Collaborative education project 2010 ongoing.

Since September I have been working on a collaborative educational project with artist Marcus Rowlands at Hillside primary school, Nottingham.
I was away to see the products complete, but Marcus has just sent me these photos.
We worked with early years children over several months exploring ideas through play. Our aim was to create a range of interactive products that would be used for outdoor learning, not just as a play ground.
We commissioned local makers to produce the designs.
Here are a few pictures of the products we developed with the children.
The project has been very sucessfull and there is a possibility that similar work will coninue with the school in future.
I really enjoyed working collaboratively with Marcus and it was fantastic to see the designs be professionally made. For more info see
www.marcusrowlands.com/

Experimentation of ideas with the children. They turned carpet tiles into a train.

Exploration boxes.

Yave weaving-Trinindad Cuba

I managed to approach a local Palm weaver with my best Spanish and asked for some classes in a type of basket weaving using small palm leaves called Yave, which are picked a dried for two hours and then used to make different artifacts. A great time and really hope to adapt and use this technique in some way for my work.

Working with painter and sculptor Martha Jimenez- Camaguey Cuba

I spent some time with established and renowned Cuban artist Martha Petrona Jimenez- www.pprincipe.cult.cu/artistas/webmartha/
A truly great time learning some skills in ceramics and a great opportunity to spend time with an artist from Cuba. I made the link with Martha before I left the UK, through a connection which Derby UK has with Camaguey Cuba, as they are both the midlands of their countries. Martha hopes to make it to England in the near future to establish links with Arts and education. As example of Martha's work >top>.

A day in Teotitlan de Valle

Went to a village near Oaxaca, Mexico, called Teotitlan de Valle, which is renowned for its natural dyeing and hand weaving. Spent time with a family seeing how they produce the yarns and use natural dyes to weave with and create all sorts of artifacts. I couldn´t resist buying a beautiful orangey yarn dyed with Cochineal to knit something with!
I leant about many kinds of natural dyes and how they fix the colour with lime juice.
There are lots of other villages around Oaxaca, each known for producing different crafts e.g basket weaving, wood carving, black pottery. I am doing a week of much needed Spanish school but I hope to visit some more villages throughout the week.

Arrived in Mexico City!

Arrived in Mexico City on Sunday. Had a busy few days exploring the city-love it! The people are so friendly and it´s not half as polluted and scary as the write ups say!
So much to see and do-espicially art galleries. Visited Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo museums. Frida Kahlo´s was right up my street set in a beautiful part of the city, with colourful houses and tree lined sunny roads. I´m starting a sketch book to document my findings and will post some pictures when I´ve been here for longer.