Awesome Guitars! From Cool Centerpieces to Fundraisers for a Great Cause

Photo credit:  Josh Barry Photography ©2013

Wow, I have so much to catch up on, I'm just going to jump right in with what's going on  now...  Well, it's been a while since my son's bar mitzvah, but we are finally following through with his mitzvah project.  This weekend, we are donating five electric guitars to a wonderful organization, Guitars Not Guns.  In a few weeks, our family will be volunteering at two fundraisers for GNG, where they will be raffling and/or auctioning off those guitars.  (See more about events below.)

So how exactly, you may ask, do we have five extra guitars to donate?  Well, for my younger son's bar mitzvah, we had a guitar-themed party.  He's been playing guitar since he was seven years old, so this was a no-brainer.  But as I'm not a big fan of styrofoam centerpieces that just get tossed after the event, I decided we would collect used electric guitars to add to my boys' small collection of electric guitars and bass guitars.  We would use those real guitars as centerpieces and then donate them to charity after our event.  It worked out great!  The guitars, which are really works of art in themselves, looked awesome on the tables lit up on shimmering CDs scattered with custom picks.

Photo credit:  Josh Barry Photography ©2013

I can't tell you how excited I was when we found the DC chapter of Guitars Not Guns.  This was just the perfect organization for us to help.  With locations across the U.S., they provide free guitars and lessons to foster kids and at-risk youth. In their words, "Using music as a catalyst we encourage children and teens to use their creativity to foster personal development and to help divert them from self-destructive influences such as drugs, alcohol and gang-related activities. By providing free guitars and lessons we hope to engage their creative potential and help them achieve their dreams."  How awesome is that?  As if that's not enough, please watch this video about their amazing DC director, Gregg Hammond, and then go to their website and make a donation!

GNG's great work was inspiring and got me thinking -- what else can we do to help?  Someday, my son hopes to volunteer for GNG giving guitar lessons.  In the meantime, we had plenty of guitar-themed stuff from the bar mitzvah that we could sell to raise money.  Most fun of all for me, I made pick jewelry for party favors for the bar mitzvah, and I had plenty of leftover supplies.  So for these upcoming fundraisers, we will also be selling some unique pick jewelry, with all proceeds going to GNG.  We also have some cool guitar pens and inflatable guitars that I'm hoping will be a big hit at street festivals.

Assorted handmade (by me) pick jewelry with my custom Rainbow Rock design, along with resin guitar pens.  The black picks have my son's name on the back (also in a unique design) and were used for the party favors. I made sure to order extra picks (all from Pick World) for GNG fundraisers.  Designs © Jill Newman 2013.  

So if you're in the DC area, come out to one or more of the GNG fundraisers this fall.  On Saturday, October 11, 2014 at 7 pm, a benefit concert will be held at the Howard Theatre in Washington, DC.  Three bands will be performing, and we'll be there selling raffle tickets and pick jewelry and taking donations. Click for details.  On Sunday, October 12, 2014, we will be at the GNG booth at the Courthouse Arts & Craft Beer Festival, a music and beer fair in Clarendon, Virginia.  We can't wait!

For those considering a guitar-themed party, here are a few more photos to give you some ideas.  Feel free to ask for more details.   I had fun doing it and would be happy to share my experience. :-)

I got a few miniature replica guitars -- this is Joe Strummer's "Trash City" Telecaster--
to decorate the cocktail tables.  Photo credit:  Josh Barry Photography © 2013

I made this sign out of plywood, enlarged prints of my custom pick designs,
rope lights, and a styrofoam guitar.  Yes, I caved and bought a few foam guitars from www.guitarcenterpieces.com to decorate spaces where real guitars
wouldn't work (and because how many guitars could I buy?!).
Pick designs © Jill Newman 2013; Photo credit:  Josh Barry Photography © 2013

This was clearly overkill, but I got little prints of famous guitars (also from guitarcenterpieces.com) to decorate the favor bags. I'm quite sure the kids barely noticed!  And yes, those are paper coffee bags, which were the perfect size.  I got them from one of my gift wrapping suppliers, Nashville Wraps.

I painted a replica George Harrison "Rocky" guitar for
 my son.  But that's a whole other post for another day. ;-)
Photo credit:  Josh Barry Photography © 2013

Crafting with Backyard Bamboo, Part 1

I love having bamboo in our backyard.  Sure, it's spreads like crazy if you don't keep it in check, but it makes an amazing evergreen screen.  At over forty feet tall and dense to the ground, there's nothing better for privacy.  And it's icing on the cake that I get to make crafty stuff out of the dead stalks of bamboo wood.  

I know most people think bamboo is a nuisance to control, but I actually think that part is fun too.  In late spring, when the shoots come up, I put on some boots, round up the kids, and we go out back to stomp on them.  I learned the first year we lived here that you have to do this as soon as they start sprouting.  That year, I waited a week, and they were already six to eight feet tall, and way too strong to stomp on.  I had to get out an axe and hack away at them.  That was fun too, just not as easy.  

Ironically, we had a spring snow the other day.  Here is our
bamboo bowing down under the weight of the snow.  

Of course, it's this ultra-fast growth and rapid spread that makes bamboo a "green" renewable resource.  As crafty as I am, I couldn't possibly make enough stuff to wipe out my supply of bamboo.  (I still can't figure out how the Onceler made enough thneads to use up all out the truffula trees.)  When I need some bamboo stalks, I have to squeeze myself into the thicket to find some loose deads ones.  This is not always easy, but when I get in there, I forget I'm in my own yard in Maryland; I feel like I'm an explorer in the jungles of Asia.  

Anyway, the first time I decided to make something out of my plentiful supply of bamboo was for my first son's bar mitzvah.  It was winter, and my son didn't want a theme.  I decided to put together wintery centerpieces of dried floral arrangements.  I was getting ready to buy some glass vases, when we had one of those spring-like winter days that we sometimes get in these parts.  I was outside with the kids when I noticed a bunch of dead bamboo in the thicket.  I started pulling it out and brainstorming things I could do with it.  Each stalk was over forty feet long!  They look a lot longer lying on the ground than they do standing in the yard.  

I cut some bamboo up with a handsaw and quickly realized that bamboo really is as hard as they say.  (I also quickly learned that you do NOT use the pieces with holes -- they have ants in them!  Yuck!!!)  Next thing I knew I was at the Home Depot buying a miter saw.  It turns out the bamboo is hollow except at the nodes.  I designed a vase made of three pieces of bamboo-- staggering heights and cut to be solid at the bottom and open at an angle at the top.  Gluing these together was a pain.  Looking back, I should have screwed them together and/or used a ribbon or cord to hold them together.  

Although we had no theme, my son's Torah portion was about the building of the Ark of the Covenant and the tabernacle, so we took our design cues from there.  I spray painted the bamboo vases gold and filled them with dried floral elements and branches in metallics, crimson and purple.  I made them very tall and skinny (presenting an interesting balance challenge) because we were serving a family-style luncheon and needed room on the tables for food platters.  I also got so excited about cutting up bamboo that I made holders for the table numbers as well as lots of little place card holders.  

All in all, I was pleased with how everything turned out.  The centerpieces looked elegant (without being too feminine), and best of all, I did not hear any grumbling from the Lorax.  Oh, I take it back, the best part is that these centerpieces did not go to waste.  People took them, and they did not die like flower arrangements.  I kept a couple too, and still use them to decorate the sideboard or the dining table.  

Here are some early prototypes on my dining room table.
(FYI, this is terrible lighting -- the walls are not that bright!)

Here are the centerpieces at the party. They were supposed to have pinspots on them.  Oh well.

I used mini versions of the bamboo centerpieces as place card holders.
I printed them on card stock, and then staked them with gold sticks that I used in the centerpieces.

Three years later, these bamboo vases still decorate
the sideboard in my dining room.
(By the way, this photo shows the true color of the walls!)

Next time, in Part 2, I will follow-up with a few bamboo projects I am working on right now for my upcoming craft show -- including a three tiered bracelet rack!