Adventuring in DC :: May Hill Arbuthnot Lecture with Brian Selznick @ Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library

Adventuring in DC :: A Conversation with the Children's Literature Ambassadors @ the Library of Congress

Day 6 :: Thankful for

... having skills that are useful to someone else (and are appreciated). Today I covered books for the middle school library, and the library staff is impressed enough to save a lot of the covering for me to do.

(This book, Counting by 7s, is supposed to be quite good -- put it on your to-read list.)

Milestone moment for me ...

 

I sort of let Ian babysit Maya: I left them both at home while I went to the library to return some books. Then I sent them out, just the two of them, to go back to the library to pay my overdue fine (meaning, they had to cross the street by themselves).

 

They were late coming home so I got a little worried and headed over there just as they were heading home; they were late because the librarians helped them sign up for the summer reading program.

pride of craftsmanship

On my list of "33 Things to Do While I'm 33" are things like travel (check!), get an iPhone (check!), and learn a new language (not so check). And I'm now on my way to checking "take a creative class" off the list.

My sister D and I are taking a 10-week letterpress class at Otis. Like many paper fiends we both love letterpressed items and we were curious about how it works. So we nudged each other into taking this (expensive) class.

Who knew letterpress would be so much work? OK, who am I kidding, of course it's a lot of work! No wonder letterpress stationery costs so much. (And it's very greasy (which actually was a surprise).) Most modern mass-produced letterpress stationery is made using photopolymer plates, which easily allows use of images, patterns, and text. But we're starting off old-school with metal type.


I set the phrase "i (heart) the liberry" because one of my first graders would literally run around the library yelling this. I liked it ... but no body seemed to "get" it so I reset it as regular ol' "i (heart) the library". My idea was to print it in black except use red for "love," which means you pull out the "love" letters and print a batch in black, swap out the letters, and print just "love" in red.

Unfortunately, it's not that easy when it takes two-and-a-half hours just to set and adjust the type and machine. So all I got done was this:

[This sample is on smooth, slightly shimmery paper. The ink "sticks" pretty well to this paper.]

Sure, the phrase isn't complete, but I wish you could feel the lovely impression of the letterpress. I'm pretty happy and proud of the results. It drove me and the teacher crazy trying to get everything just right (he basically told me he hated this project!). But it was well worth the hassle. Truly, it gave me the joy of creating something with my own hands.

[I printed more on watercolor paper, which my teacher didn't think took the ink very well, but it has a nice texture to it. Besides, I bought a whole pad of the stuff so I need to use it up. My idea is to cut them up into business card size and fill in the blank depending on my mood.]

kids (and artists) say the darndest things about elephants ...

so, for my third graders this week, i'm reading ballet of the elephants by leda schubert. it's about john ringling north asking george balanchine to choreograph a ballet for 50 elephants in 1942. balanchine asks igor stravinsky to compose the music and, voila, circus polka is written. no, seriously, it's a true story.

as i read the book i tell the kids that my favorite conversation of the day occurred between balanchine and stravinsky:

balanchine: "i wonder if you'd like to do a little ballet with me."
stravinsky: "for whom?"
balanchine: "for some elephants."
stravinsky: "how old?"
balanchine: "very young."
stravinsky: "all right. if they are very young elephants, i will do it."

seems sort of odd and random, doesn't it?

but i was mistaken about that conversation being the best of the day. turns out the best one happens after i finish reading. i'm showing the kids a photo in the back of the book of the 50 elephants performing the ballet; they're in tutus (yes, even the bulls) and have their front legs on the elephant in front of them all in a large circle around the circus ring. one of the boys raises his hand and asks, "are they humping?" i unsuccessfully suppress my laughter and tell him, "no -- weren't you listening? they're dancing!" and then, not a second later, another boy raises his hand and asks, "are they getting ready for war?" wtf?? "no! they're dancing!"

ah, boys ... only sex and fighting on their minds.