First Steps Final Workshop

Today was the last day of the workshops and we finished the sculpture! A few adjustments and an addition of extra details ...

Then we were done!

I'm really pleased with how well the workshops went and how much work the girls got done. The skills have really improved from the first day.

We have come up with a name for the piece 'Pregnant and Proud: Unconditional Love' and we will keep the blog updated with news of the exhibition.

First Steps

It was the second to last day of the wire sculpture workshops and things are really starting to come together. There was a slight change of plan for the feet and the face took a new turn, we even have a baby to add to the sculpture now.

By the end of the day we could see real progress, so we are hopefully going to reach our target of a finished sculpture by the end of tomorrow, with hopefully a bit of time left over to make some decisions about the exhibition.

First Steps

Day three of the wire sculpture workshops saw more new faces and the shape of the sculpture really coming together.

The group worked together to begin assembling the different parts.

Still more work to do but we are getting there. Great news too, AirSpace Gallery have kindly offered to let us display the work in the gallery window, dates to be confirmed!

First Steps

The second day of the workshop and things have really started developing. We started with a quick introduction for some new members then continued to experiment with the wire and adding different materials, including fabric, tape and beads.

Then we made some decisions about the final sculpture and started putting together the skeleton of the final piece.

I'm really excited to see the shape of the sculpture coming together...

First Steps Workshops

This week I am working with a group of young women with the charity First Steps. We are experimenting with wire sculpture techniques with a view to creating a final piece by the end of the week. At the moment the idea is to create something that celebrates the form of the pregnant woman, as most of the group are pregnant or are mothers. We are hoping to exhibit the art work somewhere in the city of Stoke on Trent.

We are delivering the workshops at AirSpace Gallery in their amazing resource room, Glen gave us a tour of the gallery and a short talk on the British Ceramics Biennial exhibition Totem that was taken down yesterday. The artwork provoked some honest opinions from the group.

We also saw the AirSpace Yarden project which is well worth a visit.

We spent the rest of the day experimenting with different types of wire and different techniques. The group created some amazing sculptures...

A Contradiction

I spent last weekend at Stockport Story Museum working with some of the audience development team and some local young people to create an installation. The installation is to be part of the the Urban Revolution: We Are Here exhibition that opens on the 10th November. The exhibition has been created and curated by the young people who volunteer at the museum.

The installation has been designed to show the young peoples' reactions to headlines in the media; the headlines are the sort that label all young people as bad and highlight the negative. The sculpture is designed to concentrate on the positive and as it happens the majority.

The first day was spent experimenting with different types of sculpture, we started with wire:



Then moved on to wood:



And finally clay:



The idea was to choose what materials everyone would like to use the following day for their sculptures. We also chose to use tree cross sections and branches to represent the new knowledge gained by the people who have visited the exhibition.
This is the final installation:



And some close ups of the individual sculptures that were made:



I really enjoyed my time at the Museum, it's a great place to visit and everyone was welcoming. I'm really pleased with the sculptures and the installation and can't wait to see it in the exhibition.

Moorside High School

I went in to Moorside High School this week to help some year 8 pupils make sculptures for the Science garden at the school.

We started the morning off with some stick men to get used to the new materials and find different ways of working with the wire...



We then moved on to some sculptures for the garden, the pupils were given a few hints about how to start with these flowers but the rest they made up themselves and they came up with some really great ideas...



Then in the afternoon we moved on to bugs, some of the bugs were based on pictures that had been brought in and others were completely made up...



These sculptures are going to look great decorating the walls of the garden, they can be secured into the ground or attached to a trellis. They could also be painted with spray paints to add a bit of colour, but I quite like them as they are.