fire!

The y2's have completed their mixed media 'Great Fire of London' pieces. They've painted, printed, drawn and collaged wonderful representations of the conflagration!

 In y4 today we did a bit of 'action' painting - though a little bit more controlled than Jackson Pollack would probably have been. We dripped, splattered and poured volcanic eruptions.

printing

Y2's have been printing houses ready for collaging into mixed media 'Fire of London' pieces. Lots of 'woodwork' on this one!

trees

Yesterday the y2's enhanced their Autumnal pics by adding stitched 'grass' and 'bark'. These mixed media pieces have involved printing, collage and now ' textiles'.   

collage

Using the potato printed leaves that they produced last week, the y2's today created Autumnal collages.

Printing

Today the y2's used potatoes for printing. I managed to find some wooden knives that proved more than up to the task of creating patterns on the cut surfaces without being too sharp. 

After some experimentation we ended by printing 'Autumnal' leaves - which we will use next week on collage pieces.

printing(2)

Yesterday the y5/6s continued to explore the possibilities of print. We began to investigate overprinting as way of enhancing our designs.

printing & sculpture

Our y5/6s have embarked on a short printing unit. They started off by using polyprint to create simple alternating patterns.

And some clay sculptures (over pipecleaner armatures). The middle one reminds me of John Travolta for some reason!

We knew the air-dry clay would crack - we'll just paint over them.

fire & flowers!

The y2's have begun to collage all the bits and pieces (printed buildings and painted flames) together for their 'Great Fire of London' pieces.

And here's a pic of one of the finished pieces that the members of the ceramics club made as Mothers Day gifts.

printing

Continuing with the theme 'The Great Fire of London', our y2's this week printed some 'Tudor' houses.

They used various wooden pieces dipped in black paint.

print & puppets

Finally managed to catch-up with our y6's today. They've missed several art lessons due to trips and rearranged timetables. Although we won't now have time to do stencil or screen prints we at least managed to have a go with 'polyprint' - thin polystyrene tile that you impress lines into. We even got as far as trying our hand at the reduction process.

 

 

 

 
FS2 have been busy recently learning about jungles so we made some clay-headed stick-puppets.
Using simple push/pull techniques we were able to create recognisable animals.

enhancements

Y3 enhanced and embellished their 'Gorgon' pieces the other day. Sequins, crayons and felt tips were all employed.

 

Y6 continued with their printing mini-unit. They used sticks/'found' materials to add to their hand/finger prints from last week.

Next up - potato printing!

'quilt'

We've finally come to the end of a very long term and are breaking up for a well-deserved Easter holiday. The children have created some fantastic artwork over the last few weeks that I'm frantically trying to display. This is a pic of some textile work done by our y3's. It's a combination of some printed cotton panels (for which the children made their own wooden printing blocks) and some tapestry work (inspired by a visit to our local Art gallery). I'm nailing (!) it all in place as staples just couldn't hack it.

 



printing

In y2 as a follow up to our colour-mixing from last week ('flames') we have been printing 'Tudor' houses. We used short lengths of wood and black paint. 

 

 

 

We didn't worry about printing them as a street scene as we are going to be creating the final 'Great Fire of London' pieces by collage next week. Hence the bits of buildings in this picture which, when assembled, will resemble a street of closely packed rickety wooden structures.

 



some pics!

Managed to get on a computer that works! Here are a few pics of recent stuff.

 

 

 Y3 fabric printing using balsa wood blocks/sticks.

 



 One of the Roman costumes for the xmas production.

 

 The centurion version.

 

 In Y1 we made wrapped decorations.

 

 

And finally. I've been dabbling with simple automata. The clown is poseable (he has elastic fastened joints) and he twirls round when the handle is turned. In this photo he is holding a cocktail stick because I haven't managed to get hold of one of those little cocktail umbrellas yet! (he's been made to 'hold' anything in his hands so long as it is light enough).

 



The simple mechanism.

 

I'm toying with the idea of putting the automata in my shop(s). Would love any views as to the saleability/price that could be asked. I've got a poseable ballerina one too!

block printing

Last week in y3 we designed our printing blocks. This week we made them. We used balsa wood (easily cut with sharp scissors) as our carving skills aren't quite up to the mark. The idea is to copy the techniques of printers in India and use the wooden blocks to print onto fabric. 

 

prints

Today we've been printing. We blockprinted using polyprint (a thin polystyrene tile) and inks to create simple two coloured designs.

 

 

 

 

Oh....and I've finished the large footy painting! Not sure what I'm going to do with it though - if I listed in my 'shops' it would be too large to post! Might just hang it in the staffroom for now.

teddy bears and tudor houses

In y1 today we painted teddy bears. We had a book day (a week behind the rest of the world!) and they were looking at traditional stories - ie. Goldilocks etc.

After a quick drawing session of how to represent teds using simple shapes (circles and ovals) we went onto using brushes and painted the shapes straight onto the paper, using brown paint that we mixed from scratch (red, yellow and then blue).

 

 

 

 

Yesterday in y2 we printed some Tudor houses using lengths of wood and the edges of lollipop sticks(to go with the 'fire' we painted last week - to eventually make a piece representing the Great Fire of London).

 

 

Oops - should have turned that last one round!

arctic prints

 

Last week in Y4 we printed some arctic images - using polyprint (polystyrene tile that can be impressed using a pencil) but they didn't turn out as well as we expected. The paint/ink was a bit lumpy despite a good 'rolling' in the inking trays and didn't seem to sit on the tile surface properly.

This week, after they'd had a chance to dry, we thought long and hard how to keep the best bits (some great textures/surface patterns) whilst trying to enhance the original images. We settled on oil pastels and felt pens. Below is the work of one girl who, without any prompting, enhanced her 4 prints of a polar bear using different colours. It was too good an opportunity to miss to point out the similarities between her idea and the work of Andy Warhol. She was really pleased with the outcome.

 

 

 

It also provided a great opportunity to explain that what might at first be considered mistakes and failures (our initial prints) can often be adapted/altered into successful pieces. It really backed up my oft repeated mantra of  'you're allowed to make mistakes'.

 

ps. Over the weekend I sold the last copy of 'A is for Art' in my Etsy shop - but fear not, today I listed some more! Please feel free to browse both of my shops, Etsy & Folksy - just click on the links to the right.

sari's

We wrapped the woodblock printed fabric around a balsa wood 'figure' to represent an Indian lady wearing a sari.

 

 

 

They seem happy with their new garments!

woodblock printing

In y3 today, as part of their studies about India, we used our woodblocks to print onto fabric. We designed and made the woodblocks last week from balsa wood - a thick piece with cut balsa sheet glued on.

 

 

The children were encouraged to line up their blocks carefully to ensure a regular repeat pattern.

An overview of some of the printed pieces of fabric.

The intention is to display them by draping them around a simple silhouette, so as to resemble an Indian woman wearing a sari.