In June 2010 I worked with year 9 pupils at Little Lever School in Bolton, Manchester. The teacher of the class wanted the students to try some new techniques in preperation for their GCSE years. She felt that some of the students were not very confident with their work, and that bringing an artist in would provide them with some new inspiration. It was a very busy day but we fitted in a number of different workshops. I began by talking through my portfolio before getting the students started on some drawing work. I encouraged students to be expressive with their drawing styles and allowed them to experiment with a large number of materials. In the afternoon students were allowed to work in an area that interested them the most. Some students began producing large scale collages in which they were also encouraged to hand or machine stitch into their work. Other students were able to experiment with Manutex Printing, producing some very successful results!  

 

                           

 

 

                                    

 

 

       

 

                                              

 

 

 

In July 2009 my sister and I visited Halewood College to take part in the schools enterprise week. The year 9 students who had chosen Art as their GCSE subject, were given the opportunity to take part in the workshops and activities that we had planned for the week. The theme of the project was the natural world, so we included a trip to the World Museum in Liverpool. The students photographed and sketched a variety of subjects from the natural world, including sea life, fossils, botanical subjects and insects. We talked through our portfolios with the students, and discussed some of the techniques that they would later consider putting into their own work. The week involved:

                        

  

                                            

 

The students final pieces demonstrated the techniques that were discovered during the enterprise week. We encouraged the students to be creative and imaginative in their approach to their final pieces. The students produced their background fabrics by painting procium dyes onto cotton. We demonstrated the uses of Bondaweb so that the students were able to collage shapes onto their background fabric. A mixture of hand and machine embroidery was added to create some very interesting effects.