Kids Art Club Workshops – symmetry printing and 3-D beetles

Being inspired by the incredible patterns and forms of beetles, butterflies, moths and stick insects from around the world, the children started on making beautiful symmetry prints using acrylic paints as well as drawing with oil pastels. They spent an entire session just playing with the paints, building up layers of textures and colours on A3, A4, A5 and A6 pieces of good quality thick art paper which would be strong enough for constructing but still easy enough to fold and cut. I don’t like to give kids rubbishy art materials just because they are young! I want them to feel that their artwork deserves quality ingredients.

On week 2 they cut their papers and constructed some amazing creatures, wild enough to rival nature! This demanded some real engineering skills and I was so impressed by how they all helped each other and shared their ideas around for making them 3-D. I had shown them a few ways to turn a flat surface into 3-D one but actually they invesnted their own ways too! Have a look at some of their creatures which wouldn’t look out of place in an undisturbed jungle… 

Kids Art Workshops – papier mache cacti

For this project, we initially looked at the amazing wierd and wonderful sculptures by Chiaozza: https://www.eternitystew.com/ 

I also took in a selection of my own cacti and succulents for the kids to draw, to get their imaginations rolling and give inspiration for more shapes and forms. They then designed what they wanted to create in papier mache and cardboard, and set to with the papier mache! In total this turned into a 3 week project, as some of the designs were wonderfully ambitious – they really pushed themselves which was great to see!

The forms were constructed over wooden skewers which were then stuck into holes in wooden blocks. 

You can see the results, though the photographs really don’t do them justice!

Kids art club workshops South Devon holidays after school

 

Spacefruit Art Club Workshops

I’ve spent the past year running Art Clubs to mostly Key Stage 2 children in 2 of my local primary schools.

It has been some of the most enjoyable and rewarding work I have ever done!

Some art projects have included Papier Mache cacti, dice rolling abstract mixed media art game, incredible 3-D beetles made from wonderful decorated card which the printed themselves, playing with making stamps and decorating and covering their own small sketch book, amazing mini puppet theatres made from cardboard boxes, and clay animals.

It was hard to take photos when we were all so busy and right in the moment but I’ve taken a few. I shall write individual posts about each project. I am now planning some children’s art workshops for after Easter and over the summer holidays around South Hams Devon, perfect for your creative children and maybe some adult workshops too! To hear more about these, please add your name to the contact me page and leave a message in the box so I know that you’re interested in workshops.

Rabbits and Cats in sell-out show!

After school my daughter comes home really exhausted and often she just wants to play bunnies by herself or with her friend from next door. Bunnies in this case being the Jellycat kind, which she has too many of to count. Why does she have so many? It all started when she was born and my brother very kindly gave her a small pink bashful Jellycat bunny. He then gave her more… and she loved them SO much that she was given more. In fact for quite a while she actually lived her life through them.

So, fast forward a few years and my daughter began earning money by selling things she’d made. Guess what she spends her money on? That’s right, more Jellycat bunnies. We used to try and stop her, but to be honest she gets so much genuine pleasure and fun out of them that I’d be a right pooper to tell her what she can and can’t buy. They all have very distinct personalities and relationships and are so much of the family that whenever one goes missing (it happens…) that even I feel sad about it.

Well, that was a very long introduction to tell you about the marvellous creations she made for our little show last weekend. She made a vast amount of bunny-money, in fact she sold out!
Have a look at these, aren’t they just lovely. They’re made from lovely chocolate black clay and she used various tools to stamp patterns on them. These photos are from before they were fired. I managed to take not one single photo of them finished, nor of my daughter with her lovely little stall.

Next year I hope to start an after school art club and making some hanging decorations like these will definitely be on the menu 🙂

                                         

New Cards

I’ve finally got round to updating my shop with new card designs as well as some CHRISTMAS cards!

Who doesn’t love to receive a super hand-written card through the post? If the past 20 months have taught us anything, it’s that the small things you do for people bring the biggest smiles and happiness. A card doesn’t cost much but it’s a brilliant way of sending a few words just to let someone know that you’re thinking of them. Far more personal than a text or Whats App message, this one will linger on a shelf maybe even for a few months (or often longer, if you’re in our house!) I don’t know about you but I spend ages choosing which image would suit which friend or relative.

All of this plus buying cards from designers, you’re helping to keep small businesses going. The #justacard campaign puts so clearly the message from a gallery who had recently closed down:

“If everyone who’d complimented our beautiful gallery had bought just a card we’d still be open.”

Please check out the cards section of my shop HERE

             

         

       

 

 

Calming mobiles, hanging home decor made from recycled plastic bottles

Since being back in lockdown again I’ve brought my mobile making equipment into the house from my studio to work on the floor, mostly in 30 second bursts inbetween my daughter asking questions about her home school work!
I’ve had a couple of retail enquiries, as well as sales of mobiles from my Etsy shop. One of these is flying off to California… I know I try to encourage shopping local, but I’m not turning away any business that comes my way at the moment, after an extremely quiet sales time over Christmas 2020!

Pee-poh!

Pee-poh!

Hello! My first blog post in an age. How life has changed over the past 3 months. I drafted this at the start of lockdown when I had a moment to myself, but technical troubles stopped me making it live.

Anyway, I wanted to share a little animation that I made at the very end of the first week of homeschooling due to lockdown, I think I had decided that the trampoline could babysit for an hour!!! (I’m sure I won’t be the only one who has resorted to that occasionally…)

Hopefully you’ll be able to watch this which I made using a free app called stop motion studio and even more hopefully it will bring a little smile to your face.

Toodle-oo!

2020!

Happy New year !

More like Happy New several years as I see that my last blog post was in 2016… well, it’s been a busy time helping to grow my daughter and watch her blossom into a beautiful, crazy 5 and a half year old.

And looking back at the last wire work I put on here, so much has changed. It’s really interesting to see just how much it has grown and developed and I feel that its also gained strength and narrative.

Last year I gave myself the challenge of joining the Devon Guild of Craftsmen as an associate member, which I achieved in September (hooray!); it gave me real incentive to think carefully about what I was making and the stories behind it.

I’ve really loved seeing people’s reactions to my work recently, and it genuinely does seem to make people really happy and brings joy. So in this world of ‘stuff’ and the feeling that I’ve had lately of just contributing to it all and wondering where’s the justification in my making more dust collectors (!?), surely making people happy is a good justification. There really isn’t anything else I can do so I am stuck with making more stuff !

I’m just going to keep this brief with a few pictures of some of my favourite things that I’ve made this year. Let’s hope it’s not another 3 years til my next post on here.

A commission made for Christmas, something I’ve had in my head for ages…
An eco friendly mobile made from cleaned out shampoo bottles
A lady with autumnal golden oak leaves for hair on walnut wood block
Reach for the stars! Small copper wire ladders with paper additions.
The most mammoth piece I’ve made yet, almost a meter wide, it took more than a couple of weeks of solid work and a LOT of brain ache… my comfort zone is working miniature !

It would be lovely to hear your thoughts so please feel free to comment…

Aye eye!

Good evening!IMG_20160518_204625

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doodle on envelope 18th May 2016