Quilling machines

Introducing quilling to a key stage 2 art club felt a little risky even for me. Using nothing more than guillotened strips of plain white A4 paper and cocktail sticks (with a dab of glue and red wool for hanging) I simply showed them how to curl and pinch the paper and pretty much waited to see what they would do with this entirely new technique. As you can see- the results are amazing! The ideas were so creative (note the quilled reindeer) and everyone managed to grasp it- even taking it to levels I didn't predict. Well done Cossington art club!

Plaster plaques- the final session

'Plaster Plaques' has been a real experience- the buzz from the group was fantastic as they came in with ideas ranging from sinking a Dalek into clay to punching the clay to form an image. I wanted to showcase some of the photos I took on Thursday.

Quorn Brownies Advent Calendar Crafts

Quorn Brownies wanted to do an advent craft so of course I thought- calendars! However, we had 1 and a quarter hours and all of the ideas on the internet and in books seemed to take ten times that so I made this one up! You need: a large sheet of card each, masking tape, brown and red crayons, brown, red and yellow poster paint, a glue stick, 2 sheets of white A4 paper, 2 cotton wool balls, a little water, scissors and a black fine line pen. Instructions: 1. cut out a robin shape and mark out it's beak and belly. 2. cut masking tape into 24 feather shapes and place all over the bird in the direction of it's feathers. 3. using the crayon, scribble feathery texture all over the bird using brown for it's back and red for it's belly. Do the same on the 2 pieces of paper- make one red and one brown 3. dip the cotton woll ball in water, squueze and dip in brown paint- rub all over the brown area of the bird, then do the same with the red paint and the red part of the bird. Do the same on the paper 4. finger paint the beak yellow. 5. when dry- which should be really quick (in fact I used this time to tidy away the water pots, paint pots and wash the brushes) peel off the masking tape 6. Cut 24 feathers out of the two sheets of paper so that they cover the white bits where the masking tape has been removed. 7. write messages, cracker jokes or draw little pictures on each white bit. Draw an eye on the robin too. 8. glue one edge of each feather cut from paper and place on the robin over the white bits. 9. If the feathers stick up, dab a TINY bit of glue at the other end to seal 10. Write the numbers 1-24 randomly on the feathers and finally, add a piece of red wool to hang up. We also made Santas using tufts of beard instead of feathers. Voila! A unique, fun, gorgeous advent calendar in 1 and a quarter hours!

Plaster Plaques

Plaster plaques- method Take a lump of clay and smooth it into a bowl or box shape. Press found objects (key, small plastic toy, comb, fork, scissors..) into the base of the clay and remove. Carefully pour plaster of Paris into the clay mould and leave to set. Remove and paint with burnt sienna and leave to dry then sponge on bronze paint (or paint in any way you like). This workshop proved very exciting for all participants and was as suitable for the young ones as the older ones. We are repeating again next week with more experimentation!

'silhouettes in profile' workshop at Cossington

This evening I ran a 'silhouettes in profile' workshop, showing a group of children aged between 7 and 11 that they can achieve amazing results with scrap paper and a pair of scissors. We began by drawing around each other's heads on black sugar paper with chalk which looked great when we 'smudged it outwards' (see pics). They then chose magazine images that represented what was in their heads! This was loads of fun, incredibly effective and practically cost free!

Art Camp October- DIWALI DAY

This art camp we are celebrating world Autumn customs including harvest, bonfire night, the Outback Festival and many more. (It is amazing what we fit into a week!). For Monday we looked at the beautiful traditions of Diwali. This group made door pelmets to display at home.

Art Boxes at Rawlins' art club in Autumn

ART BOOKS at art club, Rawlins

This is a fantastic activity which requires little more than an assortment of odd papers, some scrap fabric, a hole punch and some wool. Creating a front and back page from card (postcard sized) and pages from paper, fabric or card, you just add pictures, colours and textures that appeal to you before hole punching the pages and threading them together. In this case, we worked across two weeks and used silk painting for the front covers.