Eye of the Needle: Exhibition by pupils of Presentation College Galway



The Junior Certificate School Programme provides secondary school students with an opportunity to collaborate with a local artist in the classroom. I was very happy to accept an invitation to work with Junior Certificate students at Presentation College Galway to share some textile skills with them.

 

We started the project with a visit to an exhibition of craft entitled 'Modified Expression' curated by the Crafts Council of Ireland at the Galway City Museum. The students received blank sketchbooks to record their observations and reactions. We decided to take our inspiration from references to eyes in proverbs, literature and popular culture to create a series of textile art pieces. Following a series of workshops on fabric painting, fusible appliqué and hand-stitching the students created 8x8inch blocks which can be exhibited individually, in groups or all together.

 

We are delighted that the Westside Library is hosting an exhibition of the work completed during the project in their reception and project room. Cora and the library staff added a further dimension to the project by creating links between the students' work and a selection of books from the library.

 

The exhibition will run until the 14th of June, so pop in and take a look at the display of textile art, stitch samples, sketchbooks, research, photos and more by these young artists at the Westside Library, Galway.

 





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.

Craft in the Classroom at Presentation College Galway

2nd Year Art students at Presentation College Galway accompanied their art teacher and myself to the 'Modified Expression' exhibition curated by the Crafts Council of Ireland at the Galway City Museum in April. This mixed media exhibition provided the students with lots of visual stimulation. Back in the classroom we talked about how a sketchbook becomes an important part of the process for the artist to explore ideas, pull ideas together, investigate a theme and try to create a composition for a piece of work. These students chose the theme of 'eyes' and are working to see what they can come up with to explore in fabric and stitch.



The sketchbooks are starting to fill up with images and quotations which they are using as jump-off points to develop their own ideas.

Sketching, collage, painting, embellishment and writing are all included in the sketchbooks as well as daily observations of life around them. Any or none of these ideas might make it into the final piece of work the students choose to create. But this stage of exploration is a vital part of the process to help each student find their own unique visual language.

This project continued through May....more photos to follow.

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!