Boomerangdave's Blog

New boomerangs

boomerangdave — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 14:38:46 +0000

I splurged a bit and bought some collectable art boomerangs last month. These boomerangs were made by Siegfried Stiller. The first of these is the Futbol Fan (or Soccer Fan to us in the US).

There is some nice relief carving around the eyes and mouth area.

The next is an Angelfish. Nice artwork on this one. This is a left hand boomerang but I don’t mind since I will probably never throw it.

The last of these is my favorite. It is a California Condor. The painting of the head on this boomerang is spectacular. I am really impressed with this one. It is also a large boomerang and left hand but I don’t see me ever throwing it either.

Here is a closeup of the head.

I’ll add some photos of other recent aquistions soon.

BoomerangDave

website updates

boomerangdave — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:37:57 +0000

I took a little time and updated the catalog on my website. Starting this spring, I’ll officially be selling long distance boomerangs via the website. I can’t begin making more until it warms up but if you want one, you can get on the waiting list ahead of time. More information at http://www.bvdrangs.com/booms.html

Australia Class, final day

boomerangdave — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 17:56:49 +0000

Thursday was our final class of this session. It was sad for several reasons. One is the fact we could not go outside to throw boomerangs. There were some liability issues at work that caused us to cancel that part of the activity. We still tried to make the best of it.

The students had to take a test, to see what they remembered from previous weeks. The class exchanged tests and we graded them as a group so everyone knew the correct answers. We than had the students fill out a survey about the class, so we can see how to improve it in the future.

We had planned a food tasting so Hector headed off to make some toast. I explained to the class what Vegemite is to prepare them for the tasting. The other item we tasted was ANZAC biscuits, which I baked the night before. Hector returned with the toast and the students applied some Vegemite very gingerly. They were all good sports and ate it. They wonder if Australians really did eat it so I told them countless of Australian children had it many mornings for breakfast. After that, one student asked if Australian children are forced to eat it. What a great class we had! The students then were wary of the ANZAC biscuits but after tasting them, dove right in.

We looked at a map of the world which was made from the perspective of the Southern Hemisphere (or upside down to us). That was loads of fun. we finished by watching music videos of “G’day, g’day” (lots of Aussie slang to learn) and a version of “Land Down Under” by an Aboriginal rock band, complete with didgeridoo. After taking a class photo, the students collected their boomerangs from last week and headed off to the bus and back to school.

Australia Class Week 6

boomerangdave — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 20:05:32 +0000

This week we got to paint boomerangs. Before we did that, we watched a video on how the Aboriginies make boomerangs. The video was filmed in 1988 and can be found on youtube. The title is Making Boomerangs the Mudburra-Jingili Way. It is quite good, in my opinion.

Then the students started painting their boomerangs. Because our classes were cut short a week, they did not have the chance to actually shape their own boomerangs. I shaped them, primerd them and put a base color paint on the. The students selected the color they liked and proceeded to decorate them in whatever manner they wanted. They proved to be up to the task. Here are some examples.

They spent a lot of time painting so we ended class with another Aussie song, ‘Old Man Emu’ by John Williamson. (also on youtube) I am pretty sure the students now know that an emu can’t fly, but it can run the pants off a kangaroo.

Australia Class week 5

boomerangdave — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 19:46:04 +0000

This week we should have started our last half of our 8 weeks session. However, earlier in the week we found out that we had to drop a week so now wre into the 5th of 7 classes. Not sure how we will fit everything left in only 2 sessions.

Today was a big day for us. We were making didgeridoos from PVC pipe. I cut some 10 foot long pieces into 3 each at 40 inches. This size has pretty good tone. Armed with a heat gun, we heated one end and made a flared bell by pressing a small bottle in that end. Some of you may recognise it as a hot sauce bottle. They we heated the pipe abut 12 inches from the other end and put a twist in it. This makes it look less like a pipe.

Once everyone had shaped their didges they got some time to decorate them with magic markers. We then watched a video which showed how to make the basic drone sound. After that the students got some time to try to play. That becomes a fun time with some noise and lots of giggling. Another video demonstrated how to do circular breathing and how to learn to do it. We gave playing another shot and I even took a short video. To finish up we all watched a music video of Outback performing Baka. You can find this video on youtube.

As the students were heading out the door and back to the bus, we saw they were getting some attentio. I do remember hearing a didge being played as they left. Makes it all worthwhile.

Australia Class Week 4

boomerangdave — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:39:31 +0000

We had a week off so hadn’t been with the students for 2 weeks. This week one of the instructors was not available so we picked up a couple students from his class. Fortunately it was the same students who were with us in week one, and they were familiar with some of the material.

We spent the entire first half of class finishing the artwork started in the previous session. The new people got to start their work but couldn’t finish. Here are examples of the art they produced.

After that we read the story of the Red Waratah and followed up with two songs via youtube. Both were performed by Rolf Harris. The songs were Waltzing Matilda and Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport. We finished up with the reading of the dreamtime story about the Rainbow Serpent.

Australia Class week 3

boomerangdave — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 17:48:51 +0000

We started off by asking the class to explain how boomerangs work to the student who was absent last week. Only one student tried, and she was rewarded with a boomerang shaped keychain.

I had hoped for a really fun class today. The students were going to make their own Aborigianl style art. The class was hesitant at first to paint but we finally got them going. Unfortunatley we couldn’t finish today so will try and finish next week. A couple of the students got the hang of it, or so it appeared. Here are a few photos of the artwork in progress.

After cleaning up we read and discussed the Dreamtime story about where the Brolga came from. The students shared in reading out loud and then answered the questions we had prepared in advance. To finish the class we watched a video of the song “My Boomerang won’t Come Back” which the students thought was pretty funny.

Australia Class 2, Sept 29

boomerangdave — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 19:03:01 +0000

Today we started class with how a boomerang works. I used a Powerpoint presentation by Tom Conally maker of Flying Frog Boomerangs. The presentation is titled “BOOMERANGS: Magic or Science?”. It explains Bernoulli’s Principle and gyroscopic precession. It also includes instruction on how to throw and catch a boomerang, effects of the wind and even a bit of history of boomerangs. It is a useful tool when doing classes such as this.

After learning about boomerangs we got to have some fun. Each student got to decorate a Roomerang (thanks to Gary Broadbent) and bend airfoils into it. We then headed to the building’s lobby to test out the boomerangs.

Next we switched gears and started reading stories from the Aboriginal Dreaming. Todays story was “How the Sun was Made” a story whinh included a large emu egg (are there any other size?) being thrown int the sky, landing on a fire and the yolk glowing in the night creating daytime. We finished class by watching the video of Yothu Yindi performing their song “Treaty” and discussing what it meant.

My assistant, Hector, demonstrated how to make and launch paper “flicker rangs”. The students were sent back to school with the Dreamtime story, and plans for both Flicker rangs and a cereal box boomerang.

First class for this year

boomerangdave — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 18:13:58 +0000

Well, a sore throat/cold is not the thing to have when teaching the first session of my Sacred Heart School/Computer Aid exploratory class for Eighth graders. I was quite concerned about not getting through it. I wanted to lean on Hector, my assistant instructor, a bit more but Hector missed the first session last year and doesn’t have the intimate knowledge of the subject like I do.

We started with the addition of 2 students. Another instructor was not available so several of us picked up students from his class. I bet they were surprised to move from “wireless Technology” to “Australia: The Dreamtime and Boomerangs”. Fortunately they could get involved in most of the first class without feeling out of place.

We started with an overview presentation on what would be learned over the next eight weeks. From there we moved to a presentation on what the Dreaming or Dreamtime is and how it came to being. Having been through two presentations we moved on to exhibits. I had brought quite a few various aboriginal pieces. I had didgeridoos, bull roarers, clap stick, a nulla nulla and a number of both kylies and boomerangs. I think it was fun to let them pass the items around, to hold and touch each item. It made the experience more personal for them. I was pleased that the students had many questions.

One student asked about boomerang competitions so I moved on to modern boomerangs. I had a bunch of boomerangs and realized I could have brought more. The students were very interested in the various shapes and were surprised that they all returned. Of particular interest were the bat boomerangs made by former Sacred Heart student Ian Guldner. Ian went on to high school and is now a college senior. His boomerangs were made as part of class project in high school. He entered them in the USBA National contest and won.

We had to move on so I began the presentation on Aboriginal art. We reviewed the symbols used and what they represented. Then we viewed a number of photographs of Aboriginal art and tried to figure out what was on them. I also brought it a few pieces of art which I own so the students could get a close up look. With that we were running out of time so had to stop for the day, I think the extra two students are going to miss us next week when they go to their assigned class.

I’m back, sort of…..

boomerangdave — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 13:40:05 +0000

Well that didn’t take long. As much as I tried to stay away, I was forced back into the fray. If you are a reader of this blog, you may remember the Australia class I helped teach last fall. Well it was popular and I have been asked to do it again. Thursday will be our orientation and then we will have 8 classes starting September 22nd. We will be learning about aborigianl art and painting our own, making boomerangs, didgeridoos and bull roarers. We will be learning about the Dreamtime and the stories of the Dreamtime. we will even sample Vegemite! It should be an interesting time, and I will do a weekly update.

In addition, I found a few boomerangs in the garage that were begging to be completed. First is a “snake” shape by Alberto Sabal. I decided to do an aboriginal style Rainbow Serpent with it. Since I painted it during Hurricane Irene, I named it “Irene”. There were two dolphin boomerangs laying around too and i did the same technique on them. One don as a rainbow and the other in shades of blue. There were painted while i was on vacation in Kitty Hawk NC, where the Wright brothers flew the first airplane.