Posted By Janet Lawson, MFT on August 6, 2009

There is a deafening silence around the house now. On Sunday we finished the Spring/Summer series of workshops. When we started the workshops last year we had 4 students – that number has now quadrupled.  And we are getting lots of inquiries from other teens and their families.  Our goal for this coming year is to match this year’s growth and to add new programs.  Not just any program – but the programs and services that you want and you feel you need.

We haven’t figured out the August Break Events but we will let you know soon.  We look forward to seeing you all this Fall.

One new idea: The College Support Group:

Many of you will be attending College of Marin this year and have asked for help with homework and general academic support.  We are offering a College Support Group on Friday afternoons starting August 21^st. We will meet from 2pm – 6pm.  We will also check in with you during the week to see if you need additional support. Please let us know soon if you would like to be a part of this group.

Nate’s Intensive Filmmaking Workshop

July was definitely an intense month for the filmmaking workshops at Autistry Studios. We learned that 8 sessions is a bit too short for filmmaking but that did not stop us of from creating some great projects.  Steven finished Bupim’s Quest and has already begun work on the sequel.  Devon, our editrice extraodinaire, finished KOKORO and several other editing projects.  Wesley helped Ian shoot more Kung Fu footage and he finished up Introducing Ray.  Sarah filmed a wonderful animated short, Termite. Her project just needs the soundtrack added and it will be ready to post. Lots of concentration, hard work, and group cooperation went into the making of these short films.

Photos for July Filmmaking Workshop

Dan’s Build Stuff Workshops

The projects in the build-stuff workshops were fabulous this series. Kris finished his replica of a World War II machine gun (w00t!).

A neighbor driving by did a serious double-take as Kris carried it to his car.

Phoebe’s Ramses II riding in his chariot is complete (still needs a bit of work on the background) and it looks great.

Corey is nearly finished with his diorama of the parade scene from MILK.  And Ross’ brass icosahedron and other shapes are amazing.  And that was just the Friday group!

Photos for Friday build-stuff group

Sundays Build Stuff folks did just as well.  Nick has designed a very large train layout with a hand built redwood trestle bridge.

This project will continue in the next series as it is large and complex and wonderful.

Carissa, our youngest Autistry Studios student, made an oversized sword out of aluminum.  This project, a first for us, turned out far better than any of us had expected.

When Carissa’s younger sister saw the sword she asked us to build her a suit of armor!  I vote for a locked display case.  Sarah is nearly finished with her custom dog bed – just a few pieces to sew for the canopy. She will have a very happy puppy. Breton returned to continue work on Elf World and created a magnificent tree house.

The clay diorama is too large to fit in our oven so one of the projects for the August break: build an oven.

Photos for Sunday build-stuff group

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This entry was posted by Janet Lawson, MFT on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 10:54 am and is filed under Studio Newsletters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.