Paper weaving and intersection collages family workshop at Broadway Gallery, Letchworth, Hertfordshire

I ran a family drop in workshop yesterday at the Broadway Gallery in Letchworth. After its relaunch and refurbishment, the gallery has started to run these weekend workshops and having taught many workshops there, it was great to be back in a familiar but sort of new space! For the workshop I designed an activity that would link to Richard Smith's current exhibition there. In his work there is a theme of interweaving shapes and pattern as well as architectural paper cutting and folding. I thought paper weaving would work really well especially if  had prepped up some sheets with textured colour to work on. it worked really well as you can see form the work made below! I think definite echoes of Kandinsky! It was great to see so much bright and vibrant colour spread across the table.

The ages ranges from 4 up to adults. Mums and dads cam and made art with their children, and even felt really happy to make one themselves, so that was wonderful to see. The usual magic of workshops happened again.... about an hour in the tables were full and the room quiet with everyone concentrating.

 Its always a precious magical moment!

Scroll through the images below to see what was made. I brought with me the coloured sheets, strips of paper made from fadeless display paper and A4 white and coloured sheets. I had precut shapes too for people to just cut and stick.

Prepped sheets painted with water soluble pencils and water

A washing line of vibrancy!

Simple paper weaving....

Tonal work and making a scene - this was the sea and the twinkling light of the stars....

A table full of colour and paper

Beautiful, measured collage made from the prepped painted sheets......Miss. Kemp aged 10

A very intricate and precise collage made. All these pieces were cut individually to fit together.

Stunning collage made by one of the mums. oven papers, collage and refined placement. 

Paper weaving and intersection collages - Broadway Gallery family workshop

And here are the results of the workshop yesterday. Its a simple things - to weave paper in and out but great to teach hand eye co-ordination. Its also changes things spatially as colours recede and come forward. The ages of the workshop were from about five and up, with mums and dad's helping and helping their children to having a go too. The prepared sheets I made with water soluble stick colour brushed out onto sheets worked really well. It made me get some great ideas too and thats often the real joy of things like this - the creative impulse shared becomes such an enriching experience for everyone.  I have been struggling with the physical demand of adding so many colours to my cut paper collages and  using these coloured sheets might be a way forward for me.

                                      
                                     
                                      

Prepping up for a family drop in workshop....

I've had a busy Saturday afternoon prepping up for a family drop in event at the newly relaunched Broadway Gallery and Studio in Letchworth Garden City on Sunday 15th May. The workshop is linking to the current Richard Smith exhibition. Many of his marks are similar to weaving and splicing through so I thought it would be great to have some precut shapes to use along with some pre-prepared tectured sheets to cut from as well. The colours look so joyfully bold dont they!? Water soluable sticks and fadeless paper are shown here. It worked really well.....more piccies of work made tomorrow!