Morpeth School

The project at Morpeth school consisted of two short day workshops (11.15 to 3.15 inc. lunch)

The first workshop was run by Sarah, the second by Gina.
A different group of 20 year 8 children were involved each week. Two art teachers and several classroom assistants attended both sessions.

Cloth of gold were invited to introduce screen and mono-printing to the pupils and teachers with the intention that they could then fashion a longer term project to make some large scale banners, themselves, based around the techniques learnt in the two workshops.

The children prior to the project had been out in their local area and done some observation drawing and worked on ideas around feelings evoked from certain landscapes. This is to be the theme of their long term project. Sarah’s group had cut stencils and shapes before the workshop. She worked on pieces of fabric the same size as the extra large screen. The fabric was mono-printed by four children and then screen printed with their pre-prepared shapes.
The teachers hadn’t understood the need to have a parallel activity going on so it was felt this approach left too much waiting around

time between mono and screen printing. It was also felt that the pieces of fabric didn’t need to be used for anything so the whole approach could be more experimental. This was conveyed to me before I went to do my workshop.

I took in loads of textured surfaces that I use in my own practice and set groups of five up mono-printing. I talked about colour ranges and the danger of taking a mono-print too far. But I very much let the children control their own pieces. They worked either on a group, pair, or individual piece of fabric.
This group didn’t have any shapes prepared so when they weren’t mono-printing they were drawing up their stencils or shapes inspired by their observation drawings.

In the hour and half after lunch we screen printed everyone’s shapes with a combination of large and small screens. Conversationally I tried to point out, whilst working, potential pitfalls and handy hints to both staff and kids in order that they may be able to do it on their own.
I repeated some children’s motifs to show that as one of the advantages of screen printing.

The day had an air of productive chaos with 20 children all busy learning new techniques. The final pieces showed that the children had controlled their own work, some pieces obviously were better than others.
Everyone seemed to have a grasp of the processes and I think it gave the teachers a realistic idea of what larger scale fabric printing is like within a classroom context. GS

Open House Day at SCCS

Open House. Sat 16th September at South Camden Community School.
This workshop was to celebrate Architecture in London and many of the listed buildings were open to the public.

SCCS has a newly designed IT extension which was part of the accredited architectural buildings and the school thought that it would be a good idea to run a print workshop for the public, so that people could make use of some of the facilities on offer at SCCS.
We asked people to think about their ‘dream house’ or ‘building’ draw a stencil, cut and print a panel.

We had brought some reference to inspire and encourage them to have a go. We probably saw about 45-50 people, of all ages, not all of them wanted to print but lots of people came and asked questions about textiles at South Camden, about Cloth of Gold and projects we might be doing in the future.
It was really well attended and the feedback from the school was very good. Here’s feedback from the Headteacher Rosmary Leake:
‘Many thanks for the very successful organisation – as I said in briefing, a very effective day. Definitely a good move to have the print workshop – one of the parents I showed round this morning had been in it with her two children and spoke very positively about it....
And to everyone else who generously gave their time and energy to help the day go well – many thanks!’

Also from the event organiser:

‘Thank You for all your help and support for Open House last Saturday. We had many visitors, the vast majority being prospective parents and local residents. Feedback on the print workshop and Bollywood dancing was very good’
SD

St Joseph's

In wk beginning 18th Sept O6 I worked at St Joseph’s RC Primary School , London Bridge with the Y3 class over 2½ days.

On the first half day we did a portrait drawing session (using mirrors) & also a drawing session to create the religious symbols they wanted on the banner.

The portraits were great, they were all photocopied prior to cutting so that the originals could be used for a display, I cut out the photocopies.

The workshops all went very well, despite the teacher being unwell, and the fact that we were unable to have Y6 students to help cut. I did all the cutting with a little bit of help from two classroom helpers I worked through both lunch times to get the cutting finished and the printing was finished by 3.20 on the last day. When we did a Q & A session. . It was also quite a challenge printing such a large banner in the classroom but it all went fine, and they were very pleased with the end result & the children loved it. SP

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St Columbus

Dan & I had two great days working at St Columbus Catholic Boys School in Bexleyheath. We were also assisted by Eliana one of our flight paths artists who was extremely helpful.

Dan & I were both printing banners in separate but adjoining art rooms with a group of 15 -20 students each. On day one we both had Y9 groups on day 2 we both had Y7 groups. On day one Dan was allocated ‘Aboriginal’ art as a theme & I was given ‘Africa’. The school was very good at providing a range of support material to work from.
These two banners are going to be hung in the school hall alongside the one I did at St C’ last year.

Day 2 the chosen theme was Renaissance art with a religious focus. The banners are both going to be hung in the schools chapel. Dan & I designed the banners together so they had a similar look, his chosen central figure was Jesus & I did Mary..

Both days got quite competitive between the two groups and Day 2 was dubbed the ‘Renaissance War’ as both groups were convinced their banners were better than the other.. I think we were both quite ambitious in our Banner designs on day 2 as we were both printing frantically through all breaks to finish in time.. which we did!

The School was very pleased with all the work. SP