Wildflower's postcard Follow-up

Hey it's Mona again,
last friday we went again to Wildflower Home to continue our relief printcard workshop. This workshop was a follow-up to our initial lesson introducing relief print techniques and card making skills. We spoke first about the work they have done in the last two weeks and then we created one finished product starting from cutting paper, creating the card and making an envelope.

The Wildflower Home ladys had much fun in creating their finished product and you could see that they were very into their work. They were concentrated and focused.

Hence their finished cards and envelopes were really very very beautiful and I am looking forward to work with them again, because it was so much fun.

Hello everybody!

My name is Helen and I will work as a volunteer here for the next six weeks. My home is Switzerland, I live there together with my two grownup children and with my husband! So I am kind of the grandmother here! But it is funny because people like the psychology student yesterday at the detention center sometimes talk to me and think that I would be the leader of the CCT.

At home I work as a speech and language therapist with mainly preschool children. Here I would like to take experiences working with Thai and refugee children. Yesterday evening we had a workshop with the young lions and I really enjoyed it and time went by really fast. I look forward to meet and work with a lot more children.....

Thinking About the Future at School For Life - Doi Saket International Film Festival

On Sunday, we went to School for Life, a home for children in difficult circumstances. School for Life hosted Sunday's portion of the Doi Saket International Film Festival, which allowed the children to see three films and speak to one of the directors.

Before the screenings, Art Relief International did a workshop with the kids which included four different stations.

The first station was a free-draw mural. 

The second station was a film strip card station. The kids were given film strips and were free to create their own movies.

It was really great to see the older kids getting involved and enjoying the workshop.

At our third station we taught the kids how to make friendship bracelets. Many of the kids actually knew their own patterns which they incorporated into the lesson.

Our final (and my favorite) station was painting totem pole pieces. Our theme was "A Dream for the Future." Everyone sat down and painted their dreams. It was such a fun activity for volunteers and students alike. 

The totem poles look even better than I imagined! The kids at School for Life are so talented. The beautiful sunset picture in the middle was painted by a student. Mine is the tree totem on top. I like trees.

During the screening, several students came onstage and told the audience about their dreams. We all had so much fun at School for Life and I look forward to doing more workshops with the kids.

Erin

Young Lions Celebrate Carnival!

Hey, it's Erin again, and this week the Young Lions went to Trinidad!

For those of you who are new to the blog, the Young Lions workshops are held for the kids in our neighborhood, many of whom come from poor and often immigrant families. The purpose of Young Lions is to introduce these kids to parts of the world that they wouldn't otherwise learn about.

I grew up in Southern Louisiana where we celebrate Mardi Gras, so I was very excited to celebrate Carnival with the Young Lions this week.

The kids used oil pastels, paper feathers, and glitter to decorate their masks.

They did a great job and got really creative! I loved seeing one of the boys turn his leaves into ears.

The masks turned out really well and we all had a great time. When we had finished our masks we gathered the kids to play Limbo, which is a traditional activity during Carnival.

The kids had never played Limbo before! 

I can't wait for our next adventure!

Hope Home's leaf-chain

Hey it's Mona again. Yesterday we went again to Hope Home to create a beautiful leaf-chain with sponge painted leaves.

We gathered real leaves and gave them to the kids to get painted. Each kid had a sponge with which they colored thoses leaves. Joy and Phil had much fun with coloring the leaves.

Then we laminated the leaves with contact paper, punched holes in it and hung them up on Hope Home's cealing. The kids had much fun with painting the leaves and now every time they pass the front door, they will remember those great moments we have had.

Making Dreamcatchers at Stratton ABC Foundation

Hello Everybody!!

My name is Mona. I am from Germany and a new volunteer here at Art Relief International. I am so happy to get the chance to work with this foundation and help children and young people by doing art.

Today we went to Stratton ABC Foundation to make beautiful Dreamcatchers!

It was really fun showing the kids how to create the dreamcatchers and working and helping them. I was really impressed at how quickly they learned to do it. Furthermore it was great to see how focused and intensive they worked on them.

In the end we went outside and made this beautiful photo outside the house! I am looking forward to see them again.

Young Lion's Sand Mandalas

Hey Dan here again! These kids are pretty familar with the traveling proccess and as they arrive they grab their passport and Visa and begin filling in all the neccessary information. We even had a couple new Lions join the pride, so some of the other kids showed them how to fill out their passport. This week we learned about Tibet and made some Mandalas using the fun technique of gluing colored sand on black cardstock. I love seeing how comfortable the Lions get once its time to make Art. They've become familar with the staff and are now used to meeting new volunteers. I think that though the Young Lions leave with a new project every week they're getting so much more out this then just art. I know I have and that to me is the power of Art. I'm finishing up my time volunteering here but I've had a great experience. I cant think of a better way to spend time then making art and making new friends. I encourage anyone who is even thinking about volunteering to come here and you wont regret it. Thanks to the staff at Art Relief and the great people of Chiang Mai!

Community-of-Hands at Baan Vieng Ping Orphanage

It's Erin again. Today we went to Baan Vieng Ping, a government-run orphanage located in Chiang Mai. We worked with kids ages five and six to create a Community-of-Hands strand.

The children traced their hands then drew themselves on one side and their favorite things on the other.

Then we put all of the hands on a string and hung them around the room. It was a good way to demonstrate both individuality and community through a single project.

It was really great working with the kids at Vieng Ping. The orphanage is very large and the staff is unable to give each child the individual attention they need. This workshop was a great way to help and it was really fun for all of us.

 

I look forward to working with them again. I know they'll be excited for whatever we do and we'll all have a blast!

Erin

Making a Nature Mobile with the Kids from Hope Home

Hey, I'm Erin and I'm a new volunteer here at Art Relief International. I'm from the US and I'm lucky enough to be working with ARI for the next three months.

This morning I attended my first workshop at Hope Home, a foster-care home for special needs children. Our goal today was to create a nature mobile - an engaging decoration and something that was fun to make!

Phil was the first to start painting. When asked if they were ready for the workshop, he squealed with excitement!

Boonrat especially enjoys painting. He and I had a blast painting with the rollers, creating the base for our soon-to-be cow.

Pancake also enjoys painting, though because she is blind, she prefers music. She is very friendly and loves to hug and cuddle.

While we waited for our paintings to dry, we took the kids on a walk around the neighborhood. They really enjoy getting out of the house and observing the world around them.

It was really incredible to see their range of motion expand as they began to paint. I loved working with Boonrat because he is so happy when he paints. He has a huge, infectious smile and a heart-warming giggle.

I can't wait to work with Hope Home again next week!

Cool Art Techniques and Greeting Cards at Wildflower Home

It's Dan here again and last Friday we all went out to Wildflower home to share some neat ideas for making some greeting cards. Using watercolors we showed them cool effects by loading the paper with water and mixing colors. Then by painting leaves and pressing it on pieces of papers we made awesome prints that looked great on greeting cards.

I think everybody really enjoyed the workshop. I loved seeing people take time and consideration to pick out what color paints and papers they would use to make their cards. Plus we all liked to look and see what others we're doing, My favorite part is the silent moments when all are focusing on their art and smilies that come afterword when you've finished. Some of the greeting cards were so beautiful that we were joking by saying "Well you know my Birthday is coming up!" Seeing these ladies make these cards proves that all it takes to become an artist is just a little time and materials and I'm looking forwards to seeing them again.

Let's go to a party...It's time to celebrate birthday.

It's a special event at Hope home this week because it was Phil, Pancake and Natalie' birthday celebrations. Actually, we had plan to celebrate their birthday last 2 week but unfortunately most of the kids were sick so we had to postpone the party. It is more enjoyable when you are not sick at your birthday party,right?
Phil, the boy in the left picture is 6 years old this year. He had a chance to decorate his own cake by using the paint to crate the colourful cake of him.As you can see from the picture, this cake was totally Phil's hand made cake. I really like the fact that he is not afraid of being messy with paint. It also can help him to improve his sense of touching. All the Hope home kid have got their cakes to be painted and decorated. Some of them used brushes and some used sponge paint rollers with extension. We have found it was delightful having musics when they painted. It also created a mood for the party.

Their cakes were bright,colorful and they looked yummy; Even though, they were inedible. It would be fantastic if we had opportunity to bake a cake together sometimes in the future.  Nevertheless, we were appreciated that they decorated their own piece of cakes with their good mood.

Natalie, the birthday girl. seemed enjoy painting her own cakes as well as the real tasty butter cake that she almost finished the whole cake by herself. The other kids also had some yummy cake as well. I could say that they liked it if you saw their face expressions. It was not just only us that were excited in a party. There was a lady from Hope home, who were kindly baked some cake that tasted fantastic for us and the kids. Thank you for that. As you know, the party was over but our memory stays forever.

By Pbut

Young Lions go to Canada

Hello,

Its Dan here again, yesterday was my first chance to meet the Young Lions they've been visiting a new place week and I was glad to catch up with them in Canada. For the lesson we opened up the gates here at the office and slowly the the kids came familar and eager to begin "travelling". I got to look in their passport and talk with them about them with some of the countries they had learned about and was impressed with all that they had done already. After settling in we crowded around the computer to learn about Canada, it was great to see what great students they were and definitley made it more fun for all.

Learning about the natives of the North american continent we decided Dreamcatchers would be a great project to do together. I could tell that everybody enjoyed it and by the time we we're done we'd gotten pretty good at tying knots and threading beads.

The Dreamcatchers ended up great and I loved seeing how thoughtfully these kids picked out their beads and color of yarn. After doing art projects from around the world they're definitley becoming our artists of tommorow. Doing this together was so much fun and all worked so well together that it is a comfort to know that everybody is here for each other everyweek. Dreamcatchers in tow the Young Lions went home and hopefully had sleep filled with pleasant dreams.