In March of last year I was commissioned by Worthen CE Primary School in Shropshire to produce a large textile wall hanging for their assembly hall, reflecting their eco-friendly ethos. The brief was to involve all children in the senior class to create samples, using mixed media techniques and to then form these into a final piece. I spent two working days with the pupils and taught such techniques as bondaweb, tyvek and heat transfer. Below is the image of the school that I had to create on the wall hanging.
I independently taught groups of five at a time.
Below you can see the end result of my wall hanging. I chose to work with heavy weight calico for the base and used a combination of machine and hand stitch to apply the childrens work to the fabric. I thoroughly enjoyed this experience and couldnt of wished to have worked at a better school. The staff were very welcoming and the school was very enthusiastic towards art. Surrounding the school building there were numerous sculptures and within the school hall there were felt and mosaic hangings. It was an honour to have my work placed among these already existing art pieces.
This experience gave me an opportunity to present myself as a professional artist/designer. I had to research appropriate materials and techniques that the children could work with but also have my wits about me with regards to health and safety. I then had to brief this to the headmaster to be allowed approval. Below is a reference from the headmaster Mr J Brough and the teacher who initiated for me to come to the school Mr D Lloyd.
Following on from this work experience I decided to pursue an interest in teaching. At the beginning of summer 2009 I went to another school, Fitzmaurice Primary School in my home town of Bradford on Avon. Here, I taught pupils independently in groups of six painting techniques and general drawing.
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