Art Therapy for Broads Abroad : Kaleidoscope Your Life : Exercise #7

"Life is like an ever-shifting kaleidoscope - a slight change, and all patterns alter." 
- Sharon Saltzberg

Imagine that your favorite coffee or tea mug has a small chip in the center of the well.  When you pour honey into the mug, it drains very slightly.  As soon as you add the steaming coffee or the hot water for your tea, a rush of liquid flows, and you are left with a mess.  How we respond to the disappointment of a favorite mug being broken, the anticipation of a delicious drink spoiled, and the mess on the counter, indicates our level of comfort with inevitable change.

How is it that we crave consistency, and simultaneously welcome movement?  Chaordic refers to a system in nature where an organism utilizes chaos and order to reach maturation.  Through most of our lives we are presented with challenges.  Chaos arrives dressed as dramatic majesty.  It can be the impetus for great change or an energy sucking vampire.  Think  of order as a series of multiples, collected over a life time; order which provides stabilizing comfort, as well as dullness. 

Today's Secret Message of Love: I am filled with gratitude for all the shifts in perspective that I have cradled so closely, even if they have created small wrinkles, and sometimes larger folds.

Kaleidoscope Your Life © News From A Broad, 2012

with special thanks to Ellen & Lynette!

Materials:

• Two overhead transparency sheets, 8.5"x11", suitable for use in a printer (see improvised steps)
• Shiny, lightweight, transparent tiny sparkly things!
  
• Empty paper towel tube or wrapping paper tube
  
• Plastic wrap
  
• Wax paper
• Paper cutter or utility knife (see improvised instructions below)
• 1/4" hole punch 
• Rubber band
• Pencil, scissors, and tape
• Pattern paper or drawer liner paper

Process:

• This is the first improvised step.  Option 1: Go through your digital photography files.  In a word document, copy and paste each image, resizing as small as possible.  Print the page onto one of the transparency overhead sheets.  Cut into pieces small enough to fit inside your kaleidoscope.  Set aside.   Option 2: Ignore this step and you will only need one overhead transparency sheet!
• This is the second improvised step.  You can use a paper cutter as your guide OR lengthwise, score the transparency overhead sheet into 3 equal sections.  Don't cut through, but gently use your utility knife to create two crease lines.  Cut off 1/2" from the short side of the overhead sheet.  Form into a triangular tube, taping the open edge.
• Create a disk by tracing the end of your paper towel tube onto the corner edge of your pattern paper.  Cut this out, punch a hole in the center, and tape to the end of the paper towel tube.
• Gently maneuver the scored transparency overhead sheet into the tube, just touching the paper patterned disc.
• Cut a 3"x3" square of plastic wrap.  Insert it into the transparency overhead tube to form a 1" well.
• Fill the well with 1.) your tiny transparent photographs, AND/OR 2.) Shiny, lightweight, transparent tiny sparkly things!
• Cover the end with a 3"x3" square of wax paper and secure with a rubber band.
  
• Cover the entire outside of the tube with pattern paper or shelf liner paper.  Tape along the edge.

Options:
Added touches:

• Use a Sharpie or similar permanent pen to write words on the 1/2" sheered portion of the transparency sheet used to make the triangle.
• Use silk thread strings left over from former exercises

Conclusions:
Look into your shifting life!  If the images appearing in the kaleidoscope were a dream, how would you process that dream?  Use the Broad Dream Notes as a guide.

Create the life you want!

The Broad  
 

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