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.

Saturday Creative Club IV

This week was my last Creative Club with Borderland Voices. I'm really sad to leave the group but am really happy with all the things that they have learnt. Julie was here to help today and all the girls had some useful hints to help her with her wire sculpture. This is what she came up with...



We decided to make different things this week so we had some wonderful different designs. Ashleigh had finished off her horse at home and brought him/her in for us to see...

She also put some paper onto her Dragonfly's wings which looks great!


Then she made this lizzard...(again thanks to Paul for providing us with the background)

And then this for Tip our little visitor...

Holly made this brilliant elephant...



and quickly put together this bird for her Mum...



Aber spent a lot of time on this rabbit and I think it was really worth the effort...


And quickly made this tiny frog before having to go...

I made a little Tip sculpture too. I really enjoyed my workshops with Borderland Voices, thank you for having me!

St Ethelwold's Primary School

My last workshop for Oriel Wrecsam was with St Ethelwold's Primary School. I had already been there last week to do some animation workshops...


Again we started with the pipe cleaners...



and quickly moved on to the trickier garden wire...



And finally we made some beautiful butterflies!



The butterflies were decorated with pipe cleaners and all looked great!

Brynteg Primary School II

My second day at Brynteg was with Mrs Pugh's class. We started with the pipe cleaner men...


Then practiced with the garden wire...



Then attempted to make some Japanese rice bowls. Inspired by a subject the class were already working with...

Mrs Pugh said that the class might work on the bowls again, perhaps decorating them with papier mache so that they can paint them.