Stone Soup

In last Tuesday's Design 001class, our groups took part in a "Stone Soup" activity. We were all instructed before hand to bring about four items to contribute to the project. These items could be anything from recyclable trash to actual tools to help us put the "Stone Soup" together. Our group had a great range of items- boxes, tape, cutting tools, colorful tissue paper, a big stack of paper plates, acrylic paints, and much much more. 

For those readers who may not have ever heard of Stone Soup, it is an old children's book written by Marci Brown in 1947. In this tale, villagers are tricked out of their greed and fear into sharing and enjoying life with their neighbors. With every villager donating one item to the soup, they soon have a delicious soup that every can all enjoy together.

Our version of Stone Soup started with all of us throwing our items in the center of our circle and brainstorming on different ideas of what we could create. Everyone shared an idea and as a group we agreed that the box would be the base of our creation. Then we got to work. Some started painting plates, some started creating tissue paper flowers, and others did little random things, which did give the piece a unique personal touch. 

I think it is safe to say that every group member enjoyed themselves during the course of this project. It gave everyone a chance to express their idea and add it to the piece, while still working on a collaborative art project. It taught everyone to listen to one another and work with each other and how to build on each others' ideas without one person over powering or over shadowing others or the project itself.