Studio MPL makes cartouches and you can too

Help your kid turn his or her name into a cartouche like Ruthie did.

Studio MPL—our art club for kids in first through fifth grade—turned their names into colorful cartouches on Monday.

A cartouche was a designation for a royal name written in hieroglyphics in ancient Egypt. Some pharaohs would even have their names inscribed into amulets and wear them. (So cartouches are sort of like those bracelets with names on them—except for Egyptian rulers, and in hieroglyphics.)

Even if you missed Monday's Studio MPL get-together, you and your kids (or grandkids or nieces or nephews or whatever) can still make your own cartouches.

It's a fun art project and also allows you to teach (and learn) a bit about ancient Egypt.

You can get as creative with your cartouche as you want.

You can use the Virtual-Egypt website to get a translation of your or anyone else's name into hieroglyphs. (No, these aren't exact translations. They're the closest possible phonetic translations for each alphabetic character. It's about as close as you can get without hiring a papyrologist.)

Once you've got your translated name, you can draw and decorate it anyway you want!

Payton favors a psychedelic background.

If your kid enjoys the cartouche craft or has an artistic bent, they may like our Studio MPL art club.

Every month, they try a different art project. They’ve made sun catchers, painted sunsets, weaved and even garnered inspiration from Jackson Pollock.

Studio MPL meets on the third Monday of each month. Our next session is Feb. 16 at our Main Branch. You can register for it here.

For more photos from our Studio MPL session, check out our Facebook page. For more information on programs and events for children, teens and adults at Mentor Public Library, visit www.mentorpl.org.