15-17.10.09 Merchav Yotzer מרחב יוצר 2009

Omer and I spent a wonderful weekend in Beit Oren, at the Merchav Yotzer 2009 (= Creative open space) workshops. On Thursday afternoon I attended Yaara Man workshop, drawing and painting Mandala on a ceramic square, with ceramic paint, while Omer went chasing for his Wasp and Coleoptera :-)
I enjoyed it very much, finding the middle of the axes, the center, drawing the lines with a ruler and a pair of compasses, first with pencil and then erasing all the extra lines. I also used some carob and oak leaves to help me design the pattern. When the ceramic square was baked in the special oven, we got completely different colours (much darker), so you can see below the "before" and after".

On Friday, we took both an environmental sculpture workshop with the talented artist Amir Baumfeld. We could choose if to work on wood, stone or making ceramic mosaics.
Getting inspiration from nature, some walking around, watching, finding objects of inspiration we then came back to write down our ideas, sketch it and sculpt it from clay.
Amir then instructed each one of us how to work on the medium we chose.

I chose to make a Praying Mantis on the Wood, together with two other girls that chose as subject a wild woman and an acorn with oak leaves. We worked on a piece of cypress, with sculpting tools and wood hammers to create a totem that remained unfinished the day after because of lack of time. Definition and engraving is a constant process while working on wood. For me the work was a bit aggressive and requires some force. At first, I didn't enjoy working the wood, but towards the end of the workshop, the day after, I could find more interest in it, though I don't plan to have it as a new hobby :-)
Why did I chose a Praying Mantis? The evening before, I went to bring some water from the car in the camping area and while walking back, there was something walking on my feet, that I discovered to be a big green praying Mantis. By the way, we were surrounded by jackals and wild pigs that we could hear very well and some of us even see.
On the same evening, Omer saw a big spider on its web and those two animals became our inspiration for our work.

So this is Omer's spider

and this is the engraving in stone that he chose to create:

then filled with cement and rests of ceramics from Imi Feller's work.

I really like the spider engraving in the stone and I can tell you it is a tough work!

On Friday afternoon, we saw a very interesting demonstration of a Raku burning process with Anat Evyatar.
In the evening we had a common meal together, accompanied with songs and interesting lectures. One was about how to increase and find your creativity with Ilan Niv. The second one was given by Amir Baumfeld about his creations and impressive Totems and wood furnitures, based on wood connectors only.

On Saturday afternoon was the crowning glory workshop for me. Yonit Crystal instructed us to make a small basket. Varda and her husband joined us in the afternoon and both attended the workshop with me. We had great fun and I realized a small dream I had quiet a while, weaving this basket.

I asked the permission to finish my basket at home, though many people found the basket as it as beautiful. I still haven't decided what to do about it, but now I am sure I want to keep learning about basket weaving which was tremendously fun to me. By the way, the baskets we wove are done with the base of palm fronds and reeds.

We ended this creative and interesting weekend in nature with a big smile and good feelings, interesting new people we met, new initial skills and new ideas for the future...