message from camp director Louise about our online workshops
Clapping Hands Farm is pleased to offer an exciting array of engaging, interactive, connecting workshops online this summer, via Zoom! Our goal in offering these workshops is NOT to keep people on screens! Quite the opposite! We aim to ignite some new skills, friendships and passions that will have you and your family diving deep into dancing, inventing, creating and making. We hope these workshops are a gateway to a summer of enjoying hands-on activities and each other.
visual schedule of our workshop offerings
click HERE! to see our summer schedule laid out in pretty colors in a calendar format.
guidance for families taking workshops together
Clapping Hands Summer 2020 Workshops can be FAMILY TIME. Although young people or adults can take them solo (see age recommendations for each workshop), we encourage you to take these workshops as a family! There is something special about that shared experience and interaction that we think makes it more fun for all involved, especially with our online format this summer.
If both parent and child will be “campers” —- making projects and wanting instructor attention—- then you will count as a participant, so in that case please either pay the camp fee or request a scholarship. If you think you will primarily be assisting your child, consider yourself a volunteer, and thank you! If you think you’ll be somewhere in-between, please set your own camp fee as you feel is appropriate!
If both parent and child want to be MAKERS for the workshop, you should BOTH get a kit if one is provided. If the parent just wants to assist the child in making stuff, one kit is enough.
One of the issues on Zoom is if we have too many screens joined, it becomes hard for the instructor to see everyone at one time. So, it is very helpful if families taking workshops together can SHARE ONE SCREEN.
WORKSHOPS STARTING IN JULY:
(in order of appearance)
Quilting and Sewing with the Log Cabin Block with Kate Hibbard, ages 10-adult, Wednesdays 1-3 p.m. AND optional drop-in Saturdays 1-3 p.m., July 1-July 29
QUILTING & SEWING REGISTRATION
Hi, everyone! Waving from Rhode Island! My name is Kate and I live on an island in RI with my dogs and cats. I love sewing and quilting, and I am glad we’ve figured out a way to continue quilting and sewing together this summer! I sew on my Grandmother’s 1928 Singer sewing machine, and I’ll be using that when we meet via Zoom.
We’ll start with a block called the Log Cabin and use it to make any number of things: a pillow, a large bag, a small bag, a pot holder, a wall hanging, a lap quilt, a pillow case, or something else. We’ll meet in real time via Zoom once a week. And, there will be an optional drop-in studio time every week where we can sew together some more.
Dates: July 1-July 29 (5 classes & 4 drop-in sessions)
Cost: $125. Scholarships are available if needed. Donations above the workshop fee will go to support our scholarship program and are especially needed this summer.
Art Party Parents Workshop with Louise Omoto Kessel, for parents of children ages 3-8, Sunday 8-10 p.m. AND Fridays 9-10 a.m. with parents AND kids. Session 1: June 7 -July 10; Session 2: July 12- August 14.
LOUISE OMOTO KESSEL is the instructor for this class. Louise is the camp director at Clapping Hands Farm, and is looking forward to making art with our awesome Art Party Parents!
Each Sunday evening (after bedtime) just us parents will meet. We will check in about our week. We will make art together. And I will teach you how to do four or five very cool art projects with your children. During the week, you can share these projects with your children, and we will have Zoom time with you and your children each Friday for 30-45 minutes to see what you’ve been working on! We will also have a shared photo album where you can post your creations and your children in action! My goal is to set you up for some of those treasured “rock star parenting moments” and to infuse your summer with some artful inspiration. Art! And Human Connection! Being two of my favorite things!
Session TWO projects will include lots of painting drawing and printmaking projects, making ball and cup toys, glue batiks, flower fairies, slime, volcanoes . . . . and SO MUCH MORE!
Your supply fee will provide a giant collection of carefully curated art supplies lovingly gathered and organized by Louise. In this box will be what you need to do at least 25 projects with your family. And extra of everything if you want to do a project again or improvise with whatever is left over. There will also be a list of things that YOU need to supply—- mostly things I thought you might have around the house already.
All parents in one family are welcome to participate for the same cost so long as you share a screen during our Zoom meet-ups. All the children in one family can participate whether it’s one kid or six kids!
Session 2: July 12-August 14 (5 weeks)
Cost: $150, plus a supply fee of $60
The supply fee represents the actual cost of materials plus $5 for the time involved in gathering all the stuff. PARENTS will be expected to supply SOME of the tools and materials themselves, but only the stuff that I think you probably already have in your house (see Participants Need section below). As always, scholarships are available if needed. Donations above the workshop fee will go to support our scholarship program and are especially needed this summer.
Participants need:
- to set up a workspace for YOURSELF (parents) during our Zoom workshop and for the whole family during the week.
- to gather some basic tools and materials. I will provide a list, but it is stuff that I think you might already have in the house or would find easy to get. Scissors, masking tape, sharpies, yarn, fabric, needle and thread, and a GLUE GUN and the glue sticks that go with it. When you get the list, if there are things you need help getting, let me know.
Toy Making with Louise Omoto Kessel, ages 8-13, Thursdays 10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., July 16-August 13
LOUISE OMOTO KESSEL is a professional storyteller and the camp director at Clapping Hands Farm. She is very excited to dive into toy-making fun with you on Zoom this summer!
Toys and Games camp is a Clapping Hands Farm favorite and is our longest running camp; we’ve done it every summer for more than 15 years. Louise has planned 15 projects for our Zoom Toy Making Camp! Each week campers can choose to make a STEAM project like stomp rockets or boomerangs; an open ended playful ART project; and a quick easy fun bonus toy. Lots of fun to be had at our Zoom Toy Making camp and homemade fun is the very best kind!
Your supply fee will include everything needed to make a bunch of toys! This is a great workshop to do as a family.
Dates: July 16-August 13 (5 classes)
Cost: $75 with a supply fee of $30. Scholarships are available if needed. Donations above the workshop fee will go to support our scholarship program and are especially needed this summer.
Hand-Carved Rubber Stamp Printmaking with a focus on Adinkra Stamps with Louise Omoto Kessel and Teli Shabu, ages 12-adult, 8-11 welcome with parental help, Mondays 10-11:30 a.m., July 20-August 10
RUBBER STAMP PRINTMAKING WORKSHOP REGISTRATION
LOUISE OMOTO KESSEL is the printmaking instructor for this class. Louise is a professional storyteller and the camp director at Clapping Hands Farm. She makes prints of various kinds and sizes and hopes you will get as hooked on handcarved rubber stamps as she is!
TELI SHABU is a muscian, storyteller, artist and inventor, and a favorite lead teacher at Clapping Hands Farm. Teli will bring the wisdom of ADINKRA to our workshop. Adinkra symbols are a tradition from West Africa. Each of these beautiful carved stamps has a meaning and often a proverb related to it.
Using linoleum carving tools, you can carve your own original rubber stamps out of erasers! I have carved literally hundreds of rubber stamps and love using them for both fun and useful things. In this workshop you will learn the basics of print design and carving. Then we will do several projects with our homemade stamps!
We will learn about Adinkra symbols from West Africa as a source of inspiration for our own hand-made stamps.
Your $45 supply fee will provide a set of four carving tools, a box of magic rub erasers, a piece of plexiglass, a brayer, a tube of black ink (suitable for printing on paper or fabric), a larger piece of carving material and a set of watercolor markers. YOU will need to provide paper and card stock for printing on and a stamp pad and ink for the stamp pad (or you can use the markers provided to ink your stamps).
For families taking this workshop together, some of the supplies can be easily shared by all members of the family, so the supply fee for additional members of the family is $15.
Dates: July 20-August 10 (4 classes)
Cost: $60 with a $45 supply fee ($15 for additional members of the same family). Optional add-on to supplies for printing bigger areas and fabric printing is an additional $30. Scholarships are available if needed. Donations above the workshop fee will go to support our scholarship program and are especially needed this summer.
Latin Dance with Andrea Lara, ages 9-adult, T, Th 9-10 a.m.
Session 2: July 21-August 13
Originally from Colombia, ANDREA LARA was born in a family of artists. Her mother, a folklore dancer and her father, a songwriter and musician, influenced her love for music and dancing. At a very early age Andrea was dedicated to learn different Latin American folk dances at the school of arts she attended in Bogotá. She joined a Latin American Folk Dance company where she participated in different performances like Tango, Flamenco, Mexican Jarabe Tapatio and other folk dances for seven years. Andrea came to the U.S five years ago and has been teaching at Walltown Children’s Theater in Durham. Come enjoy the sounds and rhythms that will transport you to the roots of Latin America!
This workshop will explore different styles of Latin music, including folklore, pop, urban, etc. Each workshop includes stretching and a choreographed routine, including brief explanations of the different steps. Andrea will provide YouTube videos for campers to practice their choreographies with at the end of each workshop.
Participants need: a clear open space where they can move safely. Please wear comfortable clothing for dancing!
Session 2: July 21-August 13 (8 classes)
Cost: $80. Scholarships available if needed. Donations above the workshop fee will go to support our scholarship program and are especially needed this summer.
Felting Studio Workshop for Experienced Felters 2 with Louise Omoto Kessel, Mia Kaplan and Casey Hayes, Ages 12- adult, Tuesdays 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. July 21- August 11 (meets 4 times)
LOUISE OMOTO KESSEL, CASEY HAYES and MIA KAPLAN are the guides for this open studio workshop. Louise is a professional storyteller and the camp director at Clapping Hands Farm. Louise is enjoying a deep dive into felting right now, and is excited to help campers enjoy hours of fun with fiber!
Casey’s grown-up children are CHF alumni. She has done a good bit of felting in the past, including hats and slippers, and has been re-bitten by the felting bug recently!
Mia is a CHF alumni and former counselor. She is now a Fellow at Penland School of Crafts where she is quarantining with other artists and making jewelry!
This is a continuation of the Felt Studio for Experienced Felters that began in June. We were enjoying it so much we just wanted it to keep going!
If you have felted before, feel you have mastered the basics, and want a relaxed open studio to continue working in a community of other artists— this is the place for you! You choose a project and we will coach you to completion.
There is no supply fee for this workshop. If you need fiber or other supplies you may be able to purchase what you need from Clapping Hands or we can provide you with links to our suppliers and you can buy direct.
Dates: July 21-August 11 (4 meetings)
Cost: $80. Scholarships available if needed. Donations above the workshop fee will support our scholarship program.
Talking Drum Build & Play with Teli Shabu, ages 10-adult, 7-9 welcome with parental help, T, Th 2-3:30 p.m., July 21-August 13
TALKING DRUM BUILD & PLAY WORKSHOP REGISTRATION
TELI SHABU is originally from Liberia and part of a family of performers and artists. Teli has been bringing his big heart and inventive mind to our Clapping Hands Farm community for a dozen summers, leading drumming, story theater, adinkra printing, telling stories, and building instruments.
In this workshop participants will build, decorate, and learn to play a talking drum! The drum will be constructed using PVC pipe fittings, strong cord and goat skin drum heads. Talking drums have heads on two ends connected by strings. By squeezing on the strings while playing the drum, you can change the pitch and make the drum sing and talk in different tones. These drums originated in West Africa and Teli has used pieces and parts available here to make the building of a talking drum accessible to our campers.
Dates: July 21-August 13 (8 classes)
Cost: $120 with a supply fee of $56.75. Scholarships are available if needed. Donations above the workshop fee will go to support our scholarship program and are especially needed this summer.
Story Bridges with Louise Omoto Kessel, for adults, POSTPONED to Fall 2020, exact dates TBD.
Please indicate INTEREST in this workshop by filling out the form below, which includes giving information about your SCHEDULE.
LOUISE OMOTO KESSEL is a professional storyteller and the camp director at Clapping Hands Farm. In addition to telling her own stories, Louise loves working with others to find/create their own stories and tell them! Sharing our stories is a powerful bridge to understanding other perspectives and connecting with our own humanity.
In this storytelling workshop we will explore the Art of Storytelling in the context of our own cultural identities. Louise believes We Are All Storytellers! So, we will dive into the craft with exercises to deepen your connection with the characters and places in your story; we will look at ways to bring audience participation into your performances; we will practice word painting and ways to tell the story with our bodies, voices, gestures and faces. We will also journey into our family stories, revisiting our earliest memories of race, religion, geography and community, with all the foods, holidays, spiritual practices, and important values and relationships that came along with our particular lens on the world.
You will be invited to find a story that relates to your cultural heritage, and then to learn it by heart and bring it to life in a performance. The workshop will conclude with a recital for friends and family.
Dates: POSTPONED till FAll 2020. Exact Dates TBA. Please fill out the INTEREST FORM to give input about the schedule.
Cost: $240. Scholarships are available if needed. Donations above the workshop fee will go to support our scholarship program and are especially needed this summer.
