Block Printing!

This week IslandWood instructors and students are getting their block print on! Our Artist In Residence, Mette Hanson, is hard at work sharing her craft and I can tell you from first hand experience, it is an absolute blast!

This afternoon, nine of us (graduate students) participated in a professional development seminar with Mette where we created our own prints using multiple blocks and multiple colors. I had never done block printing before and wow did I learn a lot! The patience, skill, and attention to detail these artists possess is one to be greatly admired.

Without further adieu, let's take a peek into our afternoon!


After much deliberacy, a print comes into its own as the "key block" (the final block) is applied.

 
Careful! It's not over until the print leaves the block!

 
Voila! A finished product! This print involved the carving of three separate blocks, careful mixing of colors, and a detailed eye to ensure that everything aligned properly.


 Another finished product!

What an amazing process! Contact your local block printing lesson-providing agency immediately!

Riley

Japanese Food Art

This week we are so incredibly fortunate to be hosting Artist In Residence Michiko Olson. Michiko's craft of teaching Japanese Food Art is so interactive and engaging. What follows are a mere handful of photographs of the incredible artwork created by this week's students.


Michiko demonstrating her craft.

  
A frog graces the foreground, while a casually lounging strawberry looks longingly into the sunset.

  
 Another collection of student artwork. The creation on the left, I was told, is a samurai warrior.

 
Ba ba ba bird bird bird... is the word.

Thank you so incredibly much for sharing your talents with us this week Michiko!

Riley

Soil To Snack

As graduate students, we are assigned the role of "liaison" at two or three schools who will be visiting IslandWood. During our non-teaching weeks (every other week) we visit our liaison schools to do observations, lessons, activities, orientations, or simply to tag along on a field trip as an additional chaperone. When our liaison school comes to IslandWood, we substitute our teaching week for a week of support and professional development closely interacting with the students, chaperones, and teachers. This past week North Beach Elementary School, of which I am a liaison, visited IslandWood and I had the privilege of floating from group to group and really learning a lot from colleagues. One of my highlights came from observing an lesson called Soil To Snack.

Soil To Snack is a fairly self-explanatory lesson. The students are introduced to IslandWood's garden and proceed to collecting various vegetables that will later be used to create a snack. Once the group has gathered enough, they head to the dining hall where our incredibly talented chef, Chris Agnew, guides them through the process of creating a delicious dish. This weeks dish was Potato Gnocchi with a Stinging Nettle sauce.

  

Chris showing everyone how to prepare the Nettles.

  

Students rolling, rolling, rolling the Gnocchi dough.

  

Once it's rolled, students carefully cut their strand into bite-sized pieces.

  

The finished product. Potato Gnocchi with a Stinging Nettle sauce, topped with goat cheese and sprouts. Yum!

"Wow something that was so commonly known to hurt me, I never knew it could taste so good!"
- North Beach Elementary Student

For more information about IslandWood's garden or if you'd like some new exciting recipes,  please visit our Garden Blog!

Riley