These fabulous terracotta figures were made by the children at Elmbridge First School in Gloucester. I spent a lovely couple of days in April building a mud sofa with YR1 and making these masterpieces to hide in amongst the undergrowth in their expansive forest school area.
Archive for Author Jon
A roasting weekend
Had great fun working with the good folk of Ledbury as part of the town’s Ox Roast Coronation Weekend. On Saturday we set up camp in the Walled Garden inviting passing visitors and members of the community to help us construct a terracotta Ox’s head. Once the beast has been fired we’ll take a photo and post it here as well as displaying the sculpture in Priory Dry Cleaners shop window in Ledbury high street. On Sunday we offered members of the public the opportunity to make a pot on the potter’s wheel to take away and paint at home.
Heather’s hen celebrations
Bride to be Heather and her hens spent a creative afternoon at Eastnor Pottery making coil pots and taking turns on the potter’s wheel.
Photographic evidence can be seen here.
Muddy turtle
Spent an enjoyable and muddy day with the whole of year 6 at Simon de Montfort Middle school . We constructed a huge mud sculpture from sandbags filled with earth in the shape of a giant turtle.
The school have an excellent outside space with a pond and brook running through it. For a number of years they have been developing the site and were really excited about adding a mud sculpture to the grounds. Everybody had great fun, even if some students got a little confused about just where they needed to apply the mud!
Clay oven
Every once in a while I get to make a bread oven with a group or school. This year I collaborated with Brearley & Teviot Nursery school and Forest School Andy (resident outside practitioner) to produce an oven in one of their outside spaces. Andy built a fantastic base from paving bricks and concrete slabs and then I worked with the children and staff making squidgy bricks from clay, straw and sand. The children took great pleasure in forming the sloppy mix into brick shapes and assembling them around
the sand former. The masterpiece was ‘iced’ with numerous clay decorations
created by the youngsters.
Once thoroughly dry, the oven will have its inaugural firing at the Nursery’s Summer Celebration day where the whole community will get the opportunity to sample freshly baked bread hot from the oven.
