Children's art on...erm...Thursday!

I'm not very good at this regular feature thing am I? I promised art ideas for children every Tuesday, and now it's Thursday!

Anyway, this week we made butterflies with wooden pegs and paper doilies. Just decorate them as you wish then push the doily into the peg. Nice and simple for little hands.

We also made rather a lot of bunting!

Tomorrow is the private view of the Harrow Open Studios taster exhibition in West House, Pinner Memorial Park so i've been busy trying to get my work ready and framed for that. It's the first time HOS has had a taster exhibition, so fingers crossed it goes well and generates lots of interst in the main event which runs over the following two weekends.

'What do I do now?'

Having a baby is amazing and wonderful and terrifying. When I had my first baby I spent months researching everything about pregnancy and birth and baby-care, we attended NHS classes and NCT classes. The pregnancy seemed to go on forever, the birth was terrifying, the stay in hospital afterwards was miserable.
Then we were suddenly home. With a little baby. The first night we were home we ate pizza and stared at her and thought, what do we do now?
When I drew this I was thinking of those moments.
Sorry for the lack of children's art this week, the ideas will be back next week, I promise!

Childrens' Art Tuesday - Spaghetti Painting!

We did lots of different things today, pictures with leaves, making laminated place mats, caterpillar puppets...

The most fun was had though with the spaghetti painting.

If you'd like to try it just cook some spaghetti until it's just soft, cool down, dunk in some paint and get messy!

Some of the children ended up with something a bit Jackson Pollock-esq...

Others were too busy enjoying the sensory play to worry about the image they created!

It was a big hit!

Drawing, Cutting, Sticking, Colouring

I've been working on some pieces for the Harrow Open Studios Taster Exhibition, here's the story of one of them...

First some drawing.

Then some cutting.

A spot of colouring...

then a break to watch this little girls assembly (she's a star fruit!)

Some rubbing out because those colours were a bit too bright!

Some more cutting.

(with a break halfway through for a spot of baking)

Finished!

Apologies for the not-so-great photos at the moment, I'm having to rely on my phone camera because the battery charger for my proper camera is on the blink.

Children's Art Tuesday....on Wednesday

I'm a very naughty blogger, just one week into my weekly children's art feature and I'm a day late with this week's post!
This week's idea is very simple, but was very popular yesterday at my preschooler workshop.
Draw an outline of a genderless figure, add scraps of fabric, wool, and some glue. Together these ingredients create a messier, more creative, and boy-friendly version of paper dolls!

The Politics of Making

It's a big day for local politics here today - We're voting for our next mayor. I'm quite a political person, although I try and hide it away on here.
I'm an old school socialist who believes in a big welfare state and paying as much tax as you can afford.
I believe in the value of art and culture for the masses and I believe this should be subsidised by the state.
I believe theatres have a duty to fund youth theatres and engage with their communities, and that if funding for these activities is tight then raising money to support them should be a priority.
I believe that making and mending is a political statement about moving away from thoughtless consumerism which does nothing but oil the machinery of capitalism and move the rich and the poor further and further apart.
I therefore am distressed to find myself working for a theatre which has disbanded it's education department, living in a city with a Conservative mayor (though hopefully for not much longer) and a country with an only slightly watered down Conservative government whose lives are totally detached from the majority of the people they serve.
So there you are, I have little money and even less spare time, but I will be running craft club in Pinner library this evening for free because I believe in the power of making and mending, and the importance of those skills being passed on. I charge much less for my toddler art workshop than I could or perhaps should because I believe that everyone should have access to art in their community.
But more than any of this I believe in democracy, and so even if you vote for a party I would never support, please make the time to vote today. It's really important.

Children's Art Ideas

Each Tuesday I run an art, craft and messy play workshop for preschool age children in Ruislip, and so each week I have to come up with new preschooler art ideas.

Starting today I'm going to blog one of our activities each Tuesday. They are always simple and use things you'll probably have lying around at home, so hopefully this will build up into a good rainy day ideas bank!

So today's idea is sponge sculptures, using sponge scourers and flat sponges (which you can get get packs of for pennies in the supermarket). Just cut up the sponges into different sized blocks and shapes, and glue together using runny white craft glue. Your children could make tall towers, boats, even whole villages!

Have fun!