Introducing the second owl...

Here is the second owl we made from the pom-poms made on March 1st in our school pom-pom day.

This one has been made in school colours and is to be displayed in school.  The colours have been inspired by our school theme and match the pom-pom sheep we made last year.

This owl is going to remain in school on display for people to see.

Like the other owl, the artclub helped to papermache, paint it and stick the pom-poms on it, which you can see on the Art and Creativity blog http://artandcreativityrobinhood.blogspot.co.uk

We have added knitted material to provide a contrast to the texture of the pom-poms. You can see this on the wings and on the back.  Feathers were also added to the beak and tummy.

We hope you like our owls.  We have had fun making them.

The Robin Hood Owls - finished...

May I present to you the first of the Robin Hood Owls.  He is standing very proud waiting to greet people as they come into our school office.

 

He has been inspired by "Gazza", the hand-reared barn owl at Lotherton Hall.

All the children in school made a pom-pom on March 1st 2013 that has gone to make both owls (the other to follow).

The body is made from wire and paper mached over by the Artclub.  When this had dried, they painted the owl white.

The children in the Artclub then advised which pom-poms looked good next to eachother, taking colour and texture into consideration.

Shortly, I will put the making of the owls on to the blog so you can see how they have been made.

My visit to Lotherton Hall on Saturday 20th April

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of visiting Lotherton Hall again to see the owls that live in the bird garden.  Once there, I met Gascoigne, or "Gazza" as he is known.  He has been hand - reared at Lotherton Hall and is named after the family who once owned the estate "The Gascoignes"

I was really lucky to see Gazza up close.  His handler, Richard Wardle brought him out of his habitat for me to have a closer look. Gazza is so beautiful and straight away I knew I wanted to make our model owls inspired by him.

Richard had looked after Gazza since he was in his egg and had huge knowlege about him.  As Gazza moved around on Richard's hand I was able to see how his wings folded and how he moved.

Richard showed us the edge of his wings and explained that the reason for there being a "comb construction" on the wing's edge is so that the owl can move through the air silently to catch it's prey.  I very much doubt we will be able to create that subtlety with pom-poms, but hey, what a fascinating fact!

Tomorrow in Artclub we will be painting both owls!  They are as tall as me and this evening I made their beaks. I will put some pictures on the Art and Creativity blog this week so you can see how they are progressing.

Thankyou so much to the staff in the bird garden for taking the time to talk to me and letting me meet Gazza.  I had a lovely morning.

Pom-Pom Day - March 1st

On Friday March 1st in the afternoon, the pupils in school, from Nursery up until Year 6, spent an hour making their own pom-pom.

 

 

It was a busy time, wrapping wool around the cardboard discs.  I visited all the phases and all the children were enjoying the experience.  In fact, in Nursery we have been making pom-poms during the week to strengthen our motor skills - and we have made some lovely ones! 

Everyone at Friendly Faces has also been busy making pom-poms.

 

 

 

 

Each of the pom-poms will be part of the two owls we are making in school, in just the same way as we made our Robin Hood Primary School Sheep last year.

 

 

 

 

One of our owls will be in our school colours (like our sheep), whilst the other will be in natural colours.

 

 

 

If anybody has taken any unfinished pom-poms they wanted to finish at home, then now is the time to bring them in.  We are currently up to approximately four hundred finished poms-poms (with some still to complete).  That means there will be two hundred for each owl.

 

 

Also if any Year 4's would like to make a pom-pom, please let me know, as I know you were swimming when we were making them.  Then I can let you have some wool and the templates.

I am busy making the wire structures for the bodies and I am looking forward to working with the KS2 Artclub next week to paper mache them.

 

 

 



What you think our Owl Sculptures should look like?

Here are some of the brilliant designs created by you.

 At the Christmas Fair I asked you to think what you thought our school owls should look like and here are a few that you designed.

 

 

On Saturday I visited Lotherton Hall where I met Tim Waddington, who is the Bird Garden Officer.  It was fascinating watching how the owls moved and looked when sitting still.

 

 

 

I am currently constructing the owl's head and body from wire so that it is ready for the KS2 Artclub to paper mache during the first week.  Thank you to all of you who have signed up for Artclub this term.  We have some very exciting projects lined up. 

 

 

Christmas grotto in our Nursery

This Christmas we have built a Santa's grotto in Nursery. 

 

 

We have used the backdrop for last year's Christmas production, made by the Artclub, and  hung pieces of voille in front and at the side to create an area where the children can play. 

 

 

They have enjoyed dressing up in the Christmas clothes, using the elf masks to act and simply enjoyed sitting on the bean bags looking at the Christmas books and tree.  It is great to be able to show off our children's artwork once again!

Launching our new project - the Robin Hood Pom-pom Owl

 

 

At the Christmas Fair on Saturday I was busy helping people make pom-poms.  Many pupils brought their families in to make pom-poms that will make the Robin Hood School owl.

 

 

Why an owl? 

 

 After our fabulous sheep project I have some lovely coloured yarn that just needs to be made into something.  This kind donation came from Edward Hill and Co. at Hollings Mill in Bradford and the Robin Hood School community.

 

For the sheep project we had to use wool as the exhibition it was made for was celebrating British wool. For this project there are no boundaries in what we can use, so wool, cotton, mixed yarns and feathers can all be included.

 

The creams, browns, blacks and greys are just the colours I would want to use to make an owl.

 

 

Of course, the Owl is synonymous with Leeds.  Owls appear on the Leeds Coat of Arms. Around the city centre, owls appear in many places - in Millennium Square, on St. Annes Cathedral and in the Leeds Tapestry, to name but a few. When I started researching the Leeds Owl I found out there are so many that there is a Leeds Owl trail where you can find the owls throughout the city www.leedsowltrail.com/.

 

At the fair I set the challenge of designing the Robin Hood Owl and many took me up on that challenge.



Lots of you have asked when we are having another pom-pom day in which every child in school makes a pom-pom.  The finished pom-pom will make up the finished owl.  This I will organise, so watch this space!

 

 

So thankyou for all your making - I hope you enjoyed the day as much as I did.

Robin Hood welcomes the Armley Mill's Sheep

The sheep made by Sarah Barton at Armley Mills has arrived in school.  Miss Hinton has found a home for it in our new reading area.  She said that as the sheep was so colourful it just looked perfect here.

The sheep was made for an exhibition at Armley Mills to celebrate British wool in October 2012.

Every child in our school made a pom-pom from wool which has made up the body of either this sheep or the Robin Hood Primary School Sheep.  Mums, Grandmas, Grandads, sisters, Friendly Faces all helped and as we had so many, we could make two life-sized models. 

They are now both on display in school for you to see.

I hope you like them.  Can you recognise the pom-pom you made?

Visit to Hollings Mill, Bradford

Today I had the pleasure of visiting Hollings Mill in Bradford.
The Mill's owners Edward Hill @ Co. kindly donated much of the wool for the Pom-Pom Sheep project.

Mark Hill showed me around the mill.  It has been a working mill since 1830 and is four floors high.
Mark talked me through the various stages in producing a ball of wool and I saw all the fascinating machinery, much of it had been there for many years.  One of the machines had the maker's stamp and year it was made which was 1930.

There was machinery which unwound wool from cones into hanks to make it suitable for dying and machinery that turned the hanks into balls of wool and I learned there are different ways to wind a ball of wool. I saw where the wool was "relaxed" which is like a sauna for wool!  This makes the wool soft. Another machine created fancy designs which had metallic threads woven into it, whilst Mark showed me a catalogue of all the different effects that can be made, dating back decades.

 

 



Wool can be manufactured here to individual requirements for customers all over the world and it's right here in Yorkshire!

 

 

So thankyou Edward Hill @ Co for donating some fabulous wool.  This is the sheep we made here at Robin Hood Primary School.

Introducing the Armley Mills Pom-Pom Sheep

Can I introduce the sheep made at Armley Mills by Sarah Barton and her team.  It is on display there alongside other pom-pom sheep to celebrate British Wool Week which starts on the 15th October. 

 

 

All the pom-poms have been made by Robin Hood Primary School pupils and it's community, and put together to make this life-sized sheep.

 

 

The other contributors to the exhibition are Hilltop Primary School, Halton District Brownies, Moortown Nursery, The Leeds South East Trefoil Guild, Batley Hall Nursing and Residential Home, Visitors to the Museum's 30th Birthday Party and members of the Museum's staff.

 

The idea for the exhibition was inspired by the "Join the Flock" project run by Eden Arts in Cumbria where they turned pom-poms into mini sheep.  At Armley Mills they decided to make life-sized sheep from pom-poms so the museum could have it's own flock.  As a life-sized sheep takes so, so many poms-poms it was decided to have sheep of varying sizes - which are all unique and very appealing.

 

 

The sheep will stay at Armley Mills until the end of October and then it will come to school so we can all see how fabulous it is. You could even try to recognise the pom-pom you made. 

 

Thankyou to Sarah Barton and her team for giving us a wonderful project to work with, Edward Hill and Co. Ltd of Bradford for donating such a lot of the wool for our sheep and all the Mums, Grandmas and helpers who made extra pom-poms....

 

I know the children have enjoyed making the pom - poms and now we have them on display in a Museum where people can see them and enjoy them too.