This month, join HCCC volunteers and staff as we use traditional fiber-arts techniques to create colorful greeting cards with extraordinary decorative effects. Participants will draw a design of their choice with crayons and paint over it with bright watercolors. The wax crayon prevents the paper from absorbing the pigment, allowing the design to show through. This technique, called wax resist, has been used in Indonesian batik and African wax-cloth production for centuries. Participants will then sprinkle the painting with salt while it’s still wet and observe the beautiful marbled patterns created as each grain of salt absorbs the moisture around it. This technique is used in silk painting and paper marbling.  Once finished, everyone will take home a unique greeting card to give or treasure as a piece of art.

To see African wax cloth used in contemporary craft, stop by the main gallery to check out Joy O. Ude’s piece, Clark Dolls (Nwanta Olu Ulme Umirimanta) in the Craft Texas 2014 exhibition.

Note:  There will be no HANDS-ON HOUSTON event in January, as HCCC will be closed to the public for renovations.

HANDS-ON HOUSTON is a free drop-in event held the first Saturday of every month (except January and July in 2015). Each month, a teaching artist demonstrates a craft related to the current exhibitions. Families and children of all ages are welcome to come any time between 11 AM and 3 PM and participate in a 15-20 minute activity. Materials are provided. This program supports HCCC’s mission to advance education about the process, product and history of craft.