Poloppo Bloggo

Hello T-me Baby!

2010-03-11T14:10:00.006-05:00

T-me Baby is here! A design-your-own "onesie" kit that includes everything you need to design your baby's own wearable art, T-me Baby is ideal for baby showers, creative new moms and older siblings with a new baby in the family.

We've had a lot of people ask for T-me to be available on onesies, especially for those fragile siblings who need to adjust to a new baby in the family and what better way than to help design their little baby's clothing?

Get creative straight away with the markers, blank paper, unique ideas and designs provided. Choose a onesie color and size from the enclosed catalog, and mail the drawing to us in the pre-paid return envelope. You'll receive the unique onesie within 10-14 days (often sooner).

T-me Baby includes the cost of one short-sleeved onesie as well as all shipping costs both in getting the artwork to Poloppo (with the pre-paid envelope) and in receiving the printed onesie.

Use any art materials or the markers in the kit and choose to keep the artwork square if using the blank paper or have us cut around the image if it's a floating shape.

All onesies are currently American Apparel. Sizes run from 3-6 months - 18-24 months along with a couple of size 2T t-shirts. The size selection is made on the order form sent in with the artwork.

The kit comes with a gift tag that says, "Many best wishes from ..." and the t-shirt-shaped packaging converts into an easel-style picture frame so kids can easily display their favorite artwork.

The Healing Power of Children's Art

2009-11-03T19:30:00.021-05:00

I love it when prominent medical institutions publish articles validating children's art as a tool for healing. Psychology Today did just that (today!) with this article by Charlotte Reznick, PhD, a child educational psychologist and associate clinical professor of psychology at UCLA. She provides some great ways to develop therapeutic art techniques with your child ...

"Since the first cave paintings, we humans have found creative ways to express ourselves with art. We naturally draw, paint, and doodle to capture thoughts and feelings. Art has also been used throughout history for healing. Studies show that it creates brain wave patterns that enhance the autonomic nervous system, hormonal balance, and brain neurotransmitters. While doing artistic expressive art, the body's physiology shifts from stressed to serene.

The same for children. It's often easier for a child to talk about pictures than about himself or his feelings (grief, anger, shame, etc.). Drawing and painting will allow your child to express difficult feelings or to disclose what he might not share verbally. His artistic expression can give you a clearer sense of his inner struggle, an insight that will help you guide him.

Drawing also increases your child's awareness of her inner world and creates a window onto that landscape. Art can be a launching point for conversations that reveal her thinking about the world around her.

You don't have to be a trained therapist to use therapeutic art techniques with your child. Just stock up on a variety of supplies - giant rolls of paper, colored paper, crayons, paints, and a variety of markers, including scented, metallic, fat, thin, even markers that change color as they write over another color. Then try the following art exercises to explore new ways to communicate with your child.

Draw a self-portrait. On a large sheet of paper, trace your young child's body. Have her fill it in with her feelings. Happy might be a bright yellow sun near her heart; sad may be blue teardrops coming from her eyes. Older children can design and complete their own. You might be surprised at what and where emotions turn up.

Picture the future. Artwork is also an effective starting point when you're working with clear end-goals, like getting a good night's sleep or reducing a fear. Suggest your child make two drawings - how things are now and how he'd like them to be. Once he can picture where he'd like to be, he can start taking steps to get there. And he can hang his pictures in his bedroom as a reminder of the possible positive future.

Show and tell. After an imaginary journey, such as a walk through a special place she imagines with her eyes shut, have your child draw her experience. The visual rendering gives you both something to look at as she shares. If the drawing illustrates a problem - say, a dangerous goblin or a fire at home - ask her to imagine what might solve the situation. She can even draw the solution right onto her picture.

Talk to the image. Once your child has released his feelings onto paper, he can speak with them. He might use his picture of Worry to ask what it needs to calm down, or to tell it to leave. It's often easier to converse with feelings when they're outside than when they're gnawing away inside, at for example, a stressed-out tummy.

Take artistic action. Although it's a great release when a child can draw her angry, hurt, or upset feelings, pictures don't have to be static. She can erase part of it, or draw over it in "healing" colors with a changeable marker - an immediate transformation that feels magical. She can even rip up or throw away the paper. These actions can offer a hurting child a sense of control and satisfaction.

Capture the memory. The special places your child visits on his imaginary journeys can be personal healing sanctuaries. Hanging pictures of them somewhere private but visible will remind him that he can return whenever the need arises. And drawings of trusted animal friends and wizards may help him remember support is always near.

Accept every drawing. Some kids are hesitant to put their mental pictures to paper; they're afraid they won't be good be enough. Reassure your child that anything he creates is fine. Sometimes all that comes are strokes of bold color evolving out of a wonderful or terrible feeling that is finally set free on paper. Praise each one. They are the artifacts of your child's precious inner world."

Published with kind permission from Charlotte Reznick, PhD, a child educational psychologist, an associate clinical professor of psychology at UCLA, and author of a new book, The Power of Your Child's Imagination: How to Transform Stress and Anxiety into Joy and Success (Perigee/Penguin2009).

T-me Direct - Frugal For You

2009-09-24T09:14:00.007-04:00

Frugal is the new black. Gone are the days of endless credit card shopping ... we're lean, mean careful-spending machines and we're going to stay that way, right?

Poloppo is celebrating the frugal-forever attitude by bringing our design-your-own t-shirt process for kids into a direct order system that won't tax the piggy bank.

T-me Direct enables you to order a t-shirt with your child's artwork printed on it for a lean $21.50 (for kids' tees, $26.50 for adults tees). Just select the t-shirt style and size and once you place the order we'll send you a link to upload your child's art to us ... or you can simply post it to us.

Once we receive the artwork we'll not only send you the precious t-shirt that will bring the cutest smile to your proud little Picasso's face, but we'll also send you the artwork in a format you can upload to your iPhone as wallpaper - for free (for a limited time only). Don't have an iPhone? Just send it to someone who does ... they'll love it!

PS. We still have our super-fun T-me Kits (now at $32.50) ... these are ideal birthday and holiday gifts!

Cool tools for aspiring artists

2009-06-05T09:25:00.001-04:00

"I can't draw!" Adults say it all the time. While most grown-ups worry that our representations aren't realistic enough or our line quality might waver, children will just pick up a crayon or a pencil and start making marks. A little practice, and the marks add up to an individual style of communicating their fantasies and realities.

"Drawing is the most expressive of mediums," wrote Nancy Beal, a well-known New York art teacher, in her book, The Art of Teaching Art to Children. Drawing provides "a direct route outward from a child's heart," she added.

Children draw what they love, whether it's from life or from imagination. In a child's drawing, you can ride a bus to school, ride your own bulldozer, or just fly. You can see your family members just as they are, see them with purple hair in a room full of candy, or see right through them with X-ray vision.

Whether your child is just getting started with drawing or it's time to broaden your young artist's technical horizons with some new drawing materials, try a few of Poloppo's favorite pencils, markers, charcoals and crayons. (And while you're at it, why not follow your child's lead? Pick up a new drawing material, forget that you can't draw, and see what happens!)

Pencils

Graphite or colored, hard or soft, pencils are as varied as the artists who use them. Experiment with different hues, shades, and grades of hardness to find out which work best for different projects.

Reeve's Pencil Sets are a beginning artist's standby. Hard, medium, soft and extra soft pencils come packaged together, so you can make bold gesture lines, fine contour lines, and precision shading. Sets of 6, 10, 12 or 13 pencils come pre-sharpened, so you can get started drawing as soon as you open the package.

Faber Castell's factory in Brazil operates its own tree nursery to ensure that its Grip Pencils are made from renewable, reforested wood. Soft grip-dots make the vibrantly colored pencils non-slip and easy to hold; their triangular shape keeps them from rolling off the table.

Charcoal

Charcoal makes lush, dark, velvety lines that you can't get with any other medium.

Winsor & Newton Vine & Willow Charcoal Packs contain sticks of compressed charcoal that you can smudge, smear, and even wipe off.

For kids who want to try charcoal but like to keep their hands clean, try General's All-Charcoal Drawing Set. The assortment of soft, medium, and hard charcoal pencils includes a sharpener, an eraser, and a white charcoal stick for making lighter shades of gray.

Markers

From professional crafters to inventive teens to babies, there's a just-right marker for everyone.

Crafters and kids both favor Tombow Dual Brush Markers, a two-in-one drawing tool with a fine-tip marker at one end and a point like a watercolor brush at the other end. The inks wash onto paper like watercolor paint, and you can blend them to make custom shades or use a brush dipped in water to soften the colors.

Two- and three-year-olds love to draw, but if your toddler's idea of coloring outside the lines means coloring the floor, their clothes and their skin, don't worry. Crayola Washable Markers are so washable they seem like magic. Ink-marked hands and faces come entirely clean with the stroke of a baby wipe, and marks disappear from clothing in one wash. Broad-line or fine-tip markers are widely available in stores, even well-stocked grocery stores, so they're perfect when you need to pick up a last-minute party activity.

Crayons

The wax crayon hasn't changed much since it debuted in 1903, but a few recent innovations have caught our eye.

Crayon Rocks look like overgrown jelly beans but they're really rock-shaped crayons. They're handmade, rounded nuggets of soft, non-toxic soybean wax. The easily graspable rocks allow children with compromised fine-motor skills to get a better grip on an art-making tool.

If you've ever wondered why you child's crayons and paints are still made from petroleum products while your company's been printing its marketing materials with soy-based ink for a few years now, check out Stockmar Beeswax Crayons. These vibrantly colored, pleasant-smelling, break-resistant crayons are made without any petroleum-based ingredients.

Re-T-me!

2009-04-10T14:49:00.000-04:00

Poloppo is always looking for ways to encourage children's natural creativity, so we were pretty excited when we created the reusable packaging for our T-me design-your-own-t-shirt kit. It's a sturdy piece of cardboard shaped like a t-shirt, which kids can easily recycle into an easel-style picture frame.

We're even more excited that some of our creative young customers came up with ideas for reusing T-me packaging that we hadn't even thought of.

Piper from Kansas made her T-me kit into a laptop using colored Sharpies. Nico from California made his T-me kit into a tunnel for his wooden trains.

We put our heads together and thought of a few more ways you can reuse you T-me kit:

- Add a binder clip or two, and you have a portfolio to carry your drawings in
- Put it on the floor upside-down as a hurdle to jump over
- Fold the t-shirt arms halfway in and staple them to each other to make a funny hat
- Open it all the way up to make butterfly wings
- Glue on sequins or add jewel stickers to make a handbag

At Poloppo, we think the power of creativity can change the world. And changing a t-shirt shaped cardboard into a unique work of art is as good a place to start as any. If you come up with a creative use for your T-me package, send us a picture! We'll send you a free T-me kit to show our appreciation.

T-me! DYO t-shirt kits ... especially for kids.

2008-11-20T17:54:00.000-05:00

If you like Poloppo's wearable art by children, you'll love our new wearable art - made by your own kids!

You asked us, and we listened. We've had so many parents ask, "How can we get our own children's artwork onto a great t-shirt?" We decided to make it easy for you.

T-me Design-Your-Own is a do-it-yourself kit that includes everything your child needs to design his or her own wearable artwork. She can draw a picture using the markers and papers in the kit, choose her favorite t-shirt style from the enclosed catalog, and mail the drawing to us in the pre-paid return envelope. In 10 days, she'll receive her very own wearable art.

Kids can get creative straight away, or they can send in something they've already drawn. Kids can get their artwork printed on American Apparel t-shirts for themselves, friends, siblings, and even Mom and Dad. Look for more styles in '09.

The kit's unique t-shirt-shaped packaging converts into an easel-style picture frame so kids can easily display their favorite artwork.

T-me is a great holiday gift for children of any age. It even comes with a gift tag that says, "With many best wishes from ...", so you can personalize it before it gets to your favorite young artist.

T-me is now on sale at select kids' boutiques or online here.

Decision 2008, Kid-style

2008-10-30T12:35:00.000-04:00

Upload your election drawings to the Poloppo gallery and you could receive a t-shirt with your artwork on it!

Kids, even though you need to wait till you're 18 to vote, Poloppo wants to help show the world what's on your mind as the election nears.

Which candidate do you support? Which local ballot measures are important to you and your family? Have you heard the candidates say something that you like or don't like?

The decisions your parents and other adults make on Nov. 4 will affect things that are important to you: the way things work in your school, the way we care for our planet and our health. Decisions we make now can even affect whether we're at war or at peace when you become an adult.

Whether you have a strong opinion or you're still weighing your options, we'd like to know what you think about the election.

Scan and upload your drawing of a candidate (either national or local) or a picture of your thoughts about what the election means to you. Include your first name, age, email address and the city and state where you live. Your drawing can be made with pencils, crayons, markers, chalk, or your favorite drawing materials.

We'll publish the drawings we receive on Poloppo's blog next week and the first 20 entrants will receive a free DYO t-shirt voucher (that means we'll print a piece of your artwork onto a cool t-shirt). Entries close at 5p.m. EST on Nov. 4.

Meanwhile, here are some election links for kids:

Time For Kids introduces the Democratic and Republican candidates and their ideas.

Barack Obama's Kids For Obama
page has video interviews with middle-schoolers and a printable campaign logo coloring sheet.

Check out the Scholastic News Kid Reporters live election-coverage webcast Nov. 7.

Catch a breeze ... it's kite season!

2008-07-27T18:54:00.000-04:00

Maybe you're a kid at the beach with a simple one-line kite. Maybe you're a well-built grown-up maneuvering a giant squid kite in the breeze using so many strings you look like a marionette handler. Or maybe you just like to relax in a lawn chair and watch a wondrous Chinese dragon kite soaring on the breeze. Choose your fancy. Kites are for everyone. Whether you want to watch way-larger-than-life teddy-bear kites fly at a festival this summer, make and decorate your own kite, or just buy one and start flying, here are a few ideas to get you started.

Kites in the past
Kites are used mostly for recreation these days. When you're flying your kite, you're doing one of the same things people did for fun in ancient Japan and medieval Europe (and still do pretty much everywhere else around the world). But kites have also been used for serious business. During the Civil War, the Union Army dropped messages with kites asking the Confederate Army to surrender, and the Wright brothers flew big, sturdy man-lifting kites on the way to inventing the airplane.

Make your own kite
It's easy to make your own kite out of a few things you probably already have around the house. Here are some instructions for a small kite that flies beautifully in a moderate breeze. Young Poloppo artists have tried these and loved them. Or, if you're looking to recycle all those plastic bags cluttering up your kitchen drawers, you can turn them into a lightweight, easy-to-fly kite.

Decorate your own kite
Remember that kites are seen from afar, so bold colors and designs tend to work best. Try using 2-4 colors in big stripes or quadrants. Animating kites with eyes can be fun too. You could imagine a kite as any flying creature; a bird, dragon, pegasus or even some other fictitious flying creature of your own invention.

Go spy a kite
There are hundreds of kite festivals where you can purchase kites, learn to make them, and watch stunt kiters and kite ballet artists perform. Try googling your local kite festival and get ready to fly!

Go buy a kite
You can buy a kite at just about any toy store or department store. If you're thinking about buying a specialty kite, here are a few great kite stores and their web sites:

Into the Wind, Boulder, Colorado

Kitty Hawk Kites, Nags Head, North Carolina

Colors on the Wind, Spokane, Washington

Follow the Sun

2008-07-02T11:02:00.000-04:00

Sunprinting: an old technique for new ideas (and a great summer-time activity for kids!).

Did you know that one of the oldest types of photographic printing is also one of the easiest? Cyanotypes were first developed in 1842, and artists and kids are still finding ways to make these blue-colored prints look modern.

Cyanotypes are a type of sunprint. That means you don't need to be in a darkroom to make them. You just need paper that's coated with a light-sensitive chemical, a tray of water, some objects or photographic negatives to make your image with, and sunlight. (Cyanotype chemicals are relatively safe. You need to be careful to keep them away from your mouth and to wash your hands after using them, but they're suitable for young artists.)

The easiest way to make sunprints is to buy a sunprint kit. It contains small squares of pre-coated paper, and it's about $5. The kit is just the right size to carry along to the beach or on a hiking trip, and you can use it to make images of flowers, shells, or whatever else you find along the way. Here are some examples of pictures made with a sunprint kit.

To make your sunprint, just place some leaves, flowers, or other objects on the paper and place it in the sun for a few minutes. Then rinse it off in a tray of water. If you don't have a photo-chemical tray, a clean, plastic take-out container works great. Watch this short video to see how much fun it is to watch your picture appear.

You can also use photographic negatives to make your picture. (Your parents probably have lots of them! Use them make new prints of old family photos.) Just place them on the paper, then put a sheet of glass on top to hold them down. (If you use a kit, it comes with a small sheet of Plexiglass for this purpose.) Your picture will be the same size as your negatives. If you have some 35 mm negatives, you can print a whole strip of them on one piece of paper.

You can even make your own negatives. Print your favorite photos, drawings, text, or collages onto clear ink-jet transparencies that you can buy from an office supply store. Clear ink-jet mailing labels make nice little negatives too.

If you get hooked on sunprinting and you want to try some more advanced techniques, you can buy a cyanotype kit from your local photography supply store or order it online from Photographers Formulary for about $20. This kit includes two chemical solutions that you mix together and apply to paper using a brush or a glass rod. (If you're a teenager and you read the directions carefully, you can do this yourself. Younger kids will need an adult's help.) Coating your own paper will let you make prints as large as you want, and you use different kinds of papers. For a traditional look, try a nice watercolor paper, or for a more experimental look, try brown paper shopping bags, cardboard or fabric.

Look what other artists have done using cyanotypes!

Cyanotype images of dresses, glassware and sea animals by artist Dan Peyton

A cyanotype quilt by New York artist Sandra Sider

Artist Bily Renkl used cyanotypes along with other techniques to make mixed-media collages.

[ This post is by Kris Vagner ].

Elementary, My Dear

2008-06-15T21:54:00.000-04:00

Anshul Samar is CEO of Alchemist Empire in Cupertino, California, and designer of Elementeo, a card game that brings chemistry to (surreal) life.

Samar has the eager, toothy smile of a 14-year-old. Oh, wait! He is a 14-year-old. Poloppo interviewed the fast-rising game-design star by e-mail about his creative process.

Poloppo: When did you first conceive of the Elementeo game?

Anshul Samar: I thought of Elementeo some time in elementary school. I always used to see kids interested in fantasy and fun and parents interested in learning and education. I wanted to combine those two worlds together in one action-packed, fun, educational game.

P: Have you thought of other games in the past?

AS: I haven't thought of many games in the past, but I've always been interested in forming companies. In second grade I wrote a story on how I will beat Microsoft, and in fourth I made a newspaper for my elementary school.

P: Do you draw? Have you ever drawn in the past?

AS: At one point I was oil painting and I took painting and cartooning classes in my summer break. In fact, in the very beginning prototypes, I had to hand-draw many card pictures. I then took a picture of them, uploaded them into my computer, edited them with free printing software, and then inserted them into the template.

P: Would you consider yourself to be evenly balanced between creative and scientific, left and right brain?

AS: I'm not really sure. First of all, science and creativity are those two types of things that are extremely similar but at the same time extremely different. I don't think you can compare them. In both creativity and science you have to think out of the box and solve problems. In both you have to create combat and conquer. And both of them you have to venture out and explore new possibilities. But then again, in some sense creativity is limitless, and science is related only to facts. Science comes from creativity and you think creatively in science. I don't think that really answers your question about how balanced I am... I really don't know. Maybe I am more creative.... I am always into thinking up of new ideas... it is what I love to do!

P: How highly do you value your creativity?

AS: First of all, without creativity the world would be a black-and-white photograph. There would be a pile of boredom in our lives, and color would be gone from every aspect. Creativity creates variety. Creativity causes new ideas, which create new technology and more things that can make our lives cooler and more enjoyable. Creativity is a gift that everyone has. If someone were to take creativity away from me that would be like taking the fish from the ocean and putting it in a small tank of water. Fun and excitement would disappear from my life. So yes, I value my creativity.

P: Do you consider creative development (especially the capacity to think "out of the box") to be an important part of your education?

AS: I think the more our schools can get me to think out of the box the better it is for me and for the whole world. The schools do a great job of creative development with projects and math. Out-of-the-box thinking allows people to find those hidden solutions in the corners of their minds to solve problems from disease to technology.

P: Do you have other games in mind for development once Elementeo takes off?

AS: There are many logical extensions of Elementeo, but I'll keep that as a surprise. : )

Printables Are Here!

2008-05-06T03:27:00.001-04:00

Are you the type of kid (or grown-up) who likes to practice your fine motor skills by coloring inside the lines? Or do you love to color outside the lines and scribble your dreams and fantasies down on a piece of paper?

Either way, today's a great day to pick up a crayon and express yourself. Today is World Kids Coloring Day. School groups from 13 countries are holding coloring events to raise funds for Save the Children's Rewrite the Future campaign, a program that helps children in war-torn regions secure a quality education.

We're celebrating World Kids Coloring Day with the official release of our brand new "printables" - coloring pages adapted from drawings by our young artists from around the world. These pages are a unique and fresh take on "coloring-in".

Sometimes, what begins as the simple and therapeutic process of "coloring-in" can become a highly creative process that moves beyond lines and into the realm of pure imagination.

The debate between "coloring-in" and "blank page" drawing is an age-old one. Many art educators believe the process of "coloring in" inhibits a child's creative development. I've been drawing with my 4-year-old daughter since she was around 18 months old. The experience has been at various times both deeply therapeutic, and bountifully creative - sometimes more one than the other, and other times both in equal doses.

My daughter and I often resolve things on paper. Firstly, the very act of drawing, with its repetitive yet free nature, has an immediate calming effect. It's a form of meditation in a way, that slows the heart rate and reduces stress.

If it's down-time we need, we'll often just "color in", as opposed to drawing or painting on a blank page. But the blank page is vital for a different kind of expression; we express our mood and feelings through the colors, shapes, characters and situations we create on the page. It might be something as happy as a flower, as dramatic as a thunderstorm, or as peaceful as a meadow ... or it could be something much more complex, like "My dancing flower fell over in the blue rain" (which, translated might mean "I fell out with my best friend today").

Here at Poloppo we believe in both the therapeutic and inspirational capacity of art for children, and we can see endless possibilities in stimulating children's creativity by providing a different kind of coloring page - one that captures the freshness and immediacy of child art and encourages endless imaginative possibilities.

Today, we'll donate 25% of all sales of our raglan T's and baby onesies to Save the Children. Shop Poloppo.

Bubble-icious

2008-03-19T00:50:00.000-04:00

It's Tuesday night and I'm sitting at JFK airport jostling for airwaves at JetBlue's free wireless hotspot, while I wait for the 8pm flight back to San Francisco. Robert and I have just had a whirlwind few days in New York City at the hip kids' trade show, Bubble. (Okay, I confess this post is a week overdue).

But Bubble-icious it was! Entirely sheltered from any mediocre swag, this was a tasty sample of the world's creme-de-la-creme of children's apparel, toys and household products. We were rapt to have been selected for participation and the show was a great success for us in terms of strong interest from both press and buyers (and yes, even orders). We were especially stoked by interest shown from the president of FAO Schwartz.

So who was there, and who rocked the show? In line with our objective at Poloppo to develop the website into a creative resource for parents and kids alike, here are some of our most favorite companies from the show. With toys, decor and clothes like these, your wee ones will be well on their way towards learning that creative fun happens well outside the box ...

Hip From Holland. These Dutch lasses located in Boston are cleverly importing into the US some of the hippest kids' products from The Netherlands including eco-friendly and quick-to-assemble cardboard playhouses and interlocking toys. www.hipfromholland.com

Our Children's Gorilla. "Children's imagination is our inspiration" say the Swedish team from this quirky and fun company creating children's paraphenalia. Never thought your kid needed monkey-shaped coat hangers or a ceramic alien piggy bank? Think again. The New York fire station and brownstone doll's houses made from recycled cardboard are especially cool. www.ourchildrensgorilla.com

Lea's Alphabet. This charming chap from France seems to have spent much of his early fatherhood roaming the cities of Paris and New York photographing colorful signage letters (I'm sure he had his first-born daughter napping in the stroller or back-pack at the time). He then takes the letter images and places them next to pics of objects with the same first letter (you know, L for lollipop, A for Apple). www.gregoireganter.com

Romp. You can be sure to bring your kids' rooms to life with these vintage wallpaper shapes hand-cut into silhouettes of safari animals, birds and trees. Originally out of Brooklyn, you can find them at www.rompstore.com

i golfini della nonna. LA-based mom-and-daughter team draw on their Italian design roots with these darling soft toys which they have knitted up in Bolivia. www.golfini.com

Deglingos.These crazy little French critters deserve their own country! So soft and tactile too. www.deglingos.com

Wall Candy Arts.What a fun way to decorate your kids' rooms! www.wallcandyarts.com

Scout. Comfy, colorful and organic with cute artwork (some inspired by different world cultures) ... these ladies are Bay Area neighbors, based in Oakland! www.scoutbaby.com

Like A Bike. This bike looks like so much fun, you'll wish you were four years old all over again. www.likeabikeusa.com

PS Big kudos to Florence and Vanessa for putting together such a beautiful show. Nous aimons Bubble!

PPS Robert is our all-round star industrial and graphic designer, housefrau (no printer is beyond his fixing), and sales magician (resist him if you can!).

Bye Bye Opa

2008-03-07T23:50:00.000-05:00

My father-in-law died two weeks ago after a valiant struggle with leukemia. Our daughter Annabelle knew her grandfather as "Opa" and we saw him in Michigan several days before he passed away, knowing it may be the last time we would see him.

To be honest, his frailty and oxygen prongs freaked her out a little but it was nevertheless one of those precious moments you can be forever thankful for. He was so rapt to see us, and especially her. As a good friend said to me, "Can you imagine how nice it would be if you're that age and dying, to hold a little girl in your arms?"

It's an interesting experience to be introducing the concept of death and dying to a child at such a young age. The first time Annabelle really grokked the concept of death was around six months ago, when she was three-and-a-half. I can't recall exactly what triggered the conversation; it may well have been Opa, but what was so poignant was her deep despair and disappointment at discovering that none of us would live forever. I decided there was no point in trying to disguise this fact and that by confronting it head on she would overcome the initial trauma of that knowledge and move forward more confidently. (By the way, don't try this technique at home unless you're prepared for a lot of tears and are able to let your child cry in your arms without trying to quell the emotion - you might want to read psychologist Aletha Solter's books on children and crying for more tips on this method).

In any case, it really seemed to work. Annabelle was able to take the death of her grandfather pretty much in her stride. The day he died she seemed unusually angry for a couple of hours. Once my husband and I managed to talk about it with her she broke down crying and said to her dad, "But he will always be in your heart." (Never mind that this was a line she borrowed from the movie Brother Bear 2 - it certainly worked for us!). She was also a great comfort at the funeral and during the closing of the casket, when her grandmother was peaking with grief, Annabelle impulsively ran up to her and hugged her.

Now that the rawness of his passing has gone, Opa lives on in our hearts, and for Annabelle through a fascination with Jesus (he was a deeply spiritual and religious man). When they put the coffin into the hearse after the funeral Annabelle asked me, "Are they going to put him on the cross now?". Yesterday she was jumping off a stool onto some cushions and flying through the air with her arms outspread. We'd capture photographs of her doing this and at one point she said; "I look like Jesus!" and a minute later, "Does that make you think about Opa daddy?"

That kind of innocence and directness is precious beyond belief.

Out of Our Minds - Sir Ken Robinson

2008-02-11T21:10:00.000-05:00

Sir Ken Robinson Speaks Up For Creativity.

Today I had the good fortune of seeing the British educator, Sir Ken Robinson speak at an event titled "Creativity in Learning" hosted by the Bay Area Discovery Museum at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco. To be honest, good fortune is somewhat of an understatement. This was one of those life-changing events that gets to the very core of our existence:

What are we here for? How do we want humanity to evolve? What are the tools we need to get us there?

Here was this genius educator reminding us of our very raison d'etre, and inspiring hundreds of people (the crowd was at least 95% women!) to think divergently, creatively, and effectively, about our future, and the role of education in that future. Sir Ken was not only brilliant in his analysis of current human evolution, but hugely entertaining. Shamelessly name-dropping collaborations with the likes of John Cleese and Sir Paul McCartney, you could see that this man was truly deserving of the knighthood Queen Elizabeth bestowed upon him.

"We have dislocated the concept of creativity from intelligence," says Sir Ken, "... Yet creativity is the portal to our true abilities."

"You can be creative with anything that involves your intelligence." He describes the style of our current educational system as "industrial" and relevant for an industrial era, not a highly technological era like the one we're in. "Our current system confuses education with industrial manufacturing," he says. He made poignant references to the prevalence of prescription drugs for the treatment of the "disease" of ADHD, and the disconnect between the volumes of information children receive in this era and the archaic educational system we use to deal with it.

Divergent thinking (the capacity to see multiple possibilities and answers) is a crucial skill required in solving problems that don't have easy answers. Sir Ken described a study of genius levels in divergent thinking with a group of children over a period of 10 years. At 5 years old 98% of these children scored genius level. By the time they were 10 years old, 32% scored genius level, and by the time they were 15 years old only 10% were ranked as geniuses in the process of divergent thinking.
"The major reason for this decline is the process of becoming educated," says Sir Ken, "... of being told there is only one answer, and it's at the back of the book."

Yet we're all born with a tremendous capacity to think divergently, and our ability to do so enables tremendous things to happen. "We need to look systematically at how to grow creativity," says Sir Ken. Our capacity as human beings to think imaginatively and symbolically is uniquely human. We need to harness the power of our imagination to deal with the environmental problems we currently face, and to develop the quality of our human resources.

Sir Ken received a standing ovation. I was able to exchange a few brief words with him at the book signing and can confirm he was just as remarkably personable up close. We couldn't wish for a better endorsement, and hope he'll take a look at Poloppo.

If you're new to Poloppo, we hope you'll appreciate what we're up to here. We're only six months old, and have a long way to go to fulfil our dream of becoming a truly creative outlet for kids worldwide. Nevertheless we have oodles of drive, talent and enthusiasm. We're currently researchng and exploring the numerous possibilities for creative expression of kids online. One of the avenues we're looking at developing on the Poloppo website is the ability for kids to work on creative projects from different locations at the same time. Very soon we'll be introducing our unique range of interactive "printables" (watch this space!), and we're also working on animation collaborations between our Poloppo child artists and grown-up designers.

Our mission is to encourage creativity in children, and our hope is to establish a highly creative space for the bountiful flow of ideas between young creative geniuses throughout the world.

We thank you for your support!

Poloppo's Precious Creatures Debuts at Bubble London

2008-01-18T00:47:00.000-05:00

Most kids have a natural affinity for animals. That's why zoos are so popular. Creatures are fascinating to small children. They find the unusual shapes, colors and sounds of animals intriguing and entertaining. Most likely they find the limited vocabulary of animals comfortable too; children can empathize with an animal's inability to communicate verbally, and its ability to communicate by other means; a facial expression, a sound, a movement.

A child's ability to identify with animals helps us connect with the preciousness of living creatures - of life itself. Every creature is precious in its own right, but those close to extinction evolve a distinct kind of preciousness that reminds us of the limited nature of our planet - and, if we're fortunate enough, of our capacity to assist in its survival.

We've developed the "Precious Creatures" line of infant and toddler wear (for this coming Fall/Winter) to reflect this sentiment. All living creatures deserve some fundamental respect. If every living, sentient being had some respect for life, there would be a lot more creatures living. But respect for life is something that can take years to learn. Not all two-year-old kids have the respect for life that we world-weary and humbled adults might have.

Nevertheless they do have a fascination with it that we'd be hard-pressed to recover. And that's where kids have the edge.

The children who have made the drawings that contribute to our "Precious Creatures" line come from different families, different locations and different cultures. What they have in common is twofold: raw talent and respect for life. That's why they made these drawings, and that's why we want to show them to the world.

The "Precious Creatures" collection and exhibit kicks off Tuesday January 22nd at the Bubble Kids' Trade Show, Olympia, London. We hope to see you there, or at Bubble NYC, March 9,10,11.

Happy Creative Holidays

2007-12-21T11:00:00.000-05:00

The Holidays are upon us already. In the whirlwind of gift-finding, gatherings, parties and general family frolicking, it's nice to take a little time out to unwind, relax, and step aside from the melee.

How on earth does a busy mom or dad do that? By pulling out the pencils, markers, paints or scissors (age-appropriately of course!) with the kids ... and getting down to some fun time creating anything the season asks.

Home-made cards are a special treat for grandma and grandpa (especially when it includes some reference to them!), and decorations - whether they be for a party, a tree or an altar, are easy to make and can provide hours of fun for all the family.

Try making snowflakes by folding paper into squares and cutting out little shapes. You can make other decorations by drawing simple shapes with marker pens on glossy photo paper; color them in, then cut them out and put a hole at the top of each (preferably with a hole punch!). Use sparkly thread to hang the decorations wherever you like ... very pretty!

If your child creates something of special delight, and they'd like to share it with members of your family far away, and with other creative kids and parents around the world, you can upload the artwork to the new Poloppo Gallery. Kids love it; it's a great achievement for them to have their artwork admired by so many people, and once they realize the impact, they can feel great about making the world a happier place.

The current Poloppo Gallery challenge for kids is to draw their favorite endangered species and submit it for a chance to win a place in the upcoming designer line of apparel. Many children have a natural affinity with animals, and are fascinated by the breadth and diversity of life on Earth. As busy 21st century adults we tend to lose the wonder about these fascinating creatures; now is the chance to have our children remind us! Winners receive recognition on the website, treasured memories to last a lifetime and cash royalties from all sales displaying their art. The first 20 submissions received before January 15th will receive a free t-shirt of choice.

Happy Holidays to you all!
The Team at Poloppo

My Name is Georgia

2007-11-26T16:43:00.000-05:00

"I painted my sky BIG, so people would see the sky the way I did."

This is an excerpt from a kids book I just discovered about Georgia O'Keefe (it's the tail-end of Thanksgiving weekend and we visited the Georgia O'Keefe Museum in New Mexico after meeting up with some of our in-laws there).

Both the museum and the book, titled, "My Name is Georgia" (by Jeanette Winter) were a revelation - not just for myself and my husband, but also for our almost-four-year-old daughter, who considers herself an "artist-counter" (meaning she enjoys both drawing and counting).

Annabelle was deeply intrigued by O'Keefe's life cycle, which began in Wisconsin, transitioned through Chicago and New York and ended in New Mexico - at the age of 98. She was also fascinated by the bones and skulls which O'Keefe drew much inspiration from in the desert, and of course, the close-up flowers which so many critics drew Freudian interpretations from (apparently O'Keefe was deeply disheartened by these interpretations and for a while turned to painting things simply "as they were").

We sat in the museum and read this exquisite little book about this O'Keefe's life - twice (Annabelle's preference would have been for three times). Of course it was all the more powerful for having just watched a short film about her life, and to read it sitting in front of her paintings - but the book is nevertheless as powerful as O'Keefe's art.

Another artist book for children I can recommend is "Camille and the Sunflowers" by Laurence Anholt - a very touching (and beautifully illustrated) story about a kid who befriends Van Gogh. Although we haven't read any others yet, Anholt has written a whole series of children's books based on the lives of famous artists, including stories about Degas, Picasso, Leonardo da Vinci and Monet.

If you've read any other art-oriented books for kids, please feel free to share them with everyone here!

Submit Your Kids' Art Now!

2007-11-14T22:14:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we found out Poloppo was accepted into the highly exclusive and uber-hip kidswear trade show "Bubble" New York (and London!) for the Fall/Winter 2008 season.

Our current line is still fresh and somewhat season-neutral; everyone wears Ts year-round and you can choose long or short sleeves. This is probably a subconscious product of living in San Francisco, where some of the coldest days you'll ever experience are smack bang in the middle of summer, and some of the hottest days can land in October or November.

We plan to continue our SF-friendly line of cross-season and cross-equator Ts and onesies indefinitely (of course we'll mix up the artwork). However we also plan to conform (just a tad!) to the Northern Hemisphere's seasonal fashion regime, and provide some new items to keep yourselves and your kiddliwinks toasty warm in the winter and cotton-cool in the summer.

Right now we're working on some fresh designs for Fall/Winter 2008 to add to the collection. What we need is some fresh artwork. We're especially interested in nature and environmental art - animals of any kind (especially endangered ones), trees, mountains, birds, fish, butterflies, insects ... all those beautiful things that remind us and our wee ones of why we need to be so conscious about what's happening to our planet.

So if you have a little Picasso in your midst - send us their masterpieces (in jpeg format by email - please don't post anything snailmail!). Email us here: submissions@poloppo.com ... We can't guarantee it'll be used in the designer line, but we can guarantee that it'll be put onto the Poloppo Online Gallery for the whole world to see within a few weeks!

One other piece of news: if you live in San Francisco or the Bay Area and would like to come and celebrate with some festive cheer, please feel free to join us for the Poloppo Holiday party on Dec 1st @ 66 Balmy Alley - 4-8pm for kiddie fun, 8 til late for grown-up fun. See you then!

Cherie

Spam Free

2007-10-27T10:51:00.000-04:00

Last week I began sending out emails to friends and family to let them know that the Poloppo shopping cart was (finally!) up and running, and that they could get a 50% discount over the next two weeks if they beta-tested the site for us (read on if you'd like that yourself).

I got up to the letter D in the alphabetical list of my Mac Address Book when things started to go a little pear shaped. My inbox began to fill up with "Mail Error Handler" messages and I began to realize I was being blocked by my friends' barricade of spam filters because of the word "discount." It's a weird and uncomfortable feeling not to be able to email your friends because of high security, and it reminds me of the frustration I feel at security in airports in having to take off my shoes, ensure I've checked in all toiletries (or be prepared to lose those I haven't), and guzzle freshly-bought bottles of water I'd forgotten not to buy.

I guess it's a small price to pay in the grand scheme of things. So far, (knock on wood), we've been terrorist free in U.S. skies since 9/11. And down on the ground our email inboxes are (for the most part) spam-free when we jack up our spam filters.

So, without further adieu, I'd like to announce that if we have your email address, you can rest assured that you will never receive anything that resembles spam (even if it is a much-desired 50% discount!). And I'm left with no alternative but to spam my own blog with the discount letter. I figure that if you've come to read the Poloppo blog that you must be a friend, if not in name, at least in spirit ...

Dear friends,

Welcome to Poloppo! It’s a world created (almost!) entirely by children. Can you imagine how wacky, fun and innocent that would be?

We’ve launched Poloppo to help you get in touch not only with your own “inner child” ... that crazy, happy, wondrous and loving person (who’s willing to try anything!), but also with the children in your life, and throughout the world. We believe the combination of creativity and children to be a powerful recipe for inspiration and development, of self, family and community.

If you love children, have compassion for children in underprivileged circumstances, and consider yourself to be even mildly creative, please take a look, and help us with feedback, suggestions, submissions of artwork, sales ... anything you can think of! All Poloppo child artists receive royalties on products that sell with their work and a portion of revenue goes to art programs for underprivileged kids in the U.S. and worldwide.

To help us fine-tune the website, we’d like to offer a 50% discount to anyone willing to beta-test the site. The 50% discount will last for two weeks (from Saturday October 27th through Saturday November 10th) and will be followed by a 15% discount for the following two weeks. At check-out, use the code = POLOPPO5 (be sure it's all caps and click the "apply code" button).

Please forward this to your friends and family who might be willing to help out! Send to people who will be interested in the concept, patient with our beta version, will provide feedback – and who might enjoy the sale.

Many happy wishes from the team at Poloppo!

2007-10-09T11:30:00.000-04:00

Team Poloppo - Party On!

2007-10-03T00:19:00.000-04:00

Most people who know me well would agree I have a penchant for partying. It's true: any excuse to celebrate will set me off on a party-organizing frenzy that could last anywhere between three days and six months.

Poloppo's very own launch party (Saturday August 25th) was a prime example. After months of development and preparation I was desperate to let off some steam, and the launch seemed like the perfect excuse to party (right?!). The thing is, the actual launch date of a business like this is a little nebulous; is it when you're prepared to take orders (of small quantities) via phone? Is it when you launch into full-on production with manufacturers? Or is it when you make your products available to the public via online shopping or retail?

We decided to plan the launch party to coincide with the move of the production studio from the garage into a slightly larger building on the other side of the property. That was almost six weeks ago now.

If I could relive these past few months the only thing I would do differently would be the launch party date: it needs to be next weekend (October 6th), to coincide with the shopping cart going live.

The birth of the shopping cart reminds me (somewhat) of the other birth I experienced three and a half years ago: that of my daughter's.

Giving birth is one of those truly life-changing experiences that is difficult to explain. Annabelle was born on a stormy Wednesday morning after 41 hours of labor (only five of which were eased by an epidural). Aside from feeling immensely exhausted and relieved afterwards, I also felt elated, and somewhat invincible. If I could push this amazing creature (with the head the size of a coconut) out of my body (from an orifice not normally accustomed to coconut-sized objects), I could do anything.

The shopping cart labor and delivery has been no less of a feat. The one thing I imagined to be relatively simple about this process has turned out to be a highly complex engineering and creative masterpiece. Of course, such a creation can only be achieved by incredible teamwork. And what a team!

I'd like to extend a big hearty thanks to the Poloppo team, who are making it all happen:

Firstly, the talented and inspirational artists, Elijah, Marius, Ulysse, and David in San Francisco, Liora in Oakland, Sarah in Arizona, Nevena in Serbia, Charles in England, Michaela in Zimbabwe, Claire and Dominic in New Zealand, and Joe in Malaysia ... without who none of this would exist!

Next, our valiant team of designers and seamsmeistresses, headed by our super-competent production manager, Amber; Eliza, Cat, Norma, Japnam, Gina, and Amaka, who have launched into production with such drive and savvy. And our wondrous pattern-maker, Sylvie P - a wee taste of Paris in the heart of SOMA.

Our patient and meticulous web developer, Mark Salvatore. Whether he's iChatting from Guanajuato or Bogota, it makes no difference; he's been constantly on the ball with what needs to happen next.

Then there's our other Sylvie (again, French); talented photographer and super-mom; Sylvie Gil (www.sylviegilphotography.com), who took a break from photographing mega weddings in Napa Valley to shoot our cute and luscious models in Poloppo apparel last Sunday and Monday.

Our Photoshop meisters, Vicente Llopis (http://www.vicentellopis.com) and Robert Girvin (http://www.robertgirvin.com/) who have retouched the photographs and generated the final jpgs with such deft precision.

The delightful models who waited so patiently, and performed so well during the two photo shoots. Laughing's not always that easy (unless you have Ulysses strutting around you on a hobby horse, shouting "pooooonie" in a faux-gay voice!).

Those delightful boys from the Nice Collective (www.nicecollective.com), Ian and Joe, with their inspiration and advice.

Our animator intern extraordinaire, Julian Narvaez (www.juliannarvaez.com) who's cooking us up a You-Tube storm (watch this space!).

The "Ladies Who Launch" (www.ladieswholaunch.com) support group, especially with their reminder about fun and celebration; go girls!! Let's party @ Balmy Casa on December 1st!

My summer intern P.A., the super smart, vibrant and savvy 19-year-old Karmyn, who (sadly) had to return to U.C. Riverside a couple of weeks ago :-(.

My business partner and general counsel, the brilliant David Johnson of Stanford legal fame, who's simultaneously capable of keeping things real and raising the bar for the overall vision.

Our super-psyched PR girl, Shital Mehta (www.shanthinteractive.com) with her endless enthusiasm, great suggestions and smart dharma.

Our corporate lawyer, Jason Brady, who's able to wave a magic administrative wand and make a corporation appear. Long may the entity of Poloppo Inc last!

My wonderful child care assistants and teachers, Miss Patty, Alicia, Karmyn, and Nancy, without whom we would have had either one frazzled mom or one TV-glued kid: Go Team Annabelle!

My friends, near and far, especially Kat, Antje, Lucy, Wendy, Don, Veronika, Thomas, Rob, Rowan, Carlos, Robert, Lawrence, Sylvie, Patty, Tania, and Kathy ... without whose constant support and encouragement Poloppo would be unlikely to exist.

My parents in New Zealand, who continue to make bold moves and be the pioneers I've always admired.

My father-in-law in Ontario, who in the final throes of leukaemia, continues to be a beacon of love.

My patient and supportive husband, Oscar, who loves to "have things sorted" and has had to live amidst almost-complete chaos for months now as Poloppo vies at overtaking our home, and lives (in the best possible way!).

And last but not least, the feisty, beautiful and hilarious, Annabelle; my three-year-old daughter who teaches me (daily), about passion and wonder, about patience and slowness, about creativity and love.

Burn Baby, Burn!

2007-09-06T16:07:00.000-04:00

If you're at all interested in Burning Man, have a child, and enjoy creative adventures you might like to read this blog entry. Otherwise, come back in a few days for an update on Poloppo news (we're planning an "official" press launch in two weeks and the shopping cart will be up and running by the end of next week ... we promise!).

Let the Burn Begin!

I took Annabelle (my three-year-old daughter) to Burning Man last Wednesday. Oscar (my husband and Annabelle's dad) had just started a new job, and couldn't take the time off work until Friday.

This was to be our first "Mommy and Annabelle Adventure" and the little cherub was determined to enjoy it. After the previous few weeks of intense preparation for the Poloppo launch party (which went off with a bang on August 25th) I felt we needed some quality together-time. Angelic throughout the journey she only twice uttered (as gently as possible), "It's a really long way mommy!" as we meandered past Pyramid Lake, Nevada.

At three-and-a-half years old, Annabelle is at that perfect age when the imagination kicks in ... butterflies, superheroes, and unicorns take flight and opportunities to dress up and pretend to be something or someone else are captured instantly. Burning Man was not only a chance for Annabelle to roll in the dust without retribution, but also a place she could let her imagination take flight - in spectacular surroundings with the people she loved most.

We set off from San Francisco not long after midday and arrived at Black Rock City at around 9pm. Except for the lights from the hundreds of cars, buses and RVs pouring into the desert at one mile per hour, it was dark when we arrived at the entrance. Annabelle was sitting in the front seat playing excitedly with some random piece of garbage. The ticket collector took one look at us and immediately convened a jury to decide whether or not we should be allowed in - I guess the 8-hour drive had left me a little worse for wear and my competency at motherhood was obviously in question.

Fortunately, I recognized one of the jury - a guy with a bowler hat and handle-bar moustache - from Ritual Roasters on Valencia Street. We had crossed paths often enough that although neither of us knew the other's name, we'd become friendly acquaintances. He said, "I know her; she's a good mom. You can let her through." And with a bong of the Burning Man Virgin Gong by Annabelle, we were in Black Rock City, our station wagon loaded with gear; water, food, tent, costumes, and of course, bikes and a bike trailer.

After making radio contact with our friend Don from Camp Token American we soon found our destined campsite, at 3.30 and Landfill, right on the edge of Walk-in Camping. Five friends banded together quickly to put up our tent, complete with rebar fortification against the inevitable 50-mile-per-hour dust storms. It was crucial to make friends with the dust, as it found its way into every corner of our tent - over sleeping bags, costumes and clothes - during the two powerful storms we encountered. Without an RV we were certainly at the mercy of the stuff and I was frequently reminded of a neighbor's mantra, "In Dust We Trust!"

Annabelle awoke at 7am the next morning, well before the stifling heat had infiltrated our tent and it wasn't long before she'd found her three-year-old friend, Miren, camping nearby. They set off to do battle with 5ft neon-colored noodles and lay pretend eggs in the dust, while I made breakfast, chatted with friends and began the preparations for our adventure out onto the Playa (the expanse of desert at the top of the city filled with interactive sculpture creations).

The streets radiate out from the Playa in clock-like fashion with the main theme camps lined up around the edge of the Playa. From our campsite on the periphery of the city we cycled up 3.30 past the Portaloos, past the Chinchilla Fly camp with their trees of dangling ping-pong balls (which lit up at night), past the Barbie Death-camp (a German artist's comment on Aushwitz), and past the just-yawning dance clubs to the edge of the Playa.

There were people everywhere going in all directions, mostly on bicycles, and dressed in costumes that collectively defy description. Aside from the ubiquitous fake fur, we saw a vast array of textiles decorating all bodily shapes and sizes; stuffed animals, spandex, sequins, feathers, and silicon - to name a few. People spend months preparing their costumes and the results are bold, innovative and hugely entertaining. Dressing for the Playa is every fashion designer's dream (or nightmare!) and Playa fashion really has its own genre now. I was a little busy with Poloppo to spend too many hours on costumes but did manage to get a few quarter-yards of super-soft and colorful fake fur to use as scarves (one for each member of the family and extras to lend), and the Poloppo clothing we'd brought along, including the Cage Ranger Mary and Dyno T's, and the Venus Flytrap dress fitted in purrfectly.

Out on the playa, fresh-faced in the mid-morning heat, the first sculpture/installation we came upon was a circle of metal dogs, lining up to pee against a fire hydrant. Annabelle was completely taken with it; she got on her hands and knees and lined up between the boxer and the terrier. We then made our way to the Pyronaut platform, empty except for passing cyclists, and used it as a stage for some morning yoga, dance and random performance.

Keeping hydrated with our matching purple Camelbaks, we also used the water to mix mud pies in a baking session that lasted almost two hours. Our last stop on the Playa that day was at the installation called "The Faithful" where nine 6-ton sculptures of people posed in worship facing a huge wooden oil derrick (although we missed it, the burning of the oil derrick was apparently more spectacular than the burn of the Man himself).

We spent just as much time at home base, replenishing body and soul with food, liquid and laughs with friends as we did out and about. It was almost impossible to convene a group of friends together on the Playa, and have them stay together, so home base was ideal for reconnecting. Our location was perfect for the kids too; being right on the edge of Walk-in Camping (the zone marked off as vehicle-free) enabled the kids to run around freely and play in the dust while still being visible. There was a wonderful sense of openness there too; you could see the light play on the surrounding mountains, escape the ambient light of the city at night to enjoy the moonlight, and of course escape the worst of the booming sound systems (we had noise-canceling ear-muffs for worse-case-scenario noise but generally slept well).

Oscar arrived on Friday afternoon, a tad belated, on the tail of a double rainbow over the city. We were elated to see him and spent a day and a half doing more of the same aforementioned adventuring and chilling and even managed to go shake our booties for a couple of hours one night (at PlayaPlex) thanks to a convenient babysitting swap with friends.

On Sunday morning at 8.30am we left Black Rock City along with thousands of other "Burners" and began the long journey back to San Francisco via a swimming hole in the South Yuba River. Our 2007 "Burn" was over, and although it seemed so short, and such an effort to prepare for and get to, it was invariably worthwhile. I love the way Burning Man opens one's mind to new creative possibilities in art, fashion and technology, and even more so how it connects families, friends and communities.

Of course, Burning Man (like life on Earth), is far from perfect. It's true: it's not what it used to be. You have to lock your bikes these days (that generally wasn't necessary the last time we went five years ago) and there is evidence of occasional "frat-boy" behavior. However, I don't believe that's reason enough to stay away. In our experience, the pros far outweigh the cons.

What's more important perhaps than stolen bikes and frat boys is the "green" issue. Despite the Green theme this year, the evidence of pollution that Burning Man brings - not so much to the Playa as to the atmosphere (with the amount of of fossil fuel burning that goes on in the name of art and the number of RVs that go) - is obvious. For a community of creative environmentally-aware people that's not really ethically sustainable. We came up with a number of initiatives that we'd like to see incorporated at Burning Man, and hopefully they'll make their way to the people who count:

1) all future art-cars be hybrid, solar or wind-powered (pre-2008 combustion art-cars could still be allowed)

2) all sound-systems be solar-powered

3) gradually phase out all generators in favor of solar and wind power

4) all fire-related art installations be carbon foot-printed

5) purchasing a ticket could require a Certification of Environmental Effort - ie each attendee must prove how their camp is making an effort to become more environmentally conscious - eventually this could become more and more stringent and would also be effective at eliminating lazy deadbeat bike-thieves who would be less likely to make such efforts!

Hope to see you there next year! Here are some pics of our Burn ...

http://web.mac.com/cherieaartscoley/iWeb/Site%202/Burning%20Man%202007.html

Balloonface

2007-08-22T01:21:00.000-04:00

It's 10.30pm on Wednesday night, three days before the Poloppo launch party. By this time of night I'm barely capable of deciding which flavor of toothpaste to use (vanilla mint or my daughter's natural propolis?), let alone which words to make publicly available on the brand-spanking-new Poloppo blog.

However, what I have decided is to spare y'all the ranting about the numerous challenges and obstacles that inevitably come about with a start-up of this nature. Instead, I'll explain some of the "Why?" ... and begin to fill you on some of the amazing people who are helping pull Poloppo together.

Picasso's quote, "It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child" really sums it up. As adults we become strongly conditioned, and frequently stifled, by the way things *should* be. The older we get, the more organized we (usually) prefer to be. We tend to spend a lot of our grown-up time planning, categorizing, arranging, ordering, refining and just generally filling in the gaps. There's very little room for randomness, blurriness, or jagged lines.

Children, on the other hand, don't have all of their neurons hard-wired for life yet. Spontaneity and randomness come naturally. You only need to spend five minutes with a relaxed and healthy kid to realize this, and another ten minutes to allow it to filter through to your own state of being - to let go of your agenda, just hang out, and have some fun.

This is never more apparent than when doing art with kids. The way three-year-olds make lines meander around a page, then describe the lines as "My Pet Giraffe Eats a Birthday Cake" never ceases to amaze me. There's something infinitely inspiring about their freedom of mind.

Of course that's not always the case. If a child is traumatized, hungry or challenged in some chronic way their precious imagination can rapidly evaporate. Putting crayon to paper is an immediate and tangible way for a child to reconnect with herself and find a way, via the imagination, back to expression, and back to health.

It's our mission at Poloppo to encourage parents, teachers and educators to place a higher value on the role of art in kids' lives - throughout the (developed and developing) world.

Oh yeah. We want to make some cool clothes too.