Artclub visit to Stanhope Community Centre to see paintings

On Thursday July 11th the children who are in the artclub invited their families and friends to come and see their completed paintings.  They are on display at Stanhope Community Centre, where they have been designed for.

The artclub was asked by Claire Hogg, who is a Community Outreach Worker based at the Children's Centre in Lofthouse to make some artwork to brighten up the walls as they were bare.

As the community centre hosts a toddler's breakfast group we thought that large brightly coloured fruits would be simple and effective.  The idea developed into mosaics and mixed media paintings were the outcome.

We used the children's book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" as inspiration for the paintings and we created our own version of each of the fruits he eats.  The caterpillar makes an appearance in each of the paintings too.



All the children had their picture taken for the Rothwell Record in front of one of the paintings.

They all agreed they looked great in situ and showed their friends and families which part of the paintings they had done.

Everybody enjoyed looking at the artwork and hopefully all those people who visit the community centre will do too.

Our Visit to the Civic Hall, Leeds.

On Monday 1st July Isabelle, Jayden and myself headed into Leeds to go to the Civic Hall.
We were going to see our pom-pom owl which is on display in the Ante Chamber.  When we arrived we were met by our Chair of Governors, Councillor Lisa Mulherin who then introduced us to the Lord Mayor. 

We posed for some photographs and Isabelle and Jayden answered lots of questions about how we had made the owls. They were then each given an owl brooch to keep.

We were lucky enough to have a tour of part of the building.  We saw lots of gifts from people who had come to visit Leeds.  We saw where all the Councillors sit to debate important issues in Leeds and the Banqueting Suite where functions are held.

 The Lord Mayor showed us his office and also the Lady Mayoress' Room.  Here, Isabelle and Jayden sat in the very same room as the Queen sat when she visited the Civic Hall.

From this room we were able to stand on the balcony and look out into the street below and to Millennium Square on the left.

When we arrived back to the Ante Chamber there were many people who were asking questions about how we had made the owl and they all agreed how fascinating it is. Isabelle said that answering the questions was one of the best things of the day.

We just checked the owl over before we left, where it will be on display until 2nd September.
It was a fabulous visit and thankyou very much to everyone at the Civic Hall for welcoming us so warmly.

Making the owls

Why owls? 

Well after the success of the pom-pom sheep project last year in conjunction with Armley Mills, Leeds, many of the pupils kept asking me when were we going to have another pom-pom day? 

I also had a lot of natural coloured wool left over from the project kindly donated by the school community and Edward Hill @ Sons, Bradford and was thinking of another pom-pom animal project.

The owl is such an important symbol associated with Leeds:- it is on Leeds' Coat of Arms (as is a sheep) and you can see them all over the city in so many places, if you look for them, (see The Owl Trail). It simply had to be an owl. Then I wanted to make an owl in school colours as well, so they became two.

Here is a video of how it all went.

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.