FACE BRITAIN -Olympics and Paralympics art project

Face Britain is a national project that invites all young people in the UK to submit a self-portrait. The artwork will be part of a world record attempt and hopefully the biggest online gallery of self-portraits in the world.

I have already worked with 110 children on this! Here are some examples:

If you want to do a self portrait for this, check out the website www.facebritain.org.uk and/or send the portrait to me in a digital format and I'll submit on your behalf!

Global Curriculum Christmas Workshops

Rawlins, art room G13, Monday and Tuesday- FREE

Animation at Highgate, Sileby

ALL WEEK year 4's at Highgate Primary school, Sileby, have been concluding their exciting POMPEII topic with a series of animations with me and their teacher. The sets alone are worth celebrating but the skill and imagination that have gone into creating miniature stories of these events has been really impressive. Effects like making the scenes fade into darkness using acetates, fire licking the scene using coloured paper and physical shaking of the sets by using clever photography have made these workshops so professional! I can't wait for the showcase event on Friday!

North American Traditional Crafts- Jewellery

A combination of Native American pottery and clothing photographs inspired this jewellery and accessories workshop at Rawlins College last Thursday. Children aged from 7 to 13 enjoyed creating a range of black ink images, bag and hair accessories and feather and cord belts.

If you are interested in joining this after school club after Christmas call 01509 622827

Cossington after school art club: tesselation and origami

Last night the children-designed art course at Cossington saw us exploring the mathematical art of tessellation and the Japanese art of origami. It's amazing what we fit into an hour!

Cossington 'Held Together' Day

On Tuesday, Cossington Primary school celebrated the arrival of the Diocese statue of Jesus, bringing the message 'Held Together'. The idea is that the children feel like a family, look at and hold the statue and join more closely with the church.

My role was to work with every child in the school to create a permanent piece of art which reflected the feeling of the day. I chose to do stained glass windows using coloured acetates. The results were beautiful and are to hang in the school hall windows, brightening the room and reminding the children of the way the school is welcoming and full of love.

Burton on the Wolds Traveller Mural

Over the past few days I have been working with travelling children at Burton on the Wolds Primary school to create a mural based on their incredible lifestyle. Designed through consultation with the children, their descriptions, pictures and family owned rides, this mural brings colour and sparkle to the entrance to the school, reflecting the higher than average proportion of traveller children there. Once designed, the children painted the whole mural, with my supervision and encouragement, and showed enormous pride in doing so. Their parents have visited, adding ideas, making this a truly collaborative piece.

successful SILK PAINTING workshop at Rawlins

Today was my second adult silk painting class, running all day in the art rooms at Rawlins. Eleven participants attended, experimenting with sample pieces, colourways and salting techniques. The final designs were created for silk scarves, silk paintings and even a silk curtain.

End of the day comments included "such a relaxing day, well organised and I am so pleased with what I'm taking home- in fact, I can't believe it was me that painted it!"

Mountsorrel WORLD MAP

Today has seen the epic attempt of Mountsorrel children finishing their huge fabric world map. It took all day of applique practice to finally secure all of the countries, people, landmarks animals and sea creatures to this massive, squishy, tactile map.

Well done to all of the children who had never even tried oversewing before and who suffered a few pricked fingers to contribute to this fantastic project.

Cossington POP UP PAPER workshop

Pop up paper for pop up books, cards and much-more-fun-than-flat messages and signs!This was what the kids at Cossington wanted to learn about- and yesterday they had a whale of a time learning the art of pop up.

To make a pop up image, you need an A4 piece of thin card, folded, an A5 piece of thin card, folded, a pair of scissors and something to draw and colour in with.

On the A5 piece, fold the bottom 3cm backwards. Draw an image on the rest of the card, making it nice and big. Colour in. Next, cut out the image, leaving the folded flap at the bottom. Open the flap and snip the centre fold to the top of the 3cm fold. Position the standing picture in a 'V' shape on the card and glue down. Open and shut your card and watch the popping up magic!

Here are some great examples.....