Coke Can Camera

Now this is interesting. Back in the summer, Holly and Louis went to an event as part of the Science Festival on making a "solargraph" - a photo image of the sun taken with a pinhole camera made from a Coke* can and exposed over a six-month period.

This week, at the winter solstice, out six months was up. In a darkroom, lit only by the red glow of a rear bike light, we removed the photo paper from the cans and scanned the images into the computer. A bit of Photoshopping (a flip, a greyscale inversion and a wee tweak to the contrast) later and these are the images that came out:

Holly's:


and Louis':



* other carbonated sugar waters are available.

Nick Sharratt

As part of the BBC At The Festivals programme, we went to a (free!) event where Nick Sharratt showed us how to draw characters from Alice In Wonderland in his own - perhaps not inimitable, but certainly identifiable - style. We had a great laugh, and the kiddies did some marvellous drawings. Afterwards, they took them up to Nick to show him, and they got his personal seal of approval. A nice man.

All A Matter Of Perspective

A wee perspective drawing by Holly, inspired by a walk down the Cycle Path.

Meet The (New) Teacher

IMG_0486, a photo by Fraser Millar on Flickr.

If it's September, it must be time for Meet The Teacher. Louis has Ms. Underwearwood this year, and we had a brief tour of the classroom along with the usual start-of-year spiel. Here's some of Louis' artwork spotted on the walls.

Pepparkaka Hus

DSC_8710, a photo by Fraser Millar on Flickr.

Holly began construction of her gingerbread house with Grandma & Grandad during the Christmas hols, but it took something of a back seat once school started again. Today she finished the job, sticking the chimney on top and meticulously sticking dozens of dolly mixtures and other confections onto the gently collapsing roof. She finished off with a few royal icing designs on the gable ends, and only a few short minutes expired before the whole shebang went under the knife, and was cruelly reduced to rubble as the kids shoveled gingerbread and dolly mixtures into their hungry maws.

Camel Toes

IMG_1580, a photo by Fraser Millar on Flickr.

Louis' camel drawing was one of three selected to appear in the programme for Wiggly Nativity. Here it is in all its glory. I particularly like the way the other camels are leaving and entering the picture too.

Meet The Teacher

IMG_1496, a photo by Fraser Millar on Flickr.

Last week, we met Louis' new teacher and had a nose around his classroom. Here's a shonky phone shot of one of his first-day drawings on the wall...

Jellyfish

IMG_1210, a photo by Fraser Millar on Flickr.

It's a jellyfish.

Made of jelly.

Is It A Bird?

Scan-120218-0003, a photo by Fraser Millar on Flickr.

Back home, and Holly got the latest issue of Wild Times in the post. She's dead keen to send in some nature-themed artwork (the kids are both fans of Deadly 60 too) so used some of the Sun Print Paper she got for Christmas to create this image from leaves and twigs collected from the garden.

Instagram

IMG_2043, a photo by Fraser Millar on Flickr.

Devout followers of the Jesus Phone and Social Networking may wish to download and install Instagram for even more pictures. Here are a few recent ones.

The Writing's On The Wall

IMG_0863, a photo by Fraser Millar on Flickr.

Two visits to carers and educators; on the wall at Louis' nursery there is a lovely self-portrait with the caption "me and my mummy have blue eyes". On the wall in Holly's classroom, under the heading "When I am stuck I...", Holly has drawn a wee picture and written the words "I check the internet or use a reference book". None of the other kids mentioned the internet. That's my girl...

Flower

IMG_0555 a photo by Fraser Millar on Flickr.

A wee finger painting by Holly, done using the free version of MyPaint on the iPhone.

Dinosaur

DSC_0008 a photo by Fraser Millar on Flickr.

Here's a dinosaur drawn by Louis this morning (and coloured in by me at his request). Note the ten legs, the spikes on the back, and the big teeth. Scary.

Cuisinart

IMG_0382
Originally uploaded by Fraser Millar

Vince warned us that there wouldn't be so much visible progress in the middle two weeks; sure enough the kitchen shape is very much evident, but the devil is in the details - sorting out the drainage, finishing the gaps and odd corners, preparing to lay the floor. We're now into week 5 and have moved out of our Ravelston pied a terre and Helen and I have taken up residence in our respective parents' abodes, taking one kiddie each with us. It's going to be a complicated week, but with a bit of luck and a following wind we'll get back into the house next weekend, with only a bit of decorating and finishing to go on around us in week 6. In the meantime, Holly and I have been expressing our artistic selves. One in chalk and paper at Ikea, one on a freebie iPhone app. See if you can guess which is which?

The Write Stuff

IMG_0087
Originally uploaded by Fraser Millar

We had a parents night for Holly last week. After a generally positive but fairly generic chat with Mr Hilton, we got the chance to go down to the classroom to rummage through her work. We came across a couple of pages in her writing book which describe our visit to Keith, Leila and Ella and last Sunday's riding trip. Click through to the flickr page for the subtitles.

Walt's Weekend

Walt1
Originally uploaded by Fraser Millar

Holly was Star Person in her P1 class last week. Among the manifold perks associated with this lofty accolade comes the opportunity to take home Walt, the class mascot, for the weekend. Walt may only be a simple bear, but he has a fat and entertaining diary of his weekend sleepovers, of which there have been a great many this year. Overcome by parental competitiveness, I used Comic Life to help Holly put together this wee addition to the journal. I can hear the other parents tutting in disgust even now.

After all that desktop publishing, today we headed out to the pool as usual, but with the added twist that all three of us (Helen's work, alas, doesn't seem to honour public holidays) travelled on two wheels. Two miles there and two miles back on the cycle path, I was well impressed with kiddies and their developing cycling skills.

More Drawing

Helen.jpg
Originally uploaded by Fraser Millar

More of Holly's artwork, including a couple of self-portraits and this one of Helen.

Bath Art

IMG_2389.JPG
Originally uploaded by Fraser Millar

Holly was particularly pleased with this tesselation (although she didn't use that particular word). All her own work.

Artworks

Snowman.jpg
Originally uploaded by Fraser Millar

Holly and I decided to scan a few of her recent drawings and things, mostly from nursery. It's a wee experiment, but it's nice to record some of her work I think. There's one of Louis' in there too. The photo titles are Holly's own, and in the style of modern artists everywhere, may or may not add significantly to your comprehension of the piece.