Angel altar frontal - St. Francis' College, Letchworth Garden City

This is the angel altar frontal I put together from pupils work for St. Francis College in Letchworth Garden City. I made the pieces with Year 10 girls way back at the beginning of 2013, when I was working with classes from Year 6 - Upper Sixth. The work was meant to be put together to make a hanging or frontal as it was originally made of individual tiles to be sewn together. I got all that piecing done in November and was able to hang it in time for the Nativity assembly. It was made from calico and cotton, with added silk and Bondaweb-ed stars.

St. Francis College Angel altar frontal

The pupils created these angels heads by working with large pieces of bonded fabrics for the wings. Silk was used for extra sheen. Before they made the bonded areas, they worked with card collages to make their own angel head block to print from and after that the girls printed right onto the bonded fabric areas to make the angel head prints. Further detail was added by hand embroidery and felt tip drawing, emphasising areas of colour and texture to make the heads stand out more.

The individual angel head showed so much variety! some simple, some much more complex! And the girls had a real taste of the difficulties of registering prints, as some of the heads are a little wonky. I think it adds a charm to the hanging though and really glad that the head - Dorothy MacGinty - had such foresight to embrace a piece based solely on the girls work.