Rockcliffe Banner

Some of the students I was working with. This picture was in the News and Star

After much stress and stitching I finally got the rings finished for the banner I've been making with Rockcliffe C of E Primary School. One of the teachers very kindly saved me much stress by putting the banner together for me ready for the torch parade through Carlisle. Whilst making the rings I realised that there is a very good reason why people don't make 3D banners; they're time consuming and don't hold their shape easily! However, the finished result was (I hope) worth all the effort.

Patches ready for stitching

Stitching the patches together

Ring made and drying off

I enjoyed working with the children and staff at the school so much and hope to work with them again. It was great working with enthusiastic people open to giving things a go and getting involved. After I'd worked with the children we did a 'parents evening' for parents and members of the community to come and see what the students had been up to and to have a go themselves. The patches resulting from this session were made into the red ring.

The rings laid out in my living room-this thing is huge!

Detail of the rings

Red ring

Red detail

Green detail (collagraphs)

Red detail (screen print)

Banner Making at Rockcliffe

Screen Printed Designs

My major project of last week was being at Rockcliffe C of E Primary School doing two days of banner making with the students. Last year I worked with the school as part of my job at Heathlands and it was such a nice place to work that I asked if they wanted a freelance artist to work with them. Luckily for me they said yes and said they wanted to do a banner for the Olympics. So, I put my thinking cap on and came up with a design. I'm currently somewhat regretting this design as it involves making 5 3D rings which are proving rather more problematic than I anticipated. However, the bit where I was in school working with the students was great fun.

Collagraph Patch

I worked with each different class group and taught each group a different printing technique. Each class group had chosen a colour and continent relating to the Olympic rings and looked at the Olympic values as a starting point for their designs. I got each group to print on their chosen colour fabric in the same colour (e.g. green on green) to keep the finished rings looking professional but I did use puff binder so that the designs would stand out and make the banner more tactile. Each child had a patch of fabric which they printed on and I'm currently sewing them all together to make the rings.I think the children really enjoyed the process and have come up with some great results. There are several things I would change were I to do this project again but that's all part of the experience!

Block Printed Patches

The staff were all really supportive, even though I turned their class rooms into mess pits and I hope to work with the school again. I'm looking forward to running an after school session for parents and members of the community to make the patches for the final ring next week.

Lino Printed Patch

(Almost) finished ring. This is going to be big

Lino Prints stitched together

Cyclist

Strip of patches hanging over my door

Dinosaurs and children

Big Draw, Big Dinosaur

As part of the Big Draw (a national campaign for drawing) we at The Heathlands Project are working with a local school in Rockcliffe. Today we worked with reception and years 5&6. The theme of this years Big Draw is 'The Drawing Age' and so my friend and colleague Helen, who has set up our Big Draw open day on 8th October, thought it would be a great chance to look at drawing from the past, in the present and how it could be in the future. So, starting with pre-history and the reception class we all worked together to collage a giant stegosaurus that Helen had drawn out and then over the collage we drew on the scales. The finished dinosaur looks great, it's really effective and the children really enjoyed working on it as did our members (we support adults with learning disabilities.) Helen worked with the older children to produce hand leaves to make a tree, each person's hand features a drawing of something important to them.

Dino Detail