10
EESTI ELU reedel, 23. aprillil 2021 — Friday, April 23, 2021
Nr. 16
Kid’s Corner: Make your own papier-mâché lynx mask Vincent Teetsov The Eurasian lynx (ilves in Estonian) is a cat that has “... lived on Estonian lands since after the Ice Age” as Estonia’s State Forest Management Centre (RMK) writes. Lynxes are carnivorous predators that eat deer, hares, birds, and rodents. As a result, they’re an important part of maintaining the equilibrium of wildlife in Estonia. As an homage to these majes tic creatures, here’s an easy “crafternoon” mask-mak ing activity for families to do together. Before starting this craft, gather together the following supplies: • a thin, medium-sized piece of cardboard (e.g. an old frozen pizza box) • a pencil or pen • scissors • a craft knife • tape (optional) • a measuring cup • non-toxic white glue (e.g. Elmer’s School Glue) • a container for mixing glue and water • a paintbrush for the glue • some sheets of newspaper • regular brown craft paper • a paintbrush for painting • acrylic paint (get tubes or mix your own light brown, black, white, grey, and pink) • a wooden dowel (optional) • some hot glue (optional) 1) Draw the outline: Firstly, take the thin cardboard and hold it up to make sure that it will cover your face fully. Using a pencil or pen, mark out the circumference of your face on the cardboard. Draw out where your eyes will be and cut the holes out with a craft knife. With this shape drawn out, add a one inch buffer space around the sides and bottom of
the drawn-out shape. This extra space is for when the sides of the mask are bent backwards. Using a picture of a lynx’s face as a reference, draw the triangu lar ear shapes on top of the head and add a half inch buffer for each side of both ears so it can also be bent into shape. 2) Cut out the shape: Cut around the outline, including the buffer space of the mask, with a pair of scissors. Cut small slits in the points where the buffer space meets the ears on either side of the face out line, and also two equidistant slits at the bottom points of the face shape, so that the card board can bend backwards. 3) Bend the cardboard into shape: Bend back the buffer space you marked and cut so that the mask shape becomes three dimensional. For each ear, carefully fold the ears back into themselves to create a concave shape. You can use tape to make the folds stay in place. To add more dimension to the face, pinch and fold back the card board in the middle to create the pronounced nose shape of the lynx. 4) Preparing the newspaper: Take the paper and tear it into squares or long strips, so that it will cover the surface of the mask. Set aside enough of these pieces to cover the mask in its entirety two times. 5) Make the glue solution: This is what you’ll use to stick the paper to the cardboard, thus building up texture for the mask. Note: from here on out, you’ll want to lay out newspaper so that you don’t splatter your kitchen table with glue. For two masks worth of glue solution, combine one quarter cup of water and roughly the same amount of glue. With one
Feds to shell out $4M more on Victims of Communism memorial Joanne Chianello, CBC News, April 2021 The price tag for the Memorial to the Victims of Communism in Ottawa has more than doubled, leading the federal government to shell out an additional $4 mil lion this year, according to Monday’s federal budget.
A completed lynx mask.
of your paintbrushes, mix the glue and water fully together in a container. It shouldn’t be too runny and it shouldn’t be gloopy, either. 6) Coating the newspaper pieces: Lay out the torn news paper pieces and using the brush you mixed the glue solu tion with, coat both sides of each piece and place it on the cardboard mask shape one at a time. Cover the whole mask. 7) Put on another layer: With the first layer of newspaper applied, repeat step six again. Before you start the second layer, though, scrunch up two more pieces of newspaper in the shape of the eyebrow ridge and boxy nose of the lynx. Adding the second layer on top of this will make it attach more se curely. 8) The painting layer: Ok, so there’s one last layer to put on the mask. This time, instead of newspaper you’ll use craft paper, which will be a better surface to paint on. Rip the craft paper into pieces and
Photo: Vincent Teetsov
brush it with the solution before placing it on the mask. 9) Let it dry: Allow the mask to dry for a full 24 hours. Check on all of the places you bent the cardboard of the mask so that it dries in a shape that fits over your face. You can accelerate the drying process by blowing warm air from a hair dryer onto the mask. When it’s ready, you won’t feel any dampness or coolness on the eyebrows and nose of the mask, where most of the glue is con centrated.
The memorial was originally to be built next to the Supreme Court of Canada, but the loca tion and scale of the project were changed after widespread criticism. The final design was approved in 2017, and the monument was supposed to be finished the following year.
With the mask complete, you can display it on a shelf or hold it up to your face and skulk through the forest like a lynx!
located near the Supreme Court of Canada before being moved across Wellington Street amid controversy.
Finance department experts, speaking on background during the budget lockup, told CBC that higher construction pricing, coupled with a requirement that 10) Decorate it: Using a re the park remain open to pedes ference photo and the light trians, led to the additional $4 brown, black, white, and grey million in costs. acrylic paint, you can customize The winning design for the the markings on the lynx’s face. Memorial to the Victims of Add a bit of pink for the nose. Communism was created by If you have a wooden dowel Toronto architect and artist Paul and a hot glue gun, you can Raff. Its scale was drastically attach a handle to the mask and reduced from the original, hold it up to your face. which was supposed to be
Language Lounge: “Küsija suu pihta ei lööda”
answering will expand one’s mind.
a question is doing someone a disservice. Questions like “how was your day?” or “how are you feeling?” can prove that you care about someone, rather than leaving them to feel alone and despondent. Asking about something personal, provided the answers are handled by a trustworthy recipient, can build honest, happy relationships. Questions are therapeutic. If something is bothering us, open-ended questions can bring out solutions and truths that are locked away in our memories, where we least expect to find them. Not making an allowance for questions has implications on professional communication, too, including what is printed in newspapers, magazines, books, what’s published on the inter net, and what’s recorded on video. In places where press freedom is restricted and prodding at an issue can get you punished, injustices and corruption are free to take
When it comes to education, applying the Socratic method of learning through asking ques tions is an x-ray for our opinions and ideas. You ask one ques tion, ask a question of that question, develop an answer, and then question that answer in turn. This makes us sure of our facts and beliefs. If we be lieve something to be true, then we should be confident in why we have come to that conclu sion.
Vincent Teetsov Asking questions is what pro pels our mental and emotional growth from birth to death. Kids ask so many questions every day, especially from their older family members. And then] they wait expec tantly for answers in return. Hopefully, that curiosity doesn’t shudder to a stop when we age, because asking questions keeps a person informed and able to live with intention. When Estonians say “Küsija suu pihta ei lööda” (“Don’t hit the mouth of someone asking”), they are standing by the innate need to inquire and understand. This old saying reflects so many different personal social situations where asking a ques tion could create turbulence, but we ask anyway. Sure, there are times when we don’t want to ask questions; where it would be nosy and impolite. But then there are times when not asking
place, because the public simply won’t know about it. Getting to that place doesn’t happen overnight, though. It starts with how inquiry is re ceived for less grievous matters. When people “walk on egg shells” and avoid disagreement, they become distanced. Distance causes further misun derstanding, conflict, and im balance. In the spirit of this old Estonian saying, by shutting down questions, and debate by extension, we risk dividing people to the point where they are “hitting” each other for everything they say to one another. It’s a kind of responsibility then, for every person to be open-minded enough to consi der other people’s perspectives and opinions. We don’t have to agree with them, but the conversation should be there. Likewise, we can expect some questions to prompt anger or discomfort. Yet, being both in a position of questioning and
The public installation in the Garden of the Provinces and Territories on Wellington Street once had a final budget of about $3.5 million, with the federal government paying $2 million and Tribute to Liberty, the private group spearheading the project, contributing the other $1.5 million.
Kes? Mis? Millal? Kus? Miks? Kuidas? Who, what, when, where, why, and how. I find this vanasõna prompting me to scrutinize everything. Call me an overthinker, but asking questions about my thoughts and actions seems like a sound way to know this world better, avoid past mistakes, and achieve goals in the future. For all that questions stir up, good and bad, they are a neces sary force of growth; and we should always be growing.
Photo: Simone Secci from unsplash.com
HEINSOO INSURANCE BROKERS LTD. ASUTATUD 1951
958 Broadview Ave., ruum 202 Toronto Eesti Majas info@heinsooinsurance.ca
Telefon 416-461-0764 Fax 416-461-0448
