I'm Loving Angels In...Crewe

A couple of weeks ago I went to Springfield Special School in Crewe to help some of the Juniors make some giant angels for their Christmas performances.
Here were the plans:

With my two wonderfully helpful helpers, we split the group in two and had them each work on a different angel. The children did all of the design work, then painted their designs onto large pieces of cloth.

They were happy painting away which left us to dish out paint and clean up the mess they made!

After a hard day's work the children went home and I attached the painted sheets to the pre-made frames, and popped a light inside each one to give them an ethereal glow.

Result: two big, colourful angels for Springfield School.

Where The Wild Things Are...in Nottingham

A few weeks ago we went to Fernwood Junior School to help them celebrate their ‘Community Day’. There seemed to be lots going on, but we barely had time to investigate as we were busy working with Year 5 to make four monstrous multicultural masterpieces!

We started with four local landmarks: the school, the war memorial, the park, and the library, then tasked the children with populating them with the most diverse community imaginable...a community where everyone is welcome regardless of how many legs, arms, eyes, or noses they have, or whether they are covered in fur, scales, or slime.

There were just 2 rules:

• No colouring in. All monsters must be drawn in black pen on white paper.
• Each monster had to feature 1 coloured detail, either the school logo, a poppy, a woolly hat or scarf, or a book, depending on which place they were stood outside.

The children took to it brilliantly, creating a multicultural community of hundreds of hilarious, happy monsters.

They even sent us a thank you card!

Murals from Sierra Leone

Springfield Junior School in Ipswich wanted four murals based on life in Sierra Leone. So after some consultation with the Head Teacher, and clear instructions to include a barracuda at any cost (he was a little obsessed!), I spent a weekend sketching these four mockups:

The school is twinned with a school in Sierra Leone. They are raising money for a well, and wanted something to reflect four aspects of life in the country: a shanty town, the school, a jungle replete with Sierra Leonean animals, and a tropical beach.

We worked with groups of four at a time. Slowly building up the background, midground, and foreground layers...

...before carefully working in the details.

In the end we worked with almost all of Y4, 5, and 6 over the five days. And I have to say that they did brilliantly.

The murals had a designated place in the Y6 corridor, so I got out the power tools and we stuck them up:

Here Come the Drums, Here Come the Drums...

Way back in August we went down to the Children's University in Bedford for a week of rainforest-themed drumming. It was a great week for all involved, the children were given opportunities to do art, journalism, paper making, drama and even hold a variety of slithery rainforest inhabitants!

Our sessions gave the children the chance to learn the basics on a variety of drums, mainly the African djembe. First we learned some basic types of hit, then moved into gradually more complex rhythms (with the threat of singing if they didn't play in time!).

The sessions concluded with the children listening to Rudyard Kipling's Just So Story: The Sing Song Tale of Old Man Kangaroo and being challenged to retell the story using their drums. In the final session, even the parents got involved!

Life in plastic, it's fantastic!

Finished on the 16th October, this project at Southfields Community Primary School in Coventry was our first foray into the complex and remarkable world of plastic casting.To show the kids the dangerous chemicals that we'd be using to cast their mini masterpieces we set up our lab outside.

Then we went into each class (R, Y1, Y2) and did some relief work and random Matisee-inspired-shape-cutting-out to produce the inserts that would go inside each of the 140 resin blocks.

With all of the inserts completed, and a design for a giant WELCOME to be embedded into the

blocks approved by head teacher Paul, the Big Art People holed up in the lab for the next few days to work their alchemical wonders.

The blocks were left to set, then placed in the ground and put to bed over the weekend whilst the

adhesive beneath them and the varnish on top of them, cured.

And here are the results (shown with the original plan)!

They're so shiny that it's difficult to do them justice in a photo. You'll just have to trust that they look brilliant when viewed with the naked eye!

A Warm Reception at Tower View

We've been at Tower View Primary School giving their reception area a well-needed boost.

After a chat with members of the school council, we established that the foyer needed to show off the range of exciting activities the children participate in, as well as being a showcase for some of the best work in the school. Between us, we decided to turn the area into a funky art gallery with weird and wonderful picture frames along with some brightly coloured children to bring the whole thing together.

Over a week, gifted and talented artists from the school worked with Jim to create the children and the artwork, and Tim to create the frames using a mixture of cardboard relief, paper maché, and of course, buckets of paint!

We think you'll agree the results are pretty striking!

A Touch of Poetry

Image by marleneangeja via Flickr

Hello again!

Well, the new term is here and we thought what better way to begin than with this touching poem by Helen E. Buckley about an issue very close to our hearts...

The Little Boy

Once a little boy went to school

He was quite a little boy,
And it was quite a big school.
But when the little boy
Found that he could go to his room
By walking right in from the door outside,
He was happy.
And the school did not seem
Quite so big any more.

One morning,
When the little boy had been in school awhile,
The teacher said:
“Today we are going to make a picture.”
“Good!” thought the little boy.
He liked to make pictures.
He could make all kinds:
Lions and tigers,
Chickens and cows,
Trains and boats –
And he took out his box of crayons
And he began to draw.

But the teacher said “Wait!
It is not time to begin!”
And she waited until everyone looked ready
“Now said the teacher
We are going to make flowers.”
“Good!” thought the little boy
He liked to make flowers,
And he began to make beautiful ones
With his pink and orange and blue crayons.

And the teacher said “Wait!
And I will show you how.”
And it was red, with a green stem.
“There,” said the teacher.
“Now you may begin.”

The little boy looked at the teacher’s flower.

Then he looked at his flower.

He liked his flower better than the teacher’s.

But he did not say this.
He just turned his paper over.
And made a flower like the teacher’s
It was red, with a green stem.

On another day,
When the little boy had opened
The door from the outside all by himself,
The teacher said:
“Today we are going to make something with clay.”
“Good!” thought the little boy.
He liked clay

He could make all kinds of things with clay:
Snakes and snowmen,
Elephants and mice,
Cars and trucks-
And he began to pull and pinch
His ball of clay.

But the teacher said:
“Wait it is not time to begin!”
And she waited until everyone looked ready

“Now,” said the teacher,
“We are going to make a dish.”
“Good!” thought the little boy.
He liked making dishes,
And he began to make some
That were all shapes and sizes.
Then the teacher said, “Wait!
And I will show you how.”
And she showed everyone how to make
One deep dish.
“There,” said the teacher,
“Now you may begin.”

The little boy looked at the teacher’s dish
Then he looked at his own.
He liked his dishes better than the teacher’s.
But he did not say this.
He just rolled his clay into a big ball again
And made a dish like the teacher’s.
It was a deep dish.

And pretty soon
The boy learned to wait,
And to watch,
And to make things just like the teacher.
And pretty soon
He didn’t make things of his own anymore.

Then it happened
That the little boy and family
Moved to another city,
And the little boy
Had to go to another school.
The school was even bigger
Than the other one
And there was no door from the outside
Into his room.
He had to go up some big steps,
And walk down a long hall
To get to his room.

And on the very first day
He was there,
The teacher said:
“Today we are going to make a picture.”
“Good!” thought the little boy,
And he waited for the teacher
To tell him what to do,
But the teacher didn’t say anything.
She just walked round the room.

When she came to the little boy
She said, ”Don’t you want to make a picture?”
“Yes,” said the little boy.
“What are we going to make?”
“I don’t know until you make it,” said the teacher.
“How shall I make it?” asked the little boy.
“Why, any way you like,” said the teacher.
“And any colour ?” said the little boy.
“Any colour” said the teacher.
“If everyone made the same picture,
And used the same colours,
How would I know who made what?
And which was which?”
“I don’t know, “ said the little boy.
And he began to make

A red flower with a green stem.

Helen E. Buckley

Join the Quest!

Our summer of craft workshops continues this and next week in seven South Staffs libraries.

Here's a few pictures from Codsall and Perton.

We've been making some Ben 10 alien watches...

...and, as ever, those brilliantly tall and colourful headdresses!

We've got 6 more days of this, then it's down to Bedfordshire for some rainforest-themed drumming sessions at the Children's University. Busy busy busy.

Jim

Crafts in Coventry #2

As promised, here are a few photos from today's workshop with KS2.

They made storybooks...

...and headdresses...

...and everyone had a great time!

We're heading down to South Staffordshire for the next fortnight to run the rest of our summer craft workshops. So there's plenty of planning to do!

Crafts in Coventry

Here are a few photos from the first of two craft workshops we're running this summer at Southfields Primary School in Coventry (where we made our glorious tiger mosaic, and filmed our first video diary). Today we worked with some local KS1 children who each made their very own magical story book starring their very own wizard or witch!

They made and bound their books, then designed houses, potions, spells, and monsters to fill it.

At the end they added words to their pictures to complete the story.

Seven Summer Hats for a School in Slough

So much for a relaxing end of term! We spent the last week before the summer holidays at Marish Primary School in Slough, making headdresses with (almost) all of its 640 children.

Each year group needed something different to wear for the procession at their annual Dance Festival (called Let's Dance), so we put our heads together and came up with 7 designs for 7 workshops: Reception made some colourful Rainbows; Y1 a night sky with a big yellow Moon; Y2 made feathers for their Air themed hats; Y3 did some brilliant, tall Fire headdresses; Y4 made long, sharp blades of grass to represent Earth; Y5 echoed their Water theme with wispy strips of shiny film; and Y6 made some impressive firey Suns.

Getting through all of the classes in just 5 days was certainly a challenge! But we got it done, and the results of the project are brilliant. We've been promised some photos from the event, so I'll pop those up as soon as they arrive.

Many thanks to Lucy for helping us out on the Monday when I couldn't be there. You did us proud! Does that mean that you're officially the Third Big Art Person though? We'll have to wait and see...

The Big Cat People

The Big Art People have been at those pebbles again! This time we spent 6 glorious days at St. James' Junior School in the centre of Derby, working with ALL year groups to produce these, frankly wonderful looking, big cats:

The designs are based on the school's 4 houses: Panther, Tiger, Lion, and Ocelot. Tim sketched them back in the office:

At the school the pebbles were sorted into colours, and the the four big cats were laid out in sandboxes. They were then painstakingly transferred, pebble by pebble, onto the wall by us and the children:

It was a tricky project to get right, but everyone worked really hard and I think you'll agree that the results are fantastic!

Thanks to all of the children at staff at the school; and special thanks to Andrew Buckenham for his help and support.

Jim (Big Artist)

Our First Video

You may have seen the Southfields Pebble Tiger skulking around our website in various places, well here is a video diary we made in the process edited down from hundreds of hours of footage into 5 minutes of pure viewing pleasure by Jim, just for you.

Hope you enjoy it!

Pick up the pieces

The other week we went to Holmes Chapel Primary School in Cheshire to help with their art week this year. It was an exciting week filled with paint, mosaics, mod-roc and superlambananas as different artists worked with different year groups over the course of the week on a variety of different projects. We worked with KS1 to produce a giant collaborative mural made up of 165 tiles, featuring their local viaduct over the river Dane.

We started with a photo of the viaduct, which Tim, using a variety of computer wizardry, turned into this watercolour style design:

This was then chopped up into 112 tile-sized pieces.

After covering their tiles with a special paper coating, the children were each given a slice of the painting to try to repaint with painstaking precision onto their tile.

It was a real challenge to mix the right colours and try to copy the abstract shapes that would eventually make up the final image, but with us on hand to help out they got the hang of it!

The reception children were given the task of painting a border for the picture. We chose oak leaves as they feature on the school's logo and the school colours, yellow and blue.

By day 3 the painting was really starting to come together:

Then on day four....

151 children, 165 tiles, 1 massive picture!

It's muraltastic!

Whitefriars Infant School in Northamptonshire needed their playground wall brightening up... so who did they call? The Big Art People of course.
We were asked to do a big bright mural along a minibeasts theme, so first we got the children to produce some designs, then took an element from each one to produce this mockup of the final piece:


Everyone was happy with the design so we packed up our paints and headed down to the school. We passed two very windy days painstakingly transferring the children's wonderful minibeasts onto the wall:


Everyone was really pleased with the final piece. It certainly brightens up the playground! And it's all the children's work.
Hopefully we'll be back at Whitefriars next school year to do another giant art project on the front of the school. Any ideas?!

Jim (Big Artist)