In one of my very first posts I included a blueprint (cyanotype) of my dad.
It is a technique which I discovered years ago and really loved, and it has re-surfaced because of a project which I am doing in a school. I am working with a Year 5 class, and I am helping the teacher with her creative professional development. We are exploring lots of different textile techniques, and then will be choosing some to express the class views on Human Rights issues, comparing Victorain times and today.
The process of blueprinting is really simple and the children find it magical. Light sensitive fabric or paper is used. The children place objects (cut out paper, found objects,photographic negatives) onto the fabric, it is then taken outside into daylight and hopefully after a while (10 mins on a sunny day, much longer on a cloudy day), the objects can be removed and you are left with a silhouette on the fabric.
The fabric is then rinsed, and rinsed and rinsed,
and the fabric is left to dry. 
This is using a fern leaf from my garden. I have added running stitch.
This is a print from a necklace which someone bought me when I was 18, and some table confetti.
I love the fact that the blueprints leave this ethereal image, a celebration of something which has existed, but has now gone. I also am fascinated by colour therapy - dark blue is supposed to symbolise: confidence, intuition, loyalty, reliability, tranquility and wisdom, whilst light blue is supposed to symbolise: affection, communication, creativity, devotion, honesty and peace. These were all in mind when I produced the print of my dad.
Creative Partnerships Project 1
Detail from child's artwork
The aim of the project was to give the children new creative experiences.They tried cyanotype, silk-painting, fabric-painting, stencilling, masking, weaving and lots of different hand embroidery techniques. They also had to reflect on what they had done, what was challenging, what they enjoyed, and any surprises. They then got the chance to re-visit any techniques.
They were asked to design textiles based on the theme of the Victorians and Human Rights. We had research sessions where the children accessed the Internet and lots of different books and they found out about the jobs some Victorian children had to do (e.g. trappers in the mines and chimney sweeps). They also looked at child labour in some countries today and the UNICEF website.Once they had done their research they split into three groups each representing three very different ideas that they had come up with.
Click images to see their amazing hand stitch detail.
Text inspired by interior of a Workhouse.
Apron based on Victorian Child's sampler.
Numbers represent UNISEF articles on children's human rights.
I am so proud of the powerful, thought provoking responses they came up with, bearing in mind they are 9 and 10 years of age. It was a pleasure to work with them and I know the experience will impact on my own creative work.
Not just a load of old scribbling (honestly)
A completely different project to the one in the last post. Exploring mark-making and emotive drawings with a group of year three children.
We were lucky with the weather and the first two sessions were done outside. The children (whole class of 30) were given a range of things to mark-make with, charcoal, pencils, pastels, putty rubbers, water-soluble crayons, paints. They were then asked to simply experiment and use stencilling, frottage (rubbings of surfaces like the grasses, trees, bricks etc), use small movements, big arm movements, small paper, large rolls of paper, textured paper, smooth paper, collaborative work and individual work.
Working in small groups I also asked them one by one, to come up with a feeling or emotion, and then they had to try and draw this feeling using only marks and colour. They could then, if they wanted to, share with their group what they felt they had represented. It was a great way to open up lines of communication and get them to express themselves.
Very much about exploration, trying out new things and understanding that not all art has to look like something or be pictoral. Art can also be about expressing what's inside you and what you're feeling. It was great to be part of a project where the teacher and teaching assistants were totally on board, and we made a fab team.
We also experimented on fabric.
Above -silk-painting - so interesting to see how different each child's work is.
Fabric Painted Banners
I love my job.
The children have been looking at Africa, and are doing a production in school with input from professional musicians, dancers and me. I was asked to come in so that the children could experience some new textile techniques and then produce backdrops for the production. I have done silk-painting with them based on their drawings of African plants and today we have done fabric painting.
The fabric painting is so simple. Here is my first tutorial for those wanting to have a go. Younger children love working on big pieces of fabric and it's a great vehicle for mark-making - just watch them with the pens or you might end up with some permanent artwork where it's not really wanted!
The children's designs are placed under the fabric (I used muslin today, approx £2.00 per metre).
The children then go over the designs (trace) with permanent marker pens. Aprons are a must!
The fabric is then painted with water and big decorator paint brushes, because the markers are permanent the designs stay put. The designs are then painted with the fabric paints - I use scola, but most fabric paints suitable for children would work as long as they are watered down. I buy them at a local council run resource centre, they are great value,work really well, and the children love mixing their own colours.
We are going to embellish them next session with sequins and glitter, but they are also gorgeous to stitch on with simple running stitch.
Creative Partnerships Project Two
The C.P. project that I ran in this school, was also run as a parallel project in another local school. The subject matter was the same, the Victorians and Human Rights, but this school also wanted to focus on the links to India and the Cotton Mills, so we also looked at Indian textiles and sewing techniques.
The children also decided that they wanted to produce one large wall- hanging (click on the images to enlarge).
The techniques they chose to work with were fabric painting, collage and hand-stitch.
I also got the opportunity to work with the teacher on a one-to-one basis, giving her the confidence to hopefully continue using new textile techniques and to share them with other staff in the school.
The children made sketchbooks to document the project and reflect on what they had done.
Both schools then visited each other to share their work, and it will also be going on display in an exhibition at The Lowry, Manchester.
I loved being a part of both these projects and felt like I learnt so much along the way - it was great to work with such fantastic, collaborative staff and pupils.
Learning Through Making
I am coming to the end of various artist in schools projects.
The one pictured is a project for Curious Minds and focused on a year 2/3 class and a year 3/4 class. It was an enterprise project and the children were given a budget and had to buy materials to then make things and sell, hopefully for a profit.
The project was also designed to raise confidence in numeracy skills.The class used my business "skybluesea" as a starting point and we talked about how a small business is run. The children then decided on the types of items they would like to make.
These lavender bags were one of the items, and the first lot sold like hot cakes at the Christmas fair.
My final day there was frosty, but we took the opportunity for a photo shoot.
Hanging the little bags on the trees outside.
Silk paintings by the children to be framed and auctioned off later in the year.
I really hope that the children manage to raise lots of money. They have decided to give some to charity and then spend the rest on things for their classes. Good luck. You were a joy to work with, and thanks to the volunteers who helped thread needles!
