This August, I celebrate two full years of Rumphius Creativity Unhinged in Westford. Little did I know two years ago that my business would soon completely engulf our entire lives, that I would get to be creative with hundreds of children, that I would use over a hundred glue sticks in a week and that a flock of little hens and roosters would keep me company late at night in THE SCHOOLHOUSE! Yes, the Rumphius Recycled Schoolhouse is a transformed 1850 schoolhouse which has become the home of my dream business as of June 1, 2011 (my birthday!). I spend more hours here than I can imagine. The building has a life to it- perhaps it is its history and the energy of all the children who were schooled here for decades. And, now, children are schooled in art, music, theater and more. This summer, I held my first summer week-long workshops. We created 18 recycled dollhouses, used dozens of spools of thread, made midsummer fairies for the apple tree opposite the porch, played 18th c. parlor games and so much more.

Here is to another year of Rumphius. I raise my cup of tea and toast to another great year of stress, joy, and glue gun burns.

I live on an amazing 18th c. farm in beautiful Westford, Massachusetts. Everything has been painstakingly restored to beauty from the house to the barn to the cider shed to even the two seater outhouse, except for one rather decrepit, yet picturesque little building. The old schoolhouse. Meadowbrook Farm, LLC has been looking for just the right reason to restore this former schoolhouse, and I am happy to announce that the right reason is me!

Rumphius has found a home. The little schoolhouse, nestled in the backyard of the farm, behind the big old tree and next to the stone fence and garden, will become my classroom and office for my business. Once again its walls will hear the sound of children’s voices and its floors will feel the scuffle of little feet. However, my lessons will not be grammar and arithmetic, but instead, creative classes, workshops, camps and parties of all kinds from creative writing to art to puppetry to historical model-making and more!

And, in true Mrs. Junkbox style, we hope to restore it using recycled materials. If you have access to roofing, flooring, clapboard siding, perennials and more, please contact me at rumphius@creativityunhinged.com.

The work begins this Fall and will continue throughout the Winter and Spring. There is much to do! I will try to document its progress as best as I can. It is a dream come true for me and my business – and, I think for the little schoolhouse!

My degree is in Theater Arts from Allegheny College in Pennsylvania.  In order to gain this degree I had to a complete a four credit final thesis my senior year. My professors had many ideas for me as to what thesis subject matter best suited my theatrical career goals.  In the end, I opted to try my hand at something new—junkbox puppetry. ”Junkbox Puppetry” was a small blip in an obscure puppetry book I had picked up after taking a short seminar in puppet-building.

I was already headlong into the reduce-reuse-recycle mantra, so the idea of creating a puppet play out of garbage truly appealed to me. Over the course of a few months, I created 18 puppets all made from garbage. It became a bit of a community project. My friends were all forced to eat lots of Cool Whip so that I could have the containers to make crowns. The same with eggs, soda, milk- you name it. I even remember an evening in the theater building with many theater students sitting in the hallway waiting to perform—working away their nervous jitters by unraveling yards of old yarn to use as hair for my puppets.

A few months, a few frazzled professors and many gallons of milk and dozens of gluesticks later, I had created something odd and fairly remarkable. My junkbox puppet play, The Frog Princess, based on an old Russian folktale, was greeted by a collection of mesmerized onlookers in a courtyard at Allegheny. Although there were a few mishaps (such as when the main character’s leg fell off), but altogether, it was an unforgettable experience.  It is not everyday that you see a huge bear with toilet brush paws. In the end, this project solidified what my parents had always known about me since I was a small child…that I like to find my own way and try new things—whether I succeed or not. At least in this instance, however, my fierce independence allowed me to put a tick in the “Success” column.

I have not forgotten my connection with those first junkbox puppet friends. While my theatrical comrades at Allegheny were busy earning Masters and dressing people on Broadway, I was making a Baby Jesus from a tiny cream jug. Over the course of ten years, I have taught children (and children have taught me) how to make worms from toilet paper tubes, gathered twigs and old Veteran’s Day poppies to weave into the hair of a marionette, and have sat in a circle with a dozen children to rewrite the stories of beloved fairytales in order to create our very own original puppet plays. I have taught children and adults from Prince Edward Island to Pennsylvania to Illinois the creative art of “Junkbox Puppetry”. I am excited to add Massachusetts to that list. I can’t wait to see New England imaginations go wild and engineering skills put to work on a new crop of junkbox puppet friends.

People ask me about the name of my business.  Several years ago while visiting a farm in Nova Scotia I was introduced to a wonderful children’s book named Miss Rumphius by author and illustrator Barbara Cooney.  Very much unintentionally, my life began to mirror the life of the title character of this book.  It is quite uncanny.  She grew up with a grandfather who was an artist.  He told her that she must find her own way to spread beauty on the Earth.  She grew up, moved from the seaside to the city, was a children’s librarian, enjoyed visiting the city’s flower conservatory, travelled the world, moved to a sweet cottage by the sea, had many cats and planted lupine seeds across the countryside.  She was also beloved of children.

Well, my mom is a retired art teacher who also has always instilled in me that we must follow our own paths and try to make the Earth a better place.  I moved from Pennsylvania to the seaside (Prince Edward Island), to the city (Chicago), worked as a children’s seller in a bookstore, visited the Lincoln Park Conservatory often as a place of respite, have travelled (but not nearly as far yet as Miss Rumphius), have three glorious cats, have now moved back near the ocean to a small house, and am an avid gardener with a penchant for lupines.

Plus, I do have a special connection to children.  I thought that all of these were odd coincidences.  Then, I began learning about Barbara Cooney.  Curiously, she lived in Pepperell, Massachusetts which is only two towns away from my current home.  She taught children’s classes as well.  Finally, her mother encouraged her artisitic sensibilities in the same way my mother did- giving her as much freedom as she wanted as long as she cleaned her brushes properly!  So, I have decided that these are not merely happy coincidences.  Miss Rumphius, Ms. Cooney and I are meant to have a special bond.  So, I have named my company Rumphius as a tribute to these two fine ladies (one fictional, the other not).

I look forward to creating the story of me, Emily (Soon-to-Be) Piper and my business, Rumphius . . . Creativity Unhinged, and hopefully one day someone will find inspiration in what I have created and follow the same path of trying to make the world a more beautiful place.