Fabric, Icebergs and Portraits

Exciting things are happening in SOHO!

 Last week's SOHO started with choosing fabrics. One of our wonderful mentors named Carley owns U-Fab, a local fabric store located very close to VisArts. She and U-Fab have generously offered to donate ALL of the fabric, pillow forms, foam and quilt batting for the SOHO program. This is especially AMAZING since these are some of the materials we need the most for the program. Girls and mentors make pillows, curtains, a new bedspread and all sort of other fun projects for their room makeover in May.

Tesni went on to U-Fab last Thursday morning and was so kindly helped by the staff at U-Fab to gather fabric samples. That night at SOHO all of the girls and women were excited to choose their own fabrics.  This was the first year that they were able to choose what they wanted thanks to U-fab's generosity.  Previously, we had picked general colors and Tesni had worked hard to pick the right types of fabrics for the girls. So a big thanks to U-Fab!

This week in photography, Liana and the girls had their first printing day with the negatives that they took from their photo walks outside. Everyone was talking about how much fun they had watching their photos appear, almost magically, while working in the darkroom.  We'll now have some beautiful photos to show you after they've dried!

Girl Talk started in on a new set of session dealing with the topics of empathy and judgement. The class started off with Tesni talking about glaciers and icebergs and the powerful metaphor they can be for this topic.  The top of the iceberg that you can actually see above water is a very small part of the whole. This top portion represents what people think you should be and how they perceive you. Underneath the water lies the larger part of the glacier or iceberg which represents who you really are. It may be that people don't actually see that part very often or at all, or maybe you only share it with a few people. 

 Everyone then started brainstorming how this relates to how girls are often viewed in general as opposed to who they really are. Then everyone broke off and drew their own icebergs in their journals. These were shared between big and little sisters and they had conversations about what they drew and why. Tesni overheard some wonderful discussions about this and went around to each group to take a look at each pair's icebergs and hear what they had to say.

After that, Tesni had everyone play a game called "The Big Wind Blows". In this game, everyone has a hoola hoop on the floor which are arranged in a circle.  One person (Tesni to start) is in the middle. The person in the middle says "the big wind blows for anyone who..." and then fills in the blank with something that is true about themselves. Tesni started off with something light: "the big wind blows for anyone who has gotten straight A's before." Everyone who has gotten straight A's leaves their hoop and moves to another hoop.  Because there's not enough hoops for everyone, one person will always be left in the middle--think musical chairs! This new 'middle" person will then have to say something true about themselves.  And the game goes on.

 This was a new game for SOHO and could be intimidating for someone shy, but this game was a hit and everyone wanted to be in the middle! Some very nice things were said like: "the big wind blows for anyone who...is afraid they won't reach their full potential in life", "who grew up with divorced parents", "who just wants to be happy", "who struggles with doing the right thing in a fight", "who loves their gap" (in their teeth)!  After the game, the group chatted about some of the feelings and thoughts the game brought up like taking risks while being in the middle or getting out of your hoola hoop and learning that other people feel the same way as you. And of course - the day ended with hoola hooping!

After snack, we all went down to the studio to continue on our self portraits with Sara. . Sometimes in past SOHO years, this has been a heavy project because some of the girls have been uncomfortable with self portraits, looking at themselves, or making their pictures "perfect".

 

Sarah does a great job of breaking things into steps and helping everyone be confident that things don't have to look perfect, or exactly like "you".  Instead, your portrait can be the essence of you. It's amazing how many of the portraits succeeded in this. Some just have the feeling of the girl who drew them or a feature that's perfectly drawn.

 In the end, everyone was proud of their portrait and everyone there finished their portraits! One of our girls had to miss SOHO that night, but her mentor (who is especially artistic) painted a wonderful portrait of her.

 

 

For now, the portraits are brightening up the walls of VisArts. Eventually they'll make their way home with the girls to be a part of their home.

Snow, Shrinky-dinks and Playful Painting

This week was another great week for SOHO! We were so happy that the girls were able to make it from their school, even in the tough weather. We did shorten the class so that we made sure everyone made it home safely. 

 

The snow made this week's photo walk with Liana especially exciting! Just like last week, Liana took everyone in her group outside for a photo class. They went to just one of the many cool parks in the fan with fun cement structures. We can't wait to see some of these developed photos! All the girls are starting to truly love photography and understand the full process.

In girl talk, the new group did the same value's lesson as last week: values! We had a lot of great values again like love, trust and one that stood out this week was justice.  Trust was something they especially valued because it runs through so much of the SOHO program and is something everyone in the group valued in a friend and themselves. The shrinky dinks were another hit this week - check out these awesome symbols of values in the picture above!

 Because of the tight time schedule thanks to the snow we will get to have our guest artist, Sarah Hand for more than one night of SOHO. These nights will be all about painted self portraits. Sarah Hand has taught the painting self portrait class for a few years now here with us at SOHO. She is such a positive individual who has a special knack for making you feel comfortable with the art project that has the potential to be a little uncomfortable. A lot of people are afraid of self-portraits because they think it has to look just like them. Thanks to Sarah and the way she teaches, this week of painting was pretty freeing and unconventional. 

 Sarah took everyone through steps in order to create a colorful, layered back ground that we would then paint our portraits on next week. The first step was to choose one color and paint the whole background. Big and little sisters worked together on this to lay down these bright colors.  

 

 Then, Sarah told everyone to choose 5 different colors, and use different objects (not a paint brush!) to create texture. This was especially fun. The group used things like: easter eggs to make circles, sponge brushes to make dots and lines, bubble wrap to create texture, and doily's to make beautiful flowery patterns. Everyone had a great time and were very happy with their end results.

 

 And everyone can't wait to paint their faces this week!

Values, a Photo Walk and the Clay Guild

 This week is always one of the favorites amongst big and little sisters; when everyone goes into the clay studio and works with the VisArts Clay Guild!

 

Just like always we first divided into our groups; some pairs went with Liana and some stayed with Tesni for Girl Talk.  This week the girls went on a walk in the neighborhood surrounding VisArts (aka "the Fan") to go take a roll of photos outside! The girls had a lot of fun taking the skills they had learned outside.  Sillyness and fun poses were everywhere! But the girls also used their practical skills about composition, focus, aperture, etc. A lot of the girls and mentors said they were thankful for photography that day during closing circle.

 

 This week in Girl Galk the second group of girls did the resolutions exercise we did last week with the first group. After this, the group got talking about our values! Tesni started the discussion and got everyone talking about what values are, as opposed to valuables--like cell phones, cars, or the other material things in our life. The group brainstormed some different values that were important to them, why it's important to have values, and why it's hard if someone has different values than yourself.  Everyone gathered in a circle and was given a long list of different values which the girls and women looked through and then circled which ones they felt were most important.

 

Then each person chose one that really resonated and wrote a sentence in their journal about why that was. Afterwards we shared some of these values and the girls and mentors had a good time comparing their different values.  Then it was time for  shrinky dinks! In case you weren't aware, shrinky dinks are a piece of plastic that you draw on with colored pencil, then place in the oven so it shrinks up into a hard, tiny charm in the oven! They are a lot of fun to make and to watch happen! The group started to create a shrinky dink bracelet which we will finish next week!  Our shrinky dinks were symbols representing our most important value.

The group came back together for snack -- which included a special (and funny) toast from the girls and everyone toasted each other with their waters.

 

Finally it was time to go into the clay studio. Everyone went downstairs and met all of the  volunteers teachers for that night. These were all members of the VisArts Clay Guild who worked with the girls and women on how to glaze pots and wheel throw small bowls. 5 people from the clay guild donated their time to help us learn this, and many more donated pots to glaze. A BIG thank you to our Clay Guild!  Many of the same people do it every year, and it's a lot of fun. 

One group headed into the wheel throwing studio and the other went to the glaze studio. Everyone in the glazing studio learned how to dip their pots into glaze, and we glazed one pot in a color of our choice and another in Raku glaze ( Raku is a special firing technique that we will get to do in two weeks).  

Then the group switched places so they could learn how to wheel throw. This is always a hit because working on the wheel means that you get messy! It's also really challenging and something new for almost everyone doing it. A few girls really took to it and wanted to come back to our First Friday's Samplers on a future big sister date so they can do some more work on the wheel.

 

 The night ended with another big thank you to all of the great Clay Guild volunteers!

 ...And another wonderful group picture!

Resolutions, Poetry and Power Tools

Our first week back at SOHO after winter break was an especially exciting one! Everyone was able to get in the workshop to do some woodworking. SOHO girls and mentors used power tools - a SOHO first!

 We started off Girl Talk this week with a "New Year's SOHO Resolution". After chatting in circle for a few minutes about our winter break, everyone in the group talked about what a resolution was and how it applied to what we were doing at SOHO.  Our group resolution consisted of thinking of ways to make small gestures to show your big or little SOHO sister that you cared about them.  Then the group talked about small gestures and brainstormed small gestures of love or appreciation. we came up with: saying hello, saying goodbye, giving a hug, giving a high five, nice body language, getting materials for each other, making conversation, and a lot of others!  

 

Then all the girls and women talked about why doing these things was important and what a big difference small gestures make.  Everyone then secretly wrote down how they would implement one or more of these into their time that night. In the end, it turned into a game where each big and little sister tried one of these new techniques and then asked each other at the end of the day if they could figure out what their small gesture was.

 

Just like the week before, the new Girl Talk group created their "I AM" poems.  This group was just like the last in that they all wanted to talk and read aloud their whole poem and everyone really enjoyed this project. Even some of the more shy girls shared!

 

We'll have an update on photography soon but it sounds like everyone is getting the hang of developing their own film and printing their very first photos!

After Girl Talk and photography, everyone met back up for snack and then headed downstairs into the VisArts Wood Shop. For this particular night we had a wonderful guest teacher, Ann Walsh who taught everyone a little about woodworking and helped all the girls to design and cut out their own lap desks.  She is an amazing woman who is kind, strong, and full of confidence. She's also a professional woodworker. It's wonderful to involve other awesome women from our community with SOHO. 

Ann is very much about safety so she went over all of the safety rules with the whole group: like how to look out for one another, how to use all of the equipment, and to always ask questions when you don't know how to do something. Ann explained how to go about making the wooden tops to our lap desks. It was extra exciting for everyone because this was the first time the girls had gotten to actually do the cutting and drilling of their desks in the history of the SOHO program.

For our desks each pair used a band saw to cut out the overall shape of their desk, the drill press to drill the starting holes for handles, and the jigsaw to finish the cut-out shape for the handles. The group split into two and while some were in the wood shop with Ann, Liana, Jordan and Tesni, the others were in the next room learning how to properly sand their peices and working on sanding the edges of their desks.

Some girls and big sisters were a little nervous at the beginning (some were even a little scared) because none of the girls had ever used power tools. These nervous feelings dissipated pretty quickly once each pair started to use the first tool and felt that crazy satisfaction of doing something a little dangerous. The experience was definitely empowering -- there was a lot of girl power talk that night.  Everyone was so proud of their desks and the fact that they were able to do something they had never done before!

 SOHO ended the night with a big thank you to Ann and an awesome group picture! We can't wait to finish these lap desks in our other studios in the next few weeks...

Poetry, Soldering & Bravery

Happy Holidays from everyone at SOHO!

 This week was the last week before our long holiday break. We started Girl Talk by writing our names and drawing a picture or writing how we were feeling when we came in on the white board. Then everyone sat in a circle and chatted about everyone was doing and feeling. This opening circle time is a place where big and little sisters can talk about what's going on in their lives - whether its funny, interesting or stressful. 

This time, Girl Talk was all about ourselves! Tesni started off the night by reading them a poem she wrote - something Tesni doesn't normally do. The only parameters for the "poem" were that each line had to start with "I am..."  After this the line could branch off and talk about all sorts of things things: family members, favorite things, activities, hobbies, friends, qualities, adjectives, objects, etc. The poem was meant to be free and talk about who we are as a person; it didn't have to be grammatically correct or rhyme.

Everyone split up, got comfy, and wrote their own poem. Tesni was sure to tell them we would share at least one line of our poem with the group. After about 15-20 minutes everyone came back into circle and read either one line or the whole poem. To our surprise, every girl read their whole poem! After they were all read, Tesni came around and gave everyone a "word bubble" where each girl wrote their favorite line. After class we all took photos with our bubbles! 

We'll talk more about photography after the break and what exciting things are happening in the darkroom!

After snack, all the big and little sisters came together and headed down to the VisArts metal and jewelry studio.  Everyone was able to learn how to solder necklaces with an image of their choosing! This activity is always really fun because it feels a little more dangerous, and we get to work in a fun professional studio (don't worry-

we take all the necessary safety precautions-of course!). Everyone watched out for each other, trusted each other, and learned how to use these crazy tools! Everyone stayed safe and everyone was able to try out the soldering practicing - even if they were a little timid or scare at first.

The group had closing circle in the jewelry studio tonight so that everyone would have time to finish their necklaces. Everyone said goodbye to each other - for three whole weeks! It was a big, loud, excited goodbye. Everyone's excited for the holidays...

See you in the new year!

PS. Bill Moretz from Pro Camera in Charlottesville gave us a great deal on 10 film cameras for SOHO! A big thank you to Bill for this generosity!