Making Christmas Cards

I usually make a range of Christmas Cards early in October. Providing me with a selection to hand out to colleagues, friends and family at that festive time of year.

This year it was December before I knew it and I was making cards with my class. We used a range of left of pieces from previous years and I posted samples that I had been their inspiration. The challenge was the children then had to make their own version mixing up the ideas.

The range help to cater for all the different abilities in our hub and the mixing of ideas gave children who I had worked with before the opportunity to challenge themselves. Although this year I did very little to help them. Once they had made 3 cards they could go a step further and try one that also left the recipient with a tree decoration.


Everyone found this a little trickier keeping all the pieces still, trying to hold the ribbon straight, giving yourself enough ribbon to go around the first bead and then add a little more to create the illusion of a tree. But we did it we made 25 in an hour. Most people start from the bottom of the tree we started from the top using a double over hand knot so the decoration could hang on the tree.

We then pushed the string and knot through a star shaped bead (to hide the knot).

Each turn we added more ribbon. After about 8 beads we stopped. and tied them off using 2 single over hands..

The finished product on silver cards made the decoration stand out. We we attached using double sided tape, so it was easy to pull off.

Then I challenged myself, I love the idea of love hope joy and peace all through the year but at Christmas time especially to I thought how to best represent this. I looked at a lovely wooden decoration with a heart, anchor and cross that I received when I was younger. To get the heart and anchor to stay in shape I would need a wire (which I didn't have). So I  tried the cross.

Art Alley Update

Originally the fence was green on one side and grey on the other and many of our students come through the alley to get to school. Once our new school build has been completed this alley will be close to the visitors car park and so we though we would brighten it up.

Here you can see us starting to make improvements using stripes, the colours from the new school logo.

Painting Alley Fence 2 - Art Alley

Phase one 

Started last year when we designed murals for four of the panels and column pictures for the individual boards on the wooden fence. This took a long time as the group wanted detailed pictures.

Phase two

We also did in 2017 undercoating the fence so we had a white platform to paint onto so our murals were the colours we wanted.

Phase three: 

We started this year painting the panels so we could display what we as an art group liked, favourite foods, places, patterns, labels, games, and even family. Unfortunately we then had a mishap with the fence and we had to redo some areas.

Phase Four: 

We wore our cool new uniforms to school but got changed into an old set of clothes, some of us brought our old uniform. No way did we want paint on our new uniforms.

Krystal Leigh  - My fingers ended up blue, and I seemed to have more paint on me that on the fence. Strangely my teacher wasn't too happy. But I had fun. When we added the dark blue around paint splashed it started to look much better.

Demetrius P - I thought it was cool painting the poles red, but we had to be careful not to get it on people or what they were painting and that was not easy.

Amelia - I was painting the background for the hibiscus flower in green. It was cool to see the flower take shape even through we weren't painting the flower yet. We took our time to make sure the paint was in the right place, the boys seemed to be in a hurry.

Steven - I enjoyed spending the whole day painting and not working. I painted the poles red there seemed to be a lot of them and we still have 3 more to do. It was even better when Auntie Jess came and helped us.

Shawn - Painting the fence was fun as we didn't have to do school work. When Auntie Jess helped us she thought it would be funny to paint her hand yellow and add it to my shirt. The worst part was when we painted and the drips went in the wrong place.

Painting the Alleyway Fence

Our Community is Home Project.

 Whanākitanga wanted to brighten up the Alleyway to Lelani Ave.

We have been waiting for Sunny Thursday Mornings to brighten up the Alleyway Fence. We have designed a series of murals for the corrugated iron fence and for the wooden panel fence we designed individual panels to represent a range of children and what is important in their lives.

For the wooden fence we thought about what makes us unique, our families, cultural and likes. We looked at our favourite food, games, books, places, clothes, patterns that represent our culture and or family. We experimented with different colours to best represent our images and backgrounds for them to stand out on.

For the iron fence we thought about images that represent the various cultures in our school. Our new logo, our school values, myths and legends. This side of the fence doesn't see a lot of sun in the mornings so hopefully we will get some sunny days so we can paint our murals in the afternoon.

Mural Painting

This piece of art was started 3 years ago inspire by a piece our leader found in Pinterest. I thought I would recreate with the junior art group. That is 5 to 7 year olds. I was a great challenge. We started by looking at a range of Pasifika and Maori patterns to incorporate the diverse cultural mix of our school. After sketching and more sketching of a range of patterns we all picked our favourite one to take to the next step.

Using strips of card we drew our patterns then tried to use shade to colour over our pattern. We used blue and green to represent the local area of Pukekiwiriki, RedHill, Papakura.

The children then helped to create a large paper version so we had an idea of how it would look. Then we started to paint 3 full size plywood boards. The younger ones had fun with the undercoat and the older ones choose to paint between the lines for the yellow outline. This was working well while we had an empty classroom. The the builders arrived and started to pull down the old buildings.

I was so inspired I create a miniature canvas version using oil paints for a friends new home in Pahi. Starting with a colour pencil copy. Before moving onto canvas. Where I fine tuned the shading from one side to the other, rather than the light being the middle of each section.


So the last couple of years we have been working during holidays and after school to complete the detail. Then students were excited to be adding the final coat of protection. On Thursday 16 August, the 3 pieces were unveiled to the school before being put up on the outside of the hall as part of re-branding of RedHill School.

Unveiling in the hall

When asked to create a grey and red image for our school web page this is what happened...

Inspired by Raewyn Harris Teacher and Artist

Characterisation

When writing the author needs to know their characters inside and out, or they will seem to thin and unreal, acting only because the plot requires it.

I found one easy way to keep track of the characters in my novel were to record in a note book all the features and ways they affected due to a weakness or how it made them stronger after each set back. This way it was easy to consult as they faced the next challenge.

When writing I wanted to share everything I knew about a character. But the more I read the more I notice that we are feed small amounts of each character every-time they are portrayed in a story.