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.....

FREE activities this Sunday at Rawlins' Christmas Craft Fair

During the craft fair, for the fourth year running, I will be offering free activities for kids on the stage at Rawlins. This year, we are making baubles, gift tags and textiles wreaths- a beautiful piece to decorate your front door for winter.

Starting at 11.30am and running right up to 4.30pm- hopefully I'll see you all there!

Silk painting workshop at Rawlins this Saturday

All day workshop at Rawlins College.

Limited places available. Older teens and adults only. 10am to 4pm, call 01509 622827 to book.

Make a pure silk, hand painted scarf- a wonderful gift or something special for yourself.

Recycled surreal sculpture at WOODBROOK VALE

This morning saw a room full of year 8 boys and recycled materials at Woodbrook Vale for my surrealism-inspired sculpture workshop. Techniques and finishes were the focus as we all experimented with manipulating familiar materials like plastic milk bottles and cereal boxes.

AFTER SCHOOL CLUB AT RAWLINS: jewellery and wire work

Starting last week, I have over 12 children aged between 7 and 14 taking part in this new and exciting club. There are still places available and you can join anytime! Just call 01509 622821.

Tonight, we are experimenting with wire shapes and fantasy film to create jewellery and mini sculptures. Other sessions will include marbling, paper sculpture and beads, gift boxes and using found materials and items to design bespoke pieces.

The BIG DRAW at Cossington Primary school

My new after school club: '100 drawings: the BIG draw' kicked off last night with 22 children aged from 8 to 11 engaging in a workshop designed to introduce 100 kinds of drawing. We began with 20 different drawing techniques and soon there was a lively debate as we all contributed our ideas.

The children have designed this course themselves: it is only available to Cossington Primary at the moment but I will be feeding these resources into my event for WORLD COMMUNITY ARTS DAY in February next year!

http://www.campaignfordrawing.org/bigdraw/