Another great day of workshops – this time with Brigstock Latham’s Reception and Year 1. Lovely thoughtful work with lots of enthusiasm for the interesting noises!
Part two today, and hoping to finish 20 fruitflowers ready for installation with a further 9 painted ready for next week.
Back to the lovely Studfall Infants today where we had the funniest time trying to get the footballs out of the fruit – whole thing brought new emphasis to the title ‘Strained Fruit’!
I now have a secret trick (let the football down a bit first) to save an hour or two!
They finished off their fruit/flower and we put all the bits together. This is my favourite part of a multiple participant project – where all the seemingly incomprehensible bits come together to make something strange and magical. Squeals of delight were heard when we tested each one out – and they all look amazing!
Great first day of workshops with lovely Year 1 and Reception children from Studfall Infants. Abominable weather raining around the edges of the outdoor classroom but we managed to get eight ‘fruit’ and all the leaves made in pairs of children mixing year one and reception together so that they could help each other. Pumps were also painted in green patterns.
The problem with the weather didn’t help drying time so part two – putting it all together – will be tomorrow’s task. My big bag of colourful tights has been streamlined into neatly cut sections ready for choosing the covering sections. I will have to do the glue coating on all the pumps myself but I was expecting that.
One last logistics question is how to paint 60m of tubing green…..
Tomorrow will my first making session for the project. Despite several niggles I have prepared all the materials, and have some (now working – phew) samples of the ‘fruit’. Sound still needs finalising but this will be for me to do not the children. That will be a (hopefully nice) surpirse when they get to the installation site.
I really hope it all goes to plan and the children enjoy it. Only a little nervous…
Today I have been trying to get the last few bits and pieces ready for workshops over the next couple of weeks. Within a restricted amount of workshop time, there is always the practical problem of how long things take to dry. It is funny how silly little practical problems like this can dictate what exactly can be achieved by the workshop participants. Ideally I would like them to be making every little decision – choosing every colour and doing every bit of the project production. But in reality, especially when working with young children, there is a certain amount of base work that needs to be done so that they can do the interesting bits on top.
Generally speaking this if fine with me. I can paint balloon pumps until the cows come home and I find this kind of ‘piece work’ a kind of meditation. It is nice to be able to listen to 6music without having to think too hard and just get the job done.
I love how all the various bits look, in green, in formation.
Socially disengaged artist
