A Crafty Experience at Collage Collage

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I love to do crafts with my kids at home, but sometimes it’s great to go out for a hands-on art experience. Not only does somebody else clean up afterward, but it’s fun to be inspired by other people’s ideas, spaces, approaches and encouragement. With this in mind, Beatrice and I headed out to Collage Collage for their All Ages Drop-In Make session on a Friday afternoon.

Watercolour Landscapes

We arrived a little bit late, about half an hour after the drop in session started, and were greeted warmly by Erin Boniferro, the owner and all-around crafty gal who runs the workshops and classes at Collage Collage. She brought over a thick, gorgeous sheet of watercolour paper and a palette of paint in primary colours, and then showed us a book with illustrations of various scenes in the Vancouver area. I glanced over at the sample landscapes that were hanging at the top of the table and at the pictures the other kids had done. They were amazing! When Erin finished explaining how to create a watercolour landscape, Beatrice picked up her paintbrush and got started on her sky.

The space at Collage Collage is multi-purpose, with a big table and benches in the middle of the room where classes and workshops take place, a carpet and rocking chair at the front for reading stories, a tiny nook at the back for playing with felt boards, and shelves around the perimeter of the room with books, supplies and projects for take-home inspiration.

As Bea painted, I watched as she took her own approach to painting a landscape. I started to feel the urge to direct her painting – why wasn’t she painting her mountains properly? I took a deep breath, showed her again how using the water helped the paint spread around the paper, and then got up to look around the shop a little. I flipped through a book about the Reggio approach to early childhood education and read a page or two about encouraging children to have their own experience with art. I took a deep breath and went back to sit beside Bea. She took a big brush full of red paint and started spreading it over her blue sky. I tensed up a little, afraid she was going to turn it all into a big smear of brownish purple muck. “Look mama, it’s a sunset!” she said. Phew.

In the end, we both had fun and Beatrice painted a really great watercolour landscape. Erin was encouraging and gave enough direction to help the kids make something that really looked like a landscape while having fun too. After washing our hands in the lovely, kid-friendly bathroom, Bea played for a while with the felt pieces in the nook and then we went on our way.

Collage Collage is located near the intersection of 15th and Fraser, right across the street from Wee Ones Reruns, and beside a neat collection of art galleries, a sewing space, a clay studio and a bistro. Collage Collage runs drop-in sessions and classes that take registered participants, and can also be booked for Sunday afternoon birthday parties. For more information, check out their website.

Michelle Carchrae is a freelance writer and mama to two little girls. Michelle writes about attachment parenting, parenting resources and life with kids at her blog The Parent Vortex.