jubilee

Last day of the half term today - we had a bit of a jubilee theme. Did a couple of quick sketches.

''Even 'bots like a jubilee''

pen & ink on paper.

page palz

A pic of some of the most recent 'Page Palz' (bookmarks) we've been making to sell in our school bookshop. The original batch sold out within minutes! They are made from large craft sticks with wooden shapes stuck on. Painted and sealed they sell for 50 cents apiece - a bargain!

'nother sale

Peggy has been sold! Listed and gone within the week. Trying to juggle lesson preparation, marking and report writing at the moment whilst still striving to be creative! Maybe the summer hols will allow me a smidgin of time to 'make stuff' but they're still a couple of months away! Too many ideas that I've got floating and simmering in my noggin for my own good. You can bet your bottom dollar that when I finally get a chunk of time, I'll have lost the spark!

greek shipping

As part of our Ancient Greek studies we've been learning about ships. Rather than just draw and label a pic I made a quick template to create a moving version. The tab moves the oars back and forth by means of a hidden linkage and the flag lifts to reveal a 'fascinating fact'. This is my 'here's one I made earlier' example - the template was very basic and left a lot of creativity open to the children.

latest idea

Have been tinkering with the 'Keep Calm....' concept. I came up with what you can see in the pic - a card/notelet where you add a doodle using part of the text. I'm thinking of offering these as undoodled blanks in packs of 5/6.

I've thought of posters that have doodles already drawn on them and even considered trying toget celebs/personalities to do versions which would then be auctioned/sold for charity.
Would love to know your thoughts. A big thumbs up or 'think again Fidz' ?

peggy

Here she is all finished. I think she's turned out much as I envisaged. I like the primitive style and lack of fussy detail. She's about 13cm long. Might end up making a few of these before my attention switches to something else!

I've listed her in my Folksy shop (please click the button on the right to visit).

latest peggy

Been making the pieces for a new peg doll. This time I decided to see if I could carve a simple face, much like the peg dolls of old. The easiest way to do it was to file and sand away part of a wooden bead and attach this in place of the top of the peg. The joints are secured with embroidery thread and vintage French hand-cut nacre buttons. Will give it a simple paint job, attach some string 'hair' and list it in my folksy shop when it's complete. Not quite sure what to charge though.

'scraper pottery'

As a change from using clay, this week we made 'Ancient Greek pottery' using black card, orange oil pastels and matchsticks! My first idea was to create handled pots but I quickly realised that this would be very difficult to do with the whole class at the same time - I would've been running round stapling and fixing like a madman!!

So we settled on plates - easier to fabricate, and even easier to display on a wall. We cut black card circles and coloured them using orange pastels (to simulate terracotta).

We then scratched/scraped patterns and designs into the layer of pastel using a matchstick.

These are a couple of the finished plates. This week we've been looking at the myth of Odysseus and the Cyclops - hence the bottom plate.

on my drawing board

A few quick sketches of enthusiastic belles undertaking some ballet poses!

We painted our 'Greek' pots yesterday. We scratched back to the terracotta clay using a pin for extra detail. They're sitting on our 'market stall' waiting to tempt passers by.

faces

Some of the slightly older children have done the 'old' favourite of creating self-portraits by completing the other half of an image.

masks

The 'littleys' at our school (FS2 - ages 4/5) have been busy making 'African' masks out of clay. They're looking fantastic. The plan is to varnish rather than paint them. By all accounts they thoroughly enjoyed the process of making them!

there be dragons

Around town yesterday were displayed lots and lots of cars - mostly brand spanking new models. There were supposed to be some older vehicles but all I could spot were a Renault 4 (painted and done uplike a dogs dinner) and a Fiat 500 (souped up and lowered). Perhaps the fact that it was raining persuaded many of the classic owners to keep their prized possessions in the garage - I can never understand owning a car and not actually running it - you might as well hang it on the wall! Anyway, under an underpass I spotted these fantastic machines. They were being readied to be 'driven', though unfortunately I couldn't stay around to see if they managed to escape from their shelter. They were made from small sheets of welded metal to resemble dragons and such like. The confines of the underpass meant that the pics don't really do them justice - that and the fact that I'm not very good at taking pics!

page pals & pots

Managed to get Enterprise club up and running again. We began to batch paint our bookmarks.You might just be able to spot some frogs, horses, rabbits and the odd mouse. We'll be detailing them further next week.



We've also been going potty again. Thumb pots with handles and rims this week. I think we'll be decorating them next week - we just haven't got the space to make and dry much more!

more 'bot thoughts

Been toying further with the 'bot idea. Have sketched some pics straight onto cards with a biro - so the underlying guidelines can be seen. Am liking the fact that this retains the original spontaneity. I'm envisaging selling them for around $2 ('double dollar doodles'!) - without envelopes as this would eat into the already slim profit margin (after listing fees and 'free' postage). I'm thinking that the giver/recipient could add other details or colour as they think fit. Again, any feedback on the notion would be gratefully received.

'bot trial

On my painting table at the mo' is a trial pic of a robot. It's mixed media (collage, acrylics & ink) on a 10 x 10cm canvas board. The prelim sketch is at the side. I'm not convinced that the painting 'works' any better than the sketch. I've been toying with putting some 'bot pics in my 'shops' but I'm not sure whether to go with coloured line drawings on paper (that I'd price up at $2 or so) or full blown paintings (for which I'd have to charge more). I would really appreciate any feedback. 

"Fairy 'botmother"

...because even little robots have dreams and wishes that need to be granted!