Salt dough – 15.11.09

Whilst making batches of salt dough on sunday afternoon (in a rush, as I had to go to my niece’s birthday disco), one gets pensive…….. at what point did I think this would be a good idea!

The recipe is as follows:-
2 cups of plain flour
1 cup of table salt
1 cup of water

Mix the flour and salt, add the water gradually, kneed for 10 minutes, put in fridge for 20 minutes, then make up your design…… but beware… keep your dough to less than 1cm thickness and make molds out of card/masking tape for thicker designs and then cover with the dough (get a book from the library for thorough tuition). Then bake on a very low heat until hard ……… this seemed to take hours & hours! Coat your design with watered down PVA glue, leave to dry , then paint using acrylics. Finish off with a coat of varnish.

This week the children began to make xmas decorations. We had plenty of Christmas themed shape cutters, each child had a batch of dough …. and after a frantic hour of business, the children had produced some interesting Christmas shapes!

Lyn and I duly took these home to bake for what seemed like a week.

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I celebrate my birthday in the Art Cabin 9.11.09

Monday is probably the worse day of the week to have a birthday. It’s not right to celebrate before the event, and the weekend seems so far away ……  Anyhow, I decided I would take a few fairy cakes to the Art Cabin to share out and Lyn bought some scrummy chocolate for us to nibble while we spent the morning preparing for the art club and collating all the information necessary to enter The Big Draw Competition. The prize money  (if the Art Cabin was selected) would pay for so much equipment which is dearly needed if the proposed projects (printing, paper-making, mosaic, clay work, to name but a few) are to go ahead.

So this week, the Tudor portrait and MacBeth costume collages progressed. There is more ‘BLING’ on those pictures than Liberacé and  Mr T put together. The Tudors would have been proud!

Queen adorned with BLING!

King Henry VII with a rather fetching cap

Queen Elizabeth I looking rather sullen

The after school club was very relaxed, quite a few children were absent, so the noise level was considerably reduced. The children learned about shading and midtones and finished their fantasy castle pictures.

The fairy cakes were a hit with the children and I did have a nice birthday!

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More Press about the Big Draw

Click on the link below to read another article about the Art Cabin’s Big Draw event.

St Cross Design.

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The Big Day, The Big Draw

Wasn’t the weather nice on Saturday?  It was just what we ordered!

There was a fantastic turnout and the Art Cabin came alive with the hustle and bustle of people getting their hands dirty (literally). I had a hunch things were going well when I saw a row of boys sitting at the desks, pens in hand, concentrating on their artistic doodles, occasionally checking out each others work and laughing.

Mr Disbrey was in charge of the clay area, visitors really enjoyed making thumbpots and sculptures. The sand pictures were a favourite too, some of the art produced from this medium was amazing. The doodling, fingerprinting caricatures and computer enhanced self portraits created lots of laughs. Putting earphones on and listening to some thought provoking music, which you then had to draw using charcoal, created some wonderful results.

It wouldn’t be an art day without some mess, and this was achieved with zeal in the hand-painting on vinyl corner. Despite the screams of laughter and the bucket load of green sludge coloured paint left over, there were some extraordinary Jackson Pollock style art painting to admire.

When it was time to pack up we still had a full house, but many hands make light work and my heartfelt thanks must go to everyone to stayed behind to clear up and to Brigitta who took some wonderful photos of the artwork produced. Quite frankly the day couldn’t have gone any better.

Sand fish

Jazzy’s sand picture

Jackson pollock?

clay sculptures

Drawing to music

Illustration drawn to music

Lily, Demi & Jazzy get artistic

Jack with his computer generated self portrait

Doodling away

Nancy with her clay koala

Lyn helping out with sand pictures

creating a masterpiece

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The Banner goes up

The Banner goes up!

Lyn busy painting the bookcase

We are very busy preparing activities for the art event, which takes place in just over a week. Finishing touches are still being applied to the Art Cabin, sadly there is no sign of the tables and stools yet, but hey ho! There’s still time.

I am awaiting a reply from the local newspaper, it would be good if they ran a feature, here’s hoping.

The good news is that the PTA will be doing refreshments, tea, coffee, Squash and cakes…. yum

The extra good news is that after half term the Art club will begin. I am to become artist in residence and Lyn Hardy art assistant on Monday afternoons. There will be a drawing club during lunchtime, children will be able to pop in to the Art Cabin and draw, research, discuss their ideas and use their imaginations to produce work if they so wish.  During the afternoon I will work on different projects with the year groups. Then after school there will be an art club where students will work on longer term art/craft projects.

This is a very exciting development for the school!

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Jumping in at the deep end

The Big Draw which begins in October is nearly upon us. Many galleries, libraries, art studios, councils, clubs, colleges etc. from all over the country have been busy planning for many many months in order to put on an event to entice people who love art and those who don’t to have a go at it.

I, in my wisdom thought, “Ooh!, That would be good to do, lets get involved”.

When it was mentioned to The Head, he was more than overjoyed to have a Big Draw event take place, “Can we invite the village?”.

Arghhhh! Enthusiasm, it gets me every time.

So Saturday 1oth Oct is now booked, the Art Cabin will host a Big Draw event. We have less than 3 weeks to organise something.

At this point I sigh, and make a very strong cup of tea!

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Brainstorming and fudge brownies

Lyn & I met this week for a brainstorming session, most importantly the tea was brewed and the chocolate fudge brownies arranged on a plate (not for long mind!). It’s the beginning of September and the next few weeks will see the Art Cabin go from an empty shell to a fairly well equipped art space with children wanting to do everything NOW. It’s all very very real! The prospect of having to come up with idea after idea is quite daunting……..

Yesterday I sorted through the first delivery of equipment, it will still be some weeks before we take delivery of the tables and stools. Anyhow, Lyn & I will be busy painting a bookcase, revamping the loo and designing an Art Cabin logo.

Some of the projects we have in mind include clock making, clay thumb pots, mosaic, puppet making, Batik, salt dough sculpture, printing and decoupage. It is also our aim to let the children use their imagination and just paint or draw, finding out for themselves what creating stuff means with no pressure attached. Bliss ……

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Art Cabin gets busy

painting shields

industrious ‘cave’ painting

Good clean fun….. mmm!

The Art Cabin was put to the test during ‘African week’ at the school. I was really pleased to be able to take classes in the Art Cabin despite that it is not fully furnished.

With the old carpet removed, and a couple of dining tables placed in the studio, we were ready to road test it.

South African cave art was on the menu, after a brief intro, the children were asked to go out on to the field to forage for leaves, grass, broken flower heads (strictly no picking) which were used to help colour their cave paintings. Mud paint was mixed and sticks were used as applicators (brushes and paint were on standby too).

A lot of mess later and some ‘interesting’ cave designs were produced. Some children went on to paint warrior designs on tribal shields.

All in all it was a good trial run for the Art Cabin. Hopefully the new furniture/equipment will arrive in September, then the fun can really begin.

I now intend to enjoy the summer break….. until September then my friends!

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Light at the end of the tunnel

I have been rather quiet recently. This is due to two reasons, firstly, not a lot has been moving forward on the art cabin front and secondly other projects that I’m involved in are taking up time.

Anyhow, the wheels are turning and the painting should be finished in the studio today, there is still some tiling to do. We calculated that £1500 would be needed to buy furniture and the first phase of art equipment. The order has been placed, but due to the long lead times when ordering tables and stools, we shall take delivery in September. Sadly the year six will not be able to take advantage of the facility, but should they wish to visit at a later date, they will be welcomed.

So once the painting has finished, the carpet can be ripped up, the floor scrubbed ready to take the delivery in September. The big question is, what are the kids going to be doing when it’s officially open?

Well, I hope to organise an art club, the school hopes to finance artist in residence for visits, the teachers will be able to use the space for any lessons (which means they can use messy methods of teaching), outside organisations/individuals will have the opportunity to use the art space, and hopefully the school will forge strong links with the community – any other suggestions welcome!

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Getting there

I apologies for the long absence. Sometimes life just gets in the way!

Progress is being made, albeit slow. The plumbing and electrics are now complete, the strip lighting purchased. The caretaker has started to prime the laminate wood panelling that covers the walls.

I have had a meeting about what items need to be bought to stock the Art Cabin. This list is rather long as you can imagine, and a budget needs to be agreed with the  PTA/School, so that we can order the essentials first!

After half term, Lyn & I have agreed to roll up our sleeves, set best foot forward and get painting the walls. Time is passing so quickly that the end of term will be here before we know it and we really want the year 6 children to at least have a chance to produce some art before they leave for the summer break.

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