Sock Dolls at Rockford Schools Summer Arts Camp

www.JenniferGouldDesigns.com

Sock Doll "Self-Portrait in a Bikini and
Hawaiian Skirt"

Sock Doll "Wild Woman"

Again, making up for lost time when I wasn't blogging, I'd like to tell you about my gig as an instructor for the Rockford (Michigan) Public Schools Summer Arts Camp the summer of 2011.  It ran for a week (Monday through Friday) and I taught 2 classes.  The girls in my classes were from 6 to 12 years old---an age group I especially love, but I have to admit that it was the hardest $200 I've ever earned, except for my time as a college freshman working for Saga food service.

I taught a 50-minute class on making sock doll puppets and another one on painting jeans and T-shirts.  For some reason I assumed these girls could thread a needle, even one of those huge plastic needles with big eyes with yarn.  Not so.  Sometimes I questioned their ability to have an imagination but I have to give them credit for trying those 5 days.  It was incredibly hot in the cafeteria of the middle school and they were doing something that they'd never done before and I probably hadn't explained it well.  I did have lots of materials on hand, even extra socks.  By the second day, I was not having any fun---it was pulling teeth and I felt like it was MY teeth.  So the third day I brought my camera, took each girl's close-up picture of her face, hands and feet.  Now this was fun.  I printed out the images on my printer, having downsized the pictures so that the face was about an 1-1/2" and hands/feet to match.  By Thursday they were cutting out their faces and making great pieces with dangling hands and feet and wild hair.

The jeans and T-shirt painting class went a little better but the clean-up took me longer than the 50-minute class.  But they had a great time.  Unfortunately I couldn't stay on Friday evening for the presentation of all the work in the lobby (went to my niece's wedding rehearsal dinner and wedding in Columbus OH---wouldn't have missed it!), so I didn't get to see all the parents oohing and aahing.