CraftED: A collaborative project supported by the Crafts Council of Ireland and Education Centres around Ireland

The CraftEd programme is supported by the Crafts Council of Ireland and National Eductional Centres to bring craft-makers into Primary School classrooms to collaborate with the teachers and pupils on a visual arts project.
I was lucky to have had the opportunity to work with the 5th and 6th class pupils of Brackloon National School near Westport during their final term.
The Mayo TV film-crew were on hand at the final exhibition at the Mayo Education Centre, to capture the excitement as the children were invited to a celebration of their work. You can see video clip here www.vzaar.com/videos/1026655
This will also be broadcast on SKY TV channel 191 on July 26th at 9pm and repeated the following Sunday and Monday at 7.00pm.

CraftED exhibition at Mayo Education Centre

Monday 25th was an enjoyable day for the 6 Mayo schools that participated in this year's CraftED project and I was very glad to be invited back to participate in the celebrations.

(The CraftED project is funded by the regional Education Centres in collaboration with the Crafts Council of Ireland with the aim of bringing professional craft-makers into the classroom to share their skills with National School pupils in a collaborative arts project.)

On Monday the Director of the Mayo Education Centre Art Ó Súilleabháin welcomed pupils, teachers craftmakers as well as local press photographers and tv crews to the opening of an exhibition of the work created as part of the CraftED project.

Pupils from each of the schools presented their feedback on the project which highlighted the many benefits of collaboration for the pupils, teachers and craftmakers. The projects showed how interactive learning is so much fun and how all pupils engaged fully with the project. Feedback was extremely positive across all participants.

I was delighted to see the final display of the results of my collaboration with the 5th and 6th class pupils of Brackloon National School. There were photographs of the work in progress, some of the pupils sketchbooks, a colourful scrapbook including poetry, essays, letters, research, photos. The 'Magicalistic Cloak' they created using fabric, stitch, fabric paints, appliqué and foil techniques was modelled by the lovely 'Cynthia'!

Mayo TV filmed interviews with the pupils involved which we look forward to viewing online at www.mayotv.ie.

Each of the schools received a certificate and a 'goody bag' and we were all treated to a wonderful selection of food and drink provided by the Education Centre.

Here are some of the other CraftED items created by the other 5 schools involved.

For more information on the CraftED project and for information on all of the tutors involved see www.learncraftdesign.com.

CraftEd Project with Brackloon National School, Westport, Co. Mayo

The CraftEd project is joint funded by the Crafts Council of Ireland, the participating National School and their local Education Centre.

I was invited to collaborate with the 5th and 6th class pupils of Brackloon National School who were interested to explore fabric and stitch to create an artwork for their school.

The pupils took their inspiration from the location of their school near Brackloon Woods at the foot of Croagh Patrick and invented a new word to describe it 'Magicalistic'. They decided to make a cloak to express their ideas.

They set to work in their sketchbooks to explore their ideas by painting, drawing, collaging and taking notes.

They learned new skills such as how to thread a needle, tie a knot, create a running stitch, secure it with a double stitch, sew a button, use stitches to construct items and to decorate items.

They tried out fabric paints to add colour to fabric for use in their project.

They learned how to machine-sew on a hand-operated sewing machine that has now been donated to the school to allow them to continue to develop their sewing skills in future classroom projects.

They worked in teams to make decisions about the colour, size, shape, design layout, display options and documentary process for the making of their cloak.

They chose an Irish linen background and printed their names in a spiral which was painted as a sunburst for the central motif on the back of the cloak. A selection of stitched leaves radiate outwards. Each of the 24 pupils embellished their own triangle (to represent the shape of Croagh Patrick) to decorate either side of the front opening of the cloak. A selection of trees, birds, flowers and a rainbow were created to decorate the bottom of the cloak.

With a final lesson in the use of bondaweb and craft-foil some golden highlights were added to the cloak's collar.

MAGICALISTIC BRACKLOON!

I had a wonderful time working with these talented, enthusiastic pupils and their very supportive teacher Mr. Tunney. This project has provided me with huge inspiration for future work and I'm very grateful for the experience!

CraftED Project: Brackloon National School

photo from 2009 Craft in the Classroom in Leitrim

I'm delighted to be invited back into the classroom as part of the Crafts Council of Ireland's CraftED programme in collaboration with National Schools all around the country and the Regional Education Centres.

Craft-makers, teachers and Crafts Council of Ireland project managers recently met for the Northwest Region at the Castlebar Education Centre to launch this year's programme and to allow teachers and craftmakers who will be working together to discuss their plans.

I'm very excited to visit the 5th and 6th class pupils of Brackloon National School near Westport, Co. Mayo for our first workshop tomorrow. Our first day will be spent looking at some Textile Art and brainstorming ideas on what we might work on together. We are then going to jump right into our sketchbooks to explore our ideas further with paint, collage and observational note-taking.

I can't tell you what we will be making because I haven't met these 24 young artists yet and collaboration is key to the success of our project. I have no doubt they will be bursting with ideas and we are going to learn a lot together! So watch this space!

For more information on the CraftED programme see www.learncraftdesign.com