WATERCOLOUR SEWING

Inspiration comes from many directions. It's very often driven by a lack of equipment or a surplus of available junk.  I never turn down the offer of a box or bag of something!  One day, I was sorting out some watercolour paints that I had acquired, a lot of them were beyond saving, but I loved the wee tin boxes.   I also had a bundle of fabric sample books.    So this is what happened.....

The pupils pinned and cut little paper patterns to selected coloured fabric, that represented the colours that appear on the paint palettes.  

The children really gained some understanding of different fabrics, their textures, construction, use, weight etc when handling these samples. They also had to make decisions regarding colour.

The pupils then sewed the patches of colour on to a piece of backing fabric.  All standards of sewing was acceptable, all age groups were involved, as you can see! 

For some schools I was reinforcing a skill that they had previously experienced, sewing clubs are alive and well in some corners of rural Angus.   This was evident in some of the stitching skills that transpired.  A curiosity for sewing was hopefully inspired in other children and maybe some even went home and encouraged Mums and or Dads to dust down the sewing basket.

The little coloured panel was then sewn on to a larger banner which was fixed into the tin and lid.  If I thought I had lost some of the boys when I was giving them sewing instruction, I certainly won them back when the sewing machine was produced.   Inspired by Victorian technology......whatever next! 

The panels are simply hung to create beautiful textile rainbows.

LETS MAKE BOOKS

BOOKS AND QUILLS

Sometimes pinning drawings to the wall is just not enough.  I wanted my pupils to gather their drawings in the form of a book.

We used goose quills and ink to decorate the front and back covers.  The children learned that repetitive words can make a great pattern and texture, regardless of spelling!  They loved to break all the handwriting rules: no spaces between lines or words, mixing upper and lower case letters, vertical, horizontal and diagonal directions, and drips and splashes allowed.

Drawings were glued together in a long panel and the pages were simply constructed, folded concertina style.  

Simple little fastenings were made by wrapping pieces of scrap fabric around the finished article, and adding the used quill.

Fantastic Feathers

First term, and a three week block of observational drawings.  Not quite finished but too good not to share!

I wanted to get the pupils to really look at details of small, unfamiliar objects.  Feathers seemed to be the perfect thing.  We started off looking at the linear patterns and recreated the feathers with soft pencils and water soluble crayons.

Peacock feathers next, what a gift!  Looking at colour and pattern we used a mixture of pens, watercolour, water soluble graphite and soft pencil.  New words now added to our vocabulary include iridescent, rainbow like.....they sure are.  I have offered £1 for every child that includes it in their next story!  Shall I start saving?

I have really enjoyed floating around my schools with armfuls of peacock feathers! 

 Attention seeking behaviour or what?

Some of the infants got involved too, can you spot which drawings are theirs?  

Looking at texture and tone now, with white feathers, chalk and black pen on black paper.  Studies too of the best little spotty Guinea Fowl feathers.  

We drew the feathers twice the size to include the detail and introduce the idea of scale.

Some of the classes used masking fluid with watercolour to try and reproduce the patterns of dots on the Guinea Fowl feathers.

I plan to make these drawings into wee books - next term.... 

New School Year, New Classes, New Inspiration

THE JAMMY DODGER

By name and by nature.

I have seen so many of these little guys in the past few weeks, the sweet sickly smell both turns my stomach and makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.  New water soluble graphite pencils.....so worth the investment.  Such a simple and effective way to create a sense of shadow.  

I have done these with 5 to 8 year olds, but I think all age groups would love to do them.  

RECIPE   

• The class start by drawing 3 hearts, before the biscuits are even produced, this ensures that the hearts are drawn bigger than life size (and adds an air of mystery....) 
• the biscuits are opened and divided up, for observational purposes, not consumption.  I get the children to draw the splodge pattern and then the outer circle.  Starting with the nearest biscuit.   If there are issues with shapes overlapping, the further away circles will be neatly tucked underneath.  you will need to point this out, but once they see the effects, they will be delighted.

• a thickness is added, to create 3 dimensions (and a layer of jam), then a shadow.
• water can then be painted over the biscuit thickness, shadow and carefully round the splodge shape, thus creating a a wash and really simple, effective hint of realism.

the same effect can be achieved with black  Berol pens with water