Block Printing

Callum creating an invite

This time at ArtWorks, we were block printing.  We made our own print blocks using polystyrene rather than lino and then used them to print invites to our exhibition on 18th June.  The variety of prints was great.  Some of the kids really got into the idea of making multiples of one block, others just wanted to make more and more blocks.

Elizabeth rolling to ensure a good print

Everyone wanting to use the yellow at the same time

Erin inking her block

There were so many prints, they covered lots of space when I laid them out to dry, but they all looked wonderfully colourful together.

After making a square block for the first print, we had my year's supply of polystyrene pizza bases to make larger round prints.  These proved harder to get good prints, but some of them turned out really well. 

Saturday is the last week of this session and I think some of the kids want to do more printing...

Going potty

We've been really lucky with people helping us out recently.  Play Services, run by our local council, lent us a potters' wheel, one of the mums donated some clay and Saffron, Honor's mum, who trained as a potter, came in to help the kids have a go at throwing pots.

Everyone had a go and guided by Saffron, they were all successful.

We also made pinch pots and coil pots. 

Our run of great help has continued and the pots were fired at Ballikinrain School.  Very kindly, John Lightbody, the Art and Design Teacher there, lent us some glaze so on Saturday the pots got painted.  They are now back off to the kiln to be fired again in time for our exhibition on the 18th June.

Drawing to Music

This group liked gentle music in the background to draw to and using it to give ideas for their work.

This group liked drawing in time to fast rock music.  The tables were bouncing!

Mavia, Celie and Harry experimented with the chalk based pastels and charcoal to see what effects they could get.

Felt making morning

FAB (Friends of Art Balfron), who run ArtWorks, is having a free felt making workshop on Saturday 26th March.  We will be making pieces of felt, large and small, and it is a wonderful, hands-on, tactile activity.  Felt is suitable for all age groups from very young (the felt in the picture was made by children at Balfron Primary School Nursery) to the very old.
We are hoping that some of the finished felt will go on display in Balfron after the event.
COME AND JOIN US for 10 mins or all three hours.  Everyone is welcome.

Painting the totem poles

 

This week after two other sessions on our sculptures, the youngest group finally reached the important painting session.  These are in-progress shots and the room was amazingly quiet as they all concentrated on getting the best outcome for their models.

I haven't taken photos of the finished pieces yet as we were rather pre-occupied with the older groups who were painting their models white to give a better coverage of colour when they finally get set loose with it.  But watch this space - the photos will be here soon!

Trading cards

After our February holiday break, we were back on Saturday making artist trading cards.  The children all swapped one of their cards with us and these are the ones we were given.  We made sheets of them, so each child went away with nine cards to swap.

 

We used a variety of papers such as newspaper, old drawings, used wrapping paper and a holiday brochure.  My children had helped to eat the Quality Street sweeties so we could use the wrappers too.  The only 'new' paper used was some tissue paper and the card for the base for the cards.

Some people also added details in pen or by stamping their cards with little letter stamps.

Drawing Trees using objects

 

Last Saturday we drew around various household objects to make pictures of trees.  There were scissors, knobbly coasters, medicine spoons and CDs, among other things.  After drawing the objects, they were coloured using felt-tip pens. The drawings were amazingly different.  As these were large drawings (A2), they were not finished, so hopefully they will be completed next week.