It's time to remember Miami Sound Machine. Like you ever forgot!
Once or twice a year, I make a big old trip to Materials for the Arts in Long Island City. MFTA is a huge asset to New York schools, libraries, cultural institutions and the like. They have a massive warehouse of supplies. Times are hard (aren’t they always for libraries?), so I’m extra appreciative of their free arts and crafts supplies. You never quite know what you’re going to get there, so you have to be on your toes when you’re digging through bins of this and that.
Last time I was there, I found a LARGE stash of 7 inch records. I own a record player, but all of the discs were heavily scratched. I’ve seen lots of crafters do incredible things with vinyl records, but most of the activities included saws or drills or ovens/blow torches. Not very child-friendly. “Sorry Mrs. Flenderson! I burned your kid’s arm off. My bad!”
OK. I had tons of yarn and string and trimmings and beads and pipe cleaners, so I figured we could do something where we laced things in and out of the center of the record. The results were pretty rad.
Trusty sandwich board. Excuse the glare.
The first thing a girl said to me was, “Are these real CDs?”
This sign became necessary. I also left the last E out of Dreamcatcher. No one knows why.
Thanks for making me feel very old, kid.
I don’t like to give too much instruction. I very much believe in process-oriented art and just letting the kids go to town on whatever supplies I have. I’m not too particular about how they use them (as long as they don’t turn things into weapons, which they always do). I just put all the stuff out on the tables.
Ugh. I love this yarn.
The pink daisy trim is pretty rad and I love the fuzzy caterpillar quality of the pipe cleaners.
Even though I didn’t give the kiddos a lot of instruction, most of them made giant necklaces out of the records and other supplies. I know Flavor Flav wears a giant clock and NOT a record, but all the kids were rockin’ some real old school looks. So, I taught them how to say this:
You’re welcome, parents.
Anyway, here are some of the final results:
Do you like my nails? They never look that nice.
Beads, pipe cleaners, magazine beads, daisy trim...
Flavor Flav!
Another stellar artistic effort
It’s wrong to have favorites, blah blah blah, but I really like this next one. The front:
This is magic.
And the back:
Are we digging the handle?
Now, what to do with the record covers? CUE MY NOSTALGIC SWOON.
Hair hasn't been this good since.
What are you creating at your library?
~Love and Libraries, Ingrid
