Tuesday, 20 November 2012

Exciting work done by gifted Primary School students


 
At the end of last  half term, I was so thrilled with the work done by a group of Key Stage 2 students that I teach, I promised them that I would put the photos of their work on my blog. I forgot of course and today one of the students, Megan  reminded me, so here they are and a big thank you to her.
Please see the wonderful Mexican birds which they made using a polystyrene base covered with Claycrete and painted with Mexican inspired patterns using acrylic paint.
 
 
The tiles above were done by younger students Key Stage 1. To ensure that I do not show favouritism
I am showing their fabulous clay tiles too.
Another project which was all about Autumn leaves and trees was completed today by Key Stage 2. It would have been great to photograph all of them but I forgot my camera so one student kindly took a photo of hers  which shows and gives an idea of what they have done.
 
 
Thank you Maria for sending it to me, the tree is made from foil, the bare branches from garden wire and the base is from polystyrene, painted green. The base was covered with tissue paper and painted green. the fallen leaves are made from air drying clay and painted in lovely autumnal colours. I have many gifted students!!
 

Friday, 16 November 2012

New ideas for further development

Although I often feel as if I never get enough time in my studio, today I spent a few moments flicking through my sketch pad and reviewing things I have done recently. I thought that it would be nice share the few ideas which I have been working on. Like many quilters I often end up with many small leftover bits of fabric so I thought I would try to use these in a new quilt idea. Below is one example using dyed and printed fabrics. I will be creating many other combinations to utilise as many of the scraps of fabric I have.
 
In addition to this I put the following odd bits together (fig.below left) and made a printing block from a piece of polystyrene. I bonded the fabrics on to fusible Vilene and then with the block I printed the design onto it (fig below right)


 
 I then did a bit of stitching  horizontally across the printed surface, using free machine embroidery and a few programmed stitches. This enhanced the printed design while creating texture. With a soldering heat tool I made marks onto the surface creating an additional contrasting pattern.
 
To give the piece a completed look I lined it with a dark green coloured fabric and used  gold thread to finish it off.
 
 

The work  to the right and below was  done in my sketch pad using a combination of paint , pastels and felt pens. These are likely to be developed further and translated into quilts or mixed media pieces.
 This is my favourite .