The children in my Friday art group at Singlegate Primary School have been making their papier mache birds – here’s a nestful, and there are many more. They are inventing names and personalities and stories for the birds, and will be making books about them for the school library. One is a sumo bird, and another wears tiny glasses.
Spent the day at Morden Hall Park with the School Arts Partnership groups from Cricket Green and Wimbledon Chase schools – each child had a canvas and painted from life outdoors – lots of fun and some really interesting results.
I’m back at Singlegate Primary School in Colliers Wood this term – this time the project is to enhance the library on a theme of birds. Step one: making these papier mache birds to hang in a flock – they have a button on the base to hold the wire in place…we’ll also be making bird books, a nest-like wall hanging and cushions. The children had some nice ideas to make clouds, rain and eggs too.
I’ve just painted a coat of satin finish yacht varnish on all four of the panels for the mural made with the G&T art club at Singlegate Primary School in Colliers Wood – so now they are ready to be fixed to the front of the school. The last session of the workshops was yesterday, and we made sketchbooks from scrap paper and badges. Next term I’m back at the school to do a new bird-themed project there.
Today I finished off the two mosaic panels I have been making for the School Arts Partnership with Y8 and 9 students from Cricket Green School and Y4 children from Wimbledon Chase Primary. Each child made their own panel, based on drawings they had made at Morden Hall Park, so you can see elements of the water wheel, the white bridge, the mill itself etc. Three Cricket Green students had fun today doing the grouting and seeing the patterns emerge like a patchwork quilt in tiles.
Varnished decoupage plates for the art club at Singlegate Primary School this afternoon. I’ve got a big pile of magazines so I hope the children have fun making some of these. Thanks Jill for helping make the demonstration models!
The sun sparkled on the water for the boat race today with families from Liberty School – the final session of the London Voices project with the National Trust at Morden Hall Park. We had several heats to determine the overall winner. Sculptor Simon Kent also brought down the oak slabs that he will carve using the families’ designs to create the ‘story boat’ to be installed in the park in July, and we all had a go at carving.
I’ve varnished all the boats and made and printed calico sails from the families’ designs for the big boat race on the Wandle on Tuesday – the final session of the London Voices workshops with Liberty School at Morden Hall Park. I’m really looking forward to the race – and the weather looks very promising.
Today’s London Voices workshop at Morden Hall Park was great fun despite the blustery rainy weather. We began with a treasure hunt for words hidden in the bark of trees, under ivy fronds and in fence crevices, then made them into river poems, then the families made drawings in the sketchbooks we made last week using Japanese book-binding. Meanwhile Simon showed how he uses a chainsaw for carving and made an eel…
…which we followed with a big game of ‘Eels Out!’
I’ve designed and made a set of badges in a bag ready for a giant game of Eels Out! with the families from Liberty School at the London Voices workshop next week with the National Trust at Morden Hall Park. The creatures on the badges are all found in or around the river Wandle.
