This workshop took place yesterday on April. 11, 2013 in the Adult Day Care center in which my mother participated.
Benefits:
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Healing touch for any age
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Learning process to make seashell mosaic with own hands.
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Stimulating brain functions with manual movements.
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Fun with creating and educational time.
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Seashells are natural, very fragile materials which bring positive emotions and develop social skills during group work.
The goal of this workshop is combining a learning process with brain busting entertainment. People open for themselves the world of shelled animals such as turtles and mollusks as well as providing a challenging and stimulating art lesson. During the fiest 1.5 hours I had a chance to introduce some of the most unique and oldeset animals on the Earth- sea turtles. People were very curious about some scientific facts including:
Sea turtles are reptiles. They are cold-blooded.
sea turtle figurine
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Adult sea turtles can weigh from 150 – 1000 pounds!
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Sea turtles can live up to 80 years.
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They eat plants, jellyfish, shrimp, and clams.
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Sea turtles swim and live alone. They eat and rest all day.
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Sea turtles breathe air. They can stay underwater for five hours!
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There are 7 kinds, or species, of sea turtles.
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Flatback
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Green
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Hawksbill
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Kemp’s Ridley
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Leatherback
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Loggerhead
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Olive Ridley
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All 7 types of sea turtle are “threatened” or “endangered.”
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Green, Loggerhead, Leatherback, and Kemp’s Ridley turtles swim in the Atlantic Ocean.
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Female turtles go back to the beach where they were born to lay their eggs.
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The females dig a deep hole on the beach. They lay 100-120 eggs in the nest.
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The eggs hatch after 55-80 days.
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The baby turtles crawl FAST to the water.
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Raccoons, ghost crabs, seagulls, and foxes like to eat baby turtles.
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Scientists are worried about sea turtles becoming extinct.
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Scientists are asking fishermen to help them protect turtles.
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The scientists put a radio transmitter on the turtle’s shell. The radio sends out beeps. The beeps are tracked by a satellite. This tells the scientists where turtles are swimming.
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Also I tell about my personal experience to meet huge sea turtles on the Hawaii black sand beach. These amazing reptiles took a rest after a long ocean journey…
During my workshop each of the participants made their own sea turtle shell figurine and took it at home as a gift. This project may encourage people to go out and collect seashells and create other beautiful simple artworks on their own.
Workshop step by step:
Each participant (20people in the first session and 16 people in the second session) recieved their own materials to complete the project.
Individual prepared packages included: sea turtle shape cardboard base, 6 different shells and multi purpose Elmer’s Glue and paper towels.
Before the project began I named for people the shells they would be using:
Body would be Tiger Cowrie seashell,
Turtle’s Flippers are 4 halves from Blue Musse seashells,
Head is Olive seashell.
Step1
Open the package and put all shells, sea turtle cardboard base and glue with napkins or paper towels on your work place.
cardboard body for sea turtle
Step 2
Put small amounts of glue on the back surface of the Cowrie seashell. Glue seashells to the center part of silver cardboard. Do not touch and leave it for the necessary time to dry.
Tiger Cowrie seashell, Olive seashell and four halfs from Blue Musse seashells.
Step 3
Spread a little amount glue on the back side of the Olive shell and press it on the space to make the turtle’s head on the cardboard.
Working process
Step 4
Choose each of the four Mussel shells and find any positions for flippers that you prefer on the cardboard without glue.
Working process
Step5
Turn each of the mussel shells and spread glue around the edge of the first shell and press it on the cardboard. The same work to repete with another 3 shells to glue all flippers. Leave your work without movement for the necessary drying period.
Here how the completed project looks:
After this workshop I had time to present my own works of shell mosaics and tell the audience about seashell shows. Also I had the chance to answer many questions and givee a sneak peek of my personal mosaic making process.
My seashell mosaics
Workshop participants
The workshops were a great sucsess. People who didn’t have the chance to participate in workshops because of limited spaces were able to enjoy their time by watching the exhibition with mosaics and listen my stories about the nautical world and shells. After the workshops were finished I recieve another invitation for new workshops on the next month. I feel happy and satisfied.
