Traditional West African stamp patterns

As we were studying in our history book about the slave trafficing from African countries to the New World (Americas), we also learned that the people of West Africa often used a traditional technique to decorate clothing and other items. This technique, called adinkra, separated the items to be decorated into squares and then stamped patters onto each square. So we decided to try this technique out ourselves.

What we used:
simple A4 printer paper
poster paints
potatoes out of which we cut stamps of different shapes
ruler and pencil

What we did:
1. We divided the paper into 1" x 1/2" rectangles. We had 8 columns and 11 rows.
2. We used different stamps and colours for making our patterns.

Here are some photos of how and what we did to make our adinkras.

Uzair and Hafsa at work.

Some of our potato stamps.

Hafsa's pattern.

 

Mamma's pattern.

Uzair's pattern.

All three paterns together.



Cleaning the peas

Winter is the season of fresh green peas in Karachi. We buy them in kgs, clean them and freeze them for use in the summer months. The cleaning is usually a group type of activity, although not a very popular one, since sitting for prolonged periods of time at one place is considered as punishment by kids. :) This year, Asma (not 2 yrs yet) has also joined the peas-cleaning-team and with very serious efforts, does her best to help us. Amazingly, her tiny fingers are doing excellent work. :)

 

Karachi spring

One lazy afternoon, Uzair was complaining of nothing to do. So Mom decided to send him on a secret mission. She gave him a camera and told to go outside in our lane to take photos of all the spring flowers he manages to find. Here you can see what he came up with.

The solar system model

We really enjoyed reading "Space Explorers" book from "The Magic School Bus" series and learned a lot about the planets of the solar system. We made a project of our own solar system, as close in size and color to the actual planets as we could. This one in made by Hafsa.

The project: recyclable A4 paper mashed into balls and painted by water colours, cover of a pizza box.

Plague doctor project

As we were reading about the plague of the Middle Ages, which killed nearly a third of population in Europe, we did an art project. Medieval plague doctors used to wear these type of masks, believing that the masks would protect them from getting sick - how about that? At that time, they didn't know that the disease was being carried around by rats and transferred to humans by flees.

Update on the onion business

Here comes the update on our "onion business". Within a matter of a few days, by daily changing the water of the onion and putting it for some sunlight, Hafsa's onion had grown to a wonderfully amazing size, as you can see in the pictures below. The little dish of water was full of strong roots. On the other hand, Uzair's onion, which we planted in soil, did not strive so well at all and... eventually died... Our guess is that the soil we planted it in was poor in nutrients, so the onion could not get enough strenth from it, even though we watered it every day.

Hafsa "harvested" her green onions and cut them all by herself for a salad (along with other yummy veggies), which she proudly presented for Abba at dinner time.

However, the onion story does not end here. After cutting off the green onions, we still left Hafsa's onion in the same water over night. And guess what happened? By next morning, to our great surprise, it had grown half an inch again! So we kept it in water for some more time and witnessed the wonders of Allah - the green onion just kept on growing. :)

Onion 'business'

When Abba brought vegetables from the market this Sunday, we found in the batch of onions two heads with ‘green hair’ sprouting out on top. We realized it’s that time of the year again, when we can try to grow our own green onions. We cut off two bottoms of plastic bottles, poured in a little water (about 1,5 cm) and put our onions inside. Within a couple days, the green ‘hair’ stretched longer and some beautiful white roots appeared on the bottoms of our onions. Then, Uzair got a new idea – he wanted to plant his onion in soil, which is what we did. We got a pot, made the soil soft, watered it, dig a hole in the middle, placed onion inside with roots down and gently covered it with soil. Now, please, make Dua together with us that Uzair’s onion grows and multiplies into a good harvest. :) We’ll keep you updated about it, insha’Allah.

Clay workshop no. 4

Today, we had our next clay workshop. We coloured the candle-holders that we made last week, and made new candle holders. Uzair made also a cup.

Clay workshop no. 3

Again it was Tuesday, and again we went for our clay workshop. This time, we made a beautiful small candle-holder in the shape of a maple leaf and a hedgehog.

Clay workshop no. 2

In this week's clay workshop, we made three things under a common theme of the fall: a mushroom, a peapod with peas inside and a carrot. We also coloured the worms we made the weak before.

Caaaaaaarefully painting those tiny dots on the worm.

Hafsa working on the antenae of her worm.



Peapods are bursting open with ripe peas ready to be harvested.



Uzair's mushroom has got an attitude in talking with Hafsa's one.



Beads work workshops

For three weeks in August, we had invited a local lady Dženjana to show us some basics of beads work. We had three workshops with her, during which she showed different techniques of arranging beads for necklaces and bracelets. Even our Mamma participated in all the work, as she was also very eager to learn this. By clicking on this link, you can see how we are working and what kinds of things we made: beads workshop with Dženjana