others to experience this same kind of sisterhood.

We have gotten together and have eight spots in the last session ever of Flying Lessons. Pop on over to:

http://fly-tribe.blogspot.com/2012/08/givingflight.html

Leave a comment after the post to be entered to win. But WAIT! There's more!! If you check out Kelly Rae Roberts blog she matched our donation and there are another eight classes being donated by Kelly! (Yay for Kelly!)
That means for your comment on our Fly Tribe blog you have a chance at 16 possible spots! Wow! So get on over there and comment!!!


Secondly...we have a blog hop to share all about how each of us tries to give something back for the huge gifts we've been given.

My turn.

The view into kiln unknown.

The last decade has been all about my two children and their school experiences. We are extremely lucky to be involved in an arts focused school that allows for as much artistic creation as we can come up with. In parallel to building my creative business over this same time I have been doing as many odd art projects as I can fit in at their school. I've painted, sketched, held art sessions for 120-8 year olds, colored in CSI images, designed hall murals, and helped do menial PTA tasks. But this was our last year at this particular school.

The latest project started as a crazy idea to represent all the kids in the school by immortalizing their fingerprints in clay. I asked (held hostage) several other Mothers and made them roll two ounce balls of clay until they were crazy people. I needed all 1000 kids to press their fingers into the clay, hence 1000 balls were needed. They were distributed to each classroom then brought back to me to play with. You can see the black dots in the kiln pic above. Honestly, once I got them all back, I had no clue what I was going to do with them. Shhh...nobody knows that but me!

The beginnings of my project taking flight...

Mosaics are my first love. If I had only one choice of what to pour my creativity into everyday, mosaics would be the one. It hit after consulting with another artist friend of mine through her blog, without her knowing about it I might add, what the fingerprints should become.

So it took six months, a couple hundred pounds of clay, and a bunch of volunteers and we made it happen.

...partial flight...

Bit by bit we worked and fired, fired more clay and worked some more. Each day it all became more and more clear.

...flowers are up! 

Fingerprints became flowers...lots of them...they were joined by bees and dragonflies...and an enormous butterfly. The kids watched us as we glued each piece to the wall and ooh'd and ahhh'd.

A little more.

Between the hot days and long hours it slowly came to be done. Three weeks longer than I thought and if my mosaic "team" hadn't stuck with me we'd still be trying to finish!

Almost!

Needs grout!

 I'm not sure how many people know that I, along with a select few, designed and put this up for the kids. Truly I don't care if anyone knows. The kids faces while we were in the midst of this project are my payment for these projects. The bee wings are mirrors so they can peer at themselves. The flowers have faces and the petals are all hand-sculpted so it can be felt as well as seen. Everytime we visit the wall will have it's own story to tell me. And visit we will have to since we've moved onto another school.

Complete and in flight.

Complete!

Now please move into the blog hop (below) and join the rest of my Fly Tribe as they share their giving back.
And thanks for coming by!

Giving Flight, Giving Back Blog Hop

Janet Forrest http://www.tatterednworn.wordpress.com

Cat Athena Louise http://www.catathenalouise.com

Stacey Bockness Curry http://starhitchedwagon.blogspot.com/

Kris Lanae Binsfeld http://cherishdesigns.wordpress.com/2012/08/19/giving-flight-giving-back/

Renee Burke http://happilyeverafterbyreneeburke.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/tribe/

Mary Sterk http://www.justmarydesigns.com

Michelle Reynolds http://www.shellsinthebush.com

Constance Rawlins http://livingwithinyourharvest.com/2012/08/19/fly-tribe-anniversary/

Kelly Hoernig  http://www.kellyhoernig.blogspot.com/2012/08/flytribe-anniversary.html

Cindy Jones Lantier http://www.lantier.org/2012/08/the-gift-of-giving/ 

Kathleen Conard http://newfromoldcreations.blogspot.com/2012/08/giving-back.html

Claudia Dow http://www.claudiadow.blogspot.com 

Susan M. Walls-Beverly http://susanscharmingtrinkets.blogspot.com/2012/08/flying-lessons-and-art-of-giving-back.html

Linda Barutha http://lindabaruthadesigns.blogspot.com/2012/08/giving-back.html

Linda Kinnaman http://lindakaysart.com/blog/2012/08/19/my-dream-journey-one-year-now/

Cheryl Dossey http://www.cheryldossey.com/2012/08/givingback-flytribeanniversary/

Sofia Dabalsa http://sofiadabalsa.blogspot.com

Jill Lambert http://jill-lambert.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-spirit-of-giving.html

Sally Rose http://sallyhow2.blogspot.com/2012/08/a-gift-of-flight.html

Ursula Smith http://EasyScraps.com/blog

Deborah Eaton http://www.deborahgeaton.com/blog/

Lori Leissner  http://www.leissnerart.com/2012/08/giving-thanks-giving-back-giving-flight.html

Creative Clearinghouse http://creativeclearinghouse.com/Online-Class-Reviews/blog/2012/447/Spirit-Giving

Lenore Angela http://lenoreangela.blogspot.ca/2012/08/giving-back.html

Katharina Star http://www.blog.katharinastar.com

Rachél Payne http://wp.me/pWRyw-10P

Sherry Richert Belul  http://www.simplycelebrate.net/cherry-blossom-soup/gifts

Deborah Velasquez http://deborahvelasquez.blogspot.com/2012/08/flying-giving-mentoring-and-celebrating.html

Shannon Etnyre http://www.livingwithumami.com

Live Laugh Love Retreats http://livelaughloveretreats.com

Kelley Miller Artworks http://kelleymillerartworks.blogspot.com/

Wini Dougall http://artloveandjoy.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/giving-flight-giving-back-blog-hop-and.html

Carol Bray http://theredpaintedcottage.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-spirit-of-giving-back-by-giving.html

Tracy Yarbrough http://chickpeastudio.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-spirit-of-giving.html

Diane Enright  http://dianeenrightphotography.wordpress.com/

Jamie Burch http://www.dancingdownserendipitystreet.blogspot.com/2012/08/giving-flight.html

Mary Cottingham http://www.barnbugstudio.blogspot.com/2012/08/fluing-lessons-anniversary-blog-hop.html

Susan Dietz http://flutterbeforeyou.blogspot.com

Lori Moon Studio http://lorimoonstudio.blogspot.com/2012/08/fly-tribe-blog-hop-giving-back.html

Kim Hyer http://www.apaperaddict.com

Tina Carlborg http://www.tinachicky.blogspot.com

Catherine Pistone  http://catherinepistone.blogspot.com/

Mary MacIlvain http://maryart.macilvain.com

Carolyn Chenault http://carolynchenault.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/the-big-giveaway