Stick to your budget? OK, no problem.

Members of the Art and Craft Society in UTAR would like to learn how to make their own handcrafted jewellery. The pliers and the beading materials they would need to buy are way beyond their budget. So, how can I help them?

Let's see if I can teach them to hand weave with this improvised gadget.



So, do they need to buy some stringing material? Not if they can still remember how to cut out some strips out of plastic bags.



Will this be easy for them to pick up? Just check out the instructions posted on the following websites:

How to Make a Corker from All Free Crafts

Lost art of Knitting Nancy

Keep adding another strip of plastic at the end of each woven strip...



... till you get the length you want either for a bracelet or a necklace.



Once you are good at that, you can try weaving with smaller loops.



Here is another spool knitting technique posted on CraftyPod. Ready to work with bead? See for yourself. Now try doing that with wire.

What else can they create with this spool weaving technique? Find out in my next posting.

Exploring to keep a promise

I promised one of the mothers of De'Kidz Band that I will create more "Recycled Musical Ware" for them to play with so I have been on a look out for ideas.

I picked up a plastic packing material for apples at the fruit stalls and discovered that they make great sounds if you rubbed them with your wet finger tips. I also love the sound of running my spoon over glass bottles, especially in spots where there are indentations.

Today, I discovered Annie Brunson who has a degree in Music and Theater from Bretton Hall. She has taught piano, oboe, and middle school band. She believes that a child's involvement with music is a huge bolster to their self-worth, their confidence and their creative spirit.

To encourage you to do it, she teaches you how to create homemade musical instruments with everyday items. So, check out these free video clips showing you her "how tos":

Click here for more on "Making Music With Children : Homemade Instruments With Everyday Items"

Creation of De'Kidz Band

Just to test drive how much knockings the Recycled Musical Wares (RMW) I have created can withstand, I brought them over one Saturday morning for the tiny tots, at Sungai Long Buddhist Society Playgroup centre, to play with. The parents and their children enjoyed it so much that one of the mothers is already talking about starting De'Kidz Band.

Is this mother pulling a fast one on us? Let us go to her blog to check that out. Wow, the De'Kidz Band is on YouTube! No kidding.

Recycled Musical Wares In Action

Could the noise we can create with the recycled musical wares (RMW) blend in with the real things being played by members of the Tugu Drum Circle?

We were there, at Tugu Peringatan off Jalan Parlimen, on 8th July to check that out. How did we do? Let the pictures do the talking.

Here are some of the regular members of the Tugu Drum Circle.



Shaker, Plastic Bumpers and Wooden Clappers in action. Strangers to one another till we started to go with the beat.


A little on a high note with the tin pan drums but having fun creating music is Darly's only objective.


How did I get to know this family from Bahrain? I allowed them to experiment with my RMW and we played towards a universal language.


Here is a new fan to RMW.


Looks like she is going to be a regular at Tugu Drum Circle.



If you think you are not into playing musical instrument, real or otherwise, you can still have fun with a circle of drummers as long as you can move with the beat. I heard that some belly dancers with their finger cymbals have done their hips tilting moves with the drummers.

Need some help and tips persuading your friends to start or join a circle? Let me show you some ways:

Our local drummers in the news. Hey, Teri from Bandar Sungai Long is in the spotlight.



What musical instruments do you need to start?

Check out the RMW used in this university.

How can it be conducted?

Benefits of a drumming group.

How to dance with the beat.

More junk at work.

No instrument, no RMW? Just put your hands together.

Raise fund with it!

So you can create. What now?

Toyota has started their Tom-Tom Club. I have read and heard that this recreation is thriving at community centers, in churches and public parks. Even music therapist, Christine Stevens, said that it makes people feel more alive and productive and has started her own "Health Rhythms for Remo Drums" wellness centre.

Yes, it is a drum circle we were discussing about starting at our Sungai Long Buddhist Society today. So, should we fork out a sum to buy the necessary musical instruments? Maybe we should start a movement of sounds with our plastic material arty-fication creations to gauge how members of the community feels about the idea.

So, if you think you would like to join us for this no inhibitions, noisy team building fiasco, start creating your own musical instrument and write or call to find out when we will start this sound movement at a park in the neighbourhood of Sungai Long.

Yes, my children are all ready to stomp with you with...

...her flower drum dress

her colourful shaker

his shaker

Her maracas

His maracas

Scrapper

Tin pan drum

Wooden clappers

and Cymbals

Check out this list of musical instrument around the world if you need more ideas of what other musical instrument you can create.

For young people who find it difficult to socialize, drumming is a good way for you to let out the stress of meeting someone new and it will be very easy for you to discover the right mate. Just follow the one who keeps beating to your rhythm.

You can create music, but think you are not talented enough? Then the drumming circle is the best place for you to explore your inclination and build up your self esteem. You may soon realised that you do have the skills in this field when the novices start drumming to your beat.

Bring the real thing if you think recycled musical wares are not your style.

The Contest Prize

To encourage participation, I have chosen a pair of earrings, from this set I have created, to give away to the participant who created the best bouquet for the week.

How did we pick the winner from these creations?

Here are the contestants again.

Is this the elimination process?

Is that how he won the prize?

No, lah. These are the winners who won after many rounds of deafening applauses.

Congratulations! Miss K Z Kooh and Miss S W Han

Contest to promote recycling

When I was a kid, 10 cents could get me a bowl of stomach filling noodles in steaming hot soup. I used to record any amount in coins I was able to save from my recess time pocket money. Nowadays, my children can only buy a few sweets with that amount.

Look around and you can sometimes see one cents coins on the streets. Have you ever bothered to pick them up? So, can we blame the children for not valuing money when, we, as parents also leave coins around the house like they do not have any value? So, now imagine what their attitude will be like towards waste material. It would be discarded without a second thought if we do not show them the value they can derive from it through recycling.

To encourage participants to recycle and do their best at it during my workshop, I will be giving out a prize for new designs or ideas. Will the contest prize I am offering be worth their efforts? Let my pictures do the talking in my next posting.