POV: Paper machete
…. As an Artist and a friendly mom when I see others doing projects I ask questions and offer advise where I can. I also try not to be too overbearing as I can feel it in my chest the excitement to unload the hours of research and experience of doing projects the…. the Art. When a lot of people aren’t as interested in it as much as I am.
I walk my daughter into her 1st grade class each morning. Her teacher is amazing and a little wild she tells me to come over to her so she can tell me they are doing paper machete today! I was like wow that’s awesome and super ambishious…. but I’m sure she has a plan. I ask a couple questions she says she watched some videos ect. that she has a bunch of help coming in. I’m like fantastic how can I help. I’m not able to come in although it sounds like a lot of helpers already there so they probably don’t need another body. I think what advise can I give in less then 5 minutes that can help. I explain that the paste needs to be the consistancey of pancake batter. And ask her what paper they are using. She has construction paper I’m like well I don’t think you want that standardly it’s done with newspaper but you could use their old work book pages as well.
Flash forward to Bunny coming home from school. I ask her how it went. She said it was super fun she was partenerdd up with a 4th grader to do the project and it was great.
This morning as I dropped her off her Teacher said come in look what we did!!! I see the balloons all have a great first coat on them but lots of gaps. I say they look fantastic and what the next step was she says well that was crazy and nuts we are done. Then the second teacher comes in who I also know and they start going back and forth about the plan maybe the 4th graders are going to finish… I ask what the plan is so I can offer advise. They look at me and say what ever you say the plan is that’s what we will do….. I’m like well if you pop them as is they wont hold as a ball shape because there are a lot of gaps. But If you give them a second coat they should be great. I explain that the 2nd coat goes better and quicker because your not trying to get it to stick to the balloon anymore the paper will now stick to the paper ect… They made a plan to meet at 2 for round 2 and I told them I’d be back to help! Super excited they said thank you why didn’t you ask before oh I didn’t want to take advantage of you… oh my god this is my favorite it’s not taking advantage. On my way out I ask if they need more flour? They said what do you mean flour? well what did you use to get the paper to stick to the balloon? We used glue… Oh hu well I’m sure that worked but flour and water is all you need. She said wait that would have been so much less $ I’m like yeah it’s super cheep… I said ok I’ll be back with flour at 2. I’m excited to have the knowledge and experience of paper machete to bring out of my pocket at any time. I’ll have to see if I can find pictures of the projects we have done over the years.
