bugs

A mini-beast day today. In FS2 we made spiders from pipecleaners and wool which we then painted. We also created butterflies in the old traditional way - paint one half, fold the paper, rub, open back out and hey presto! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Y2 we painted the ants we made from clay last week. It was tricky getting into all the nooks and crannies but when they're displayed en-masse they should look terrific.

 

 

 

today

Another small mixed media piece. This one is monochrome in keeping with the subject matter. Might texture/pattern her coat.

 

This photo shows, depending on your screen size, a larger-than-life close-up of her face.

 

'Edith', collage, acrylics, ink & crayon on canvas board, 10x15cm.

new work

Another mixed media piece. This one features a 'dress' collaged from a vintage German map.

 

 

 

Collage, acrylics, ink &crayon on canvas board, 13x18cm.

 

 

I've listed this picture in my etsy shop (please see the buttons on the right) though I'm puzzled as to why she's having a lie down ?! 

clay 3

 In Y4, as part of their study into Vikings we made some longships. We adapted the coil method that they had previously used when they were Y3's (see a post recently for the current Y3's ref. Greek pots). The lollipop sticks will be the stern post and prow (with attached card dragons head). We smoothed the insides and kept the coils showing on the outside to represent the wooden planking.
we'll paint them when they're dry, add cotton sails and embroidery thread rigging.

 

 

Meanwhile, I've managed to do a few small mixed media pieces. These are destined for either my Etsy or Folksy shops, or I might even dabble with the behemoth that is ebay!

 



 

Collage, acrylics, ink & crayon on canvas board, 13 x 18cm.

sunflowers & clay

In FS2 today we painted sunflowers. Using glue spreaders and thick paint we created an abundance of petals.

 

Love the thick textures on this one - very reminiscent of van Gogh!

 



We finger-printed the seeds.

 



 

And this is what we ended up with.

 

 In Y2 following on from the spider sketches we did last week we were again in mini-beast mode - creating insects from clay, matchsticks & pipecleaners.

 

clay

Today in y3 we made coil pots. The children have previously only made thumb pots so these are a big step forward. We used air-drying clay as our kiln is still in it's wrapping awaiting installation in it's new home. When they've dried out we'll paint 'Ancient Greek' patterns and designs on them ('cos, funnily enough, the children are studying the Ancient Greeks!).

 

 

today

A photo of the booty I acquired at todays flea market in town. 6 ex-table footy players (with a couple of balls thrown in) all for the princely sum of 5 euros. Not sure of what I'm going to do with them - any suggestions appreciated! They're some sort of plastic/composite and I'm guessing they're from the 50s/60s (?). There is a marking on the back - a sort of curly letter L in a small circle - any ideas?

They need a bit of a clean tho' I don't want to scrub too hard as the colours appear to be painted on.

 

 

 

dummy mock-ups

Been playing around with the box thingy idea that you might have seen previously on this blog. I must fathom out how to put those links to previous postings at the bottom, like everyone else seems to do. Am tentatively thinking of going with Q'oobs or possibly CUBEz ( the latter would fit in better with my overall 'branding' ! - please don't hurt yourself laughing) as a concept name. These two rough dummies came about because Y3 are studying the Ancient Greeks whilst Y1 are looking at 'water, water everywhere' as a theme - it's supposed to be a piranha!

 

 

I'm thinking of putting a little book together detailing how to make a variety of models all from the same very simple starting point. I would welcome any thoughts or ideas. I'm aiming to self-publish and sell through Etsy/Folksy as per my best-selling (!!) book - 'A is for Art' (please check it out in my shops on the right of this post).

recent



A few pics of stuff we've been doing around school over the last couple of days. Y2 are about to start a project on mini-beasts (and maxi-beasts ie. dinosaurs!) so we drew some spiders. In the top left corner you can see the child's initial drawing of what they thought looked like a spider. He was amazed at what he came up with following some guidance. 

 

 

 

In Y1 we completed our project on vehicles by constructing a rolling chassis and adding suitable bits and pieces to represent a specific form of transport.

 



 

 

In Y5 we looked at toys made by children in less fortunate parts of the world and then set about creating our own from bits and pieces that we had lying around - off cuts of wood from earlier projects, lengths of thread/wool, bits of wire etc.

 



 

 

In Y2 we also put together our Fire of London display using the mixed media pieces we created just before the Easter hols. It just needs a few written pieces to finish it off.

 



illo

Coloured in the pic from a couple of posts ago. Decided against a background - think it works quite well without.

 

 

'Playtime'

Ink & pencil crayon on heavyweight paper, A4.

almost back to work

Nearly back in the fray, Easter hols almost over. A staff day in school today - managed to plan the next terms work and put a couple of displays up. These are collage pieces, individually created by y6 for their river topic but displayed as 'panorama's'. We'd been looking at tonal perspective & reflections.

'Cityscape'

'Riverscape'