Clay Paper Scissors

Another wonderful day in Fishpond woods. Warm, sunny, relaxed and creative - what could be better! Tote bags were decorated with blackberry dye, ferns were used to create stunning prints, wreaths made from hazel branches and decorated with lavender and assorted herbs and lots of new clay techniques explored. Best of all for some of the children, was the mud kitchen and making pasta and mud pies! You're never to old!

As we love encouraging youngsters to engage with the natural world through art, we used the theme of butterflies to help celebrate 'The Big Butterfly Count'. Using a range of collage and loose part materials, the children created their own 3D butterflies. Clay butterflies were made from rolled slabs and templates; pattern and colour was explored by using cotton buds to make reflective butterflies and leaves used to print butterfly wings. A busy and productive morning.

To support The Great Big Green Week we spent one Saturday afternoon exploring the colour green. We printed leaves on the large printing press in the studio, which is always exciting; colour mixing different greens using the two primaries blue and yellow; explored line and shape by indenting into clay leaves and finally using The Big Green Logo for inspiration, we made paper bag hearts.

If you are interested in joining us this Friday (16th Aug) we are joining Rich Roy from Wildale Forest School for a day of creative fun and forest school learning. We'll be in the glorious Fishpond Woods in Bewerley. Please visit our website for more details:
https://www.claypaperscissors.art/book-online

We spent a wonderful day in the glorious Fishpond Woods on Friday. What a treat! Although it started windy and a bit chilly, by the afternoon the sun was casting beautiful shadows between the trees. There were endearing baby ducklings paddling about, bird song and a bunch of happy, relaxed children.

Being in such a unique, natural setting ensures that inspiration is around every corner. Using a range of greens and earth colour paints, the children had a ball splatter painting a big sheet of cotton suspended between two trees. Once dry, the sheet was cut up and turned into wall hangings. Details were added by including wooden threaded beads, pine cones and origami birds.

We encouraged the children to dig up some mud to make paint and smear assorted flowers onto sheets of paper. This paper was then folded to make different origami birds.

Nettles were stewed for several days to create a pale green ink. Plants were gathered and laid out into pleasing compositions. Along with the nettle ink, the plants were used as stencils to create delicate prints. As the ink dried it became darker.

What could be better than standing outside in the sunshine, chatting to friends and investigating clay! Clay was moulded into little birds and the clay tools were used to add texture to their bodies. One child discovered that a garlic press is fantastic at creating strands that look like the twigs birds use to make a nest. Perfect!

We hope to run more creative woodland sessions during the summer holidays. Details will be sent out once we are able to confirm dates.

Thanks everyone for a lovely day and look forward to next time!

Beautiful Blue!

To celebrate the fabulous bluebells appearing in the local woods near the studio, we thought investigating the colour blue would be appropriate. The children really enjoyed learning about a range of different blues such as cobalt, cerulean and indigo.

Soft pastels were available to create individual interpretations of a bluebell wood. Soft pastels are messy and need spraying with fixative to ensure motifs do not smudge. Cotton buds, sticks and acrylic paint were used to add the flowers.

Happa Zome is a form of Japanese printing whereby flowers and plants are printed onto fabric. Pansies are especially effective at creating pronounced prints as are forget-me-nots and soft leaves.

We provided a range of blue loose parts to be used with clay. The children had the freedom to explore and create a relief however they wished - provided it included blue things!

Hurray, Spring is officially here, albeit with a great deal of rain!

With the rain in mind, we made wall hangings inspired by the shape and colours of raindrops.

The children really enjoyed coming up their own ideas about what to make with the clay. We had raindrop reliefs, raindrop dishes and cheerful rabbits!

To add some freshness and colour, spring collages were created with layered tissue paper and pom poms. This ended up with very sticky fingers!

Wax resist and watercolours were used to produce watery impressions. It was important to push really hard with the wax crayons to make sure the rainy marks showed up.

We will be running an afternoon workshop on Saturday 27th April. Please go to our bookings page to sign up. We look forward to seeing you soon!

At last, Spring is slowly appearing after a wet and dark winter. We spent a cheery session exploring colour, mark making, line, texture and form.

Grey paint was mixed to create a wintery background and then, using a range of soft pastels, the children created atmospheric spring flower drawings.

We taught the children how to make coil pots. This technique needs lots of practice to ensure the coils are of a consistent width. Adding the decorative details is always a fun way to end the process.

Having made the clay pots the children needed to put something in them! The obvious choice was early spring flowers. Providing a range of loose parts for the children to 'fiddle' with, enhanced their problem solving skills and strengthened their fine motor control.

There is always something magical about the printing process as you're never quite sure what's going to happen. Monoprints were made by covering a piece of card with tin foil. Printing ink was rolled over the foil and motifs drawn into it using cotton buds.

To cheer up a grey and chilly January, we ran a winter creative workshop. We explored shape, colour, line, texture, pattern and form. Little fingers were strengthened and originality celebrated. Well done everyone and look forward to seeing you next weekend.

We spent a very busy Saturday creating winter wonderland model boxes and Christmas jumper collages.

A range of 3D and collage materials were used to widen the children's knowledge and language development. The elements of colour, line, texture and form were all explored in a relaxed and productive way.

Well done everyone for creating such delightful and atmospheric artwork. Just lovely!

We ran an autumn workshop just before the storms arrived so we fortunately managed to see leaves still on the trees.

Using a range of watercolour washes and wax crayons the children created theses atmospheric pictures. Being autumn, colour was a major influence.

These striking lanterns were made from waxed paper normally used to wrap up cheese! Autumn leaves were sandwiched between 2 layers of paper and then ironed. The heat from the iron melted the wax, which ended up like glue. Cheese boxes were used as a base and decorated with natural autumnal objects. A tea light was put in a glass jar and then inserted into the lantern. Once lite, the stunning colours from the leaves glowed warmly.

Multicoloured sweetcorn inspired the children to look closely at the shape and colours of the kernels. Black outlines were drawn and soft pastels smudged with cotton buds to blend the colours.