Summer Banner Project with children.

I did a week-long project with some Year 5/6 kids to make a summer banner for their school. I designed the background, and they drew their ideas for images and objects that were summer themed. I taught them some handstitch techniques- applique and couching- as well as some collaging methods, and they chose which they wanted for their piece.

I'm so pleased with the result, it's an amazing summer explosion! The kids were so proud of their work, and they helped me with the composition and the narrative of a river running from their school to Robin Hoods Bay (where they had a residential). I hope they keep it up for a long time.

Fungal Junk Infection.

This collaborative project with Becky Smyllie was really short but so much fun. We aimed to use mainly recycled materials and rubbish to create mythical fungi growths for a garden exhibition.

STATEMENT:

Plant fungi have associations with both medicine and magic. Their appearance and structure can be beautiful, revolting, and almost alien. Taking inspiration from our recent work with recycled materials on the costumes of the Manchester Day Parade, we have created our own junk fungal growths. The pieces play with the contrast between the natural and unnatural, as well as exploring the effects of littering.

Crafty Growths

I carried on my germs theme in my Craft supporting study, because I enjoyed it so much and had a lot of ideas left unexplored. I still think I have more to do with all this, and will probably take it into 3rd year. I had fun with this 3 weeks, bringing my germs onto the body. And my lovely model, Joy Morris, did me a big favour and let me blob paint all over her face.