Making Creative Kids - 2 books I know...

One of my favourite things about being a mum is being able to share my passion for creativity with my boys. I've never met a kid who hated craft, and I'm glad to say mine are quite normal in that respect. They LOVE to craft. Hugh is constantly stealing my post-it-note-pads to make story books, and if I can't find a stapler or hole punch you can bet your last clam that he's been using it to make circles for an artwork or he's been building flags out of cardboard, sticks and staples... 

Last week, on a trip with the boys to Koskela (store oasis of all things divine in the realm of design - from furniture and toys, to lights and art... oh, and accomodation that I'd be happy to be held hostage in - if you don't know about it already then you need to take a look here - but not yet...), I stumbled across a couple of majorly inspiring design books for kids. One was Make Art Mistakes Sketchbook by the Museum of Modern Art New York - it's essentially a workbook filled with tasks and space to do them like drawing lines with the point vs the side of a pencil and shading a whole page and then drawing a picture in the shaded area with an eraser... Awesome book on my must buy list.

The second one was a book called DESIGN. This one I can't find anywhere else so I'll have to go back there to get it. As a lover of the meanings and stories that lie behind what is seen, this one is right up my alley. It's an illustrated book filled with the stories behind iconic designs - for example, know this light?

It's called SkyGarden and it's designed by Marcel Wanders. (I remember the first time I saw one I was down in Melbourne. I spotted three of these hanging in a typically uber-stylish establishment. They took my breath away. Literally. I actually gasped. Such a design geek I know.) Well, the story, according to DESIGN, is that Marcel lived in a very old apartment building. He worked hard during his days and when he came home he looked forward to turning on the light in his living room, sitting in his favourite chair and losing himself in the intricately designed plaster ceilings. With no actual garden of his own to spend time in this moment became his favourite part of the day. Years later, Marcel moved to a new home and found his "SkyGarden" to be the thing for which he was most homesick. And so an idea was born. He created this light so he could once again sit in his living room and be lost in the SkyGarden.

This is just one of hundreds of stories about iconic designs. I need this book. I need it for me. I need it for my boys...

1 comment:

  1. The DESIGN book sounds fascinating. Do you have any more info - like publisher, author or editor? I would love to try to track a copy for myself but need more to go on.

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