papershine

A recent question on LinkedIn asked about how people deal with to do lists and keeping things organized. I responded with a link to my galaxy. Mark Bradford of Our Web Department was inspired enough by my reply to make his own and kind enough to share it with me. And as Mark pointed out, it’s a solar system, not a galaxy.
I like Mark’s version and some of the fun things he did to make it his own. Hard to discern in this low res capture, the green planet to the top is the Tax Planet and features a huge dollar sign on its surface. There’s a comet at the bottom that represents the fun projects he has going on as well. He reported it took about five minutes and was fun to do. The next question- in a couple of weeks- will be, did it help organize things and get stuff done?
Mark, thanks for sharing.

Critical mass.

Cereal, breakfast, oatmeal. This is part of a forthcoming project called Morning Routine, a collection of icons and tools to help parents and children navigate the tricky time between waking up and getting out the door.

Yesterday I facilitated a meeting of students from Warren Wilson College’s Service Learning Office. Small groups of students researched a focus topic on a community level, meeting with city and grass roots leaders to get a holistic view of the issue. In many cases they were actively involved in school gardens and local food banks. Meeting people in the system and receiving supports was an important component of their experience. As the semester was wrapping up, the program leaders decided to use graphic facilitation to gather the learning and seek connections between the different but overlapping issues. About twenty students took part in the meeting.
Because the groups had such varying focuses, I opted to start the process at the concrete level: What did you do? What did you learn? I recorded this to the outer ring. From this we started to find themes that were recorded in the center. We created action steps for change that were recorded to a second sheet of paper.

Food security.

New logo for my new business: Hammerhead Stoneworks.

I have been immersed in my current project and haven’t had much time for updates. I am designing a set of cards to be used with Positive and Productive Meetings. In addition to the layout, I’ve done the lion’s share of the writing and the various illustrations. This cards details a technique called Timed Talk that can be effective at moving groups through a difficult issue. I like the detail of the color coded clock times, indicating whose turn it is to speak.

This is an illustration I did for the Unturned Stone, as a teaching tool for Fred’s workshop on using winch skyline systems for moving stone and other materials in remote areas. A well planned winch system is safe, efficient and protects the environment. They are incredibly simple tools but can be very complex to set up properly.
The illustration was made into a huge poster that Fred uses at the start of workshops to explain the basics of the system. Everyone in the class has a copy for structured note-taking, on 11″ by 17″ paper, usually folded to be the cover for all their other handouts. The big graphics stays up on the wall for the duration of the course. People refer back to it frequently. It’s always illuminating for people to see the graphic after they have firsthand experience with the system. Parts and pieces start to fit together into a cohesive whole. The hands-on knowledge and the conceptual schematic coalesce into a more complete understanding of how the system works and how to set it up and use it safely and efficiently.

Here are two preliminary sketches for a forthcoming Learning Mural coloring poster of a flower garden. To the left, a black-eyed susan. Below, a praying mantis.

How to make your own Roller Painting: Spread out a large sheet of paper on a table or floor. Banner bond paper works well and can be found at your big box office stores as well as local art supply stores. Tape the paper down so it can’t move around. If you’re going to do it on the floor, choose a low traffic area so it doesn’t get stomped on while the paint is drying. What a mess…

Put your paint in low, open containers, like styrofoam trays. Kristin and Abe used poster paints, sometimes called tempera. Whatever you use, make sure it’s washable! Different sized rollers create varying sized lines. Wrap masking tape around a roller to create stripes. One of the rollers Abe is holding in the video has tape on it. Rollers are great for creating long roads and curvy snakes. Sponge bottles were used to make the round shapes.

Kid Art blogs are a new feature on papershine. We’ll be doing periodic updates of art projects Kristin does with the boys. Drawing on her experience as an art teacher, we’ll offer ideas for projects people can do at home with their kids.

Stimulate.