Cohousing-L Mailing List: Kids' hand and footprints and tile painting playshops

[PattyMara (PattyMara]

Dear List,
One of the ways we have chosen to celebrate our children at Tierra Nueva Coho
is to make tiles for the common house kitchen with their footprints (infants)
and handprints (toddlers).  We're planning to have our tilesetter place them
on the backsplash of the kitchen island.

The older kids painted their own designs along with the rest of us at two
special "playshops" we organized to paint the tiles.  We now have 50 original,
handpainted tiles ready to be set into the splash surrounding the common house
kitchen.  We held the playshops at a local ceramic shop and everyone agreed
they were among the most entertaining gatherings yet.  

We're fortunate to have several professional artists in our Tierra Nueva
family, but these playshops encouraged all of the members to explore their
personal creativity.  For those of us who "do art" every day it was a special
treat to watch the engineers, business folk, retired therapists, doctor,
scientists and teachers have so much fun designing and painting their tiles.

For those of you in the planning or early construction phases, consider making
tiles for your common house.  Or create something together as a community art
project.
We plan to have many more opportunities to make art together.

Patty Mara Gourley
Tierra Nueva Cohousing, San Luis Obispo County, on the Central California
coast
Where houses are being framed,  and the common house is well on its way and
only four units remain unreserved.  There are still some tiles that can be
painted with your special design!    Call 805 546-6708 for info.