My last post.

It's here, the end of term, 'Speech day'. Lots of goodbyes, tears, hugs and presents. This will therefore be my last post on my year as Artist-in-residence at Hazlegrove Prep school.

For those requesting photos of my exhibition, here you go!

Peacock Feathers 1 + 2

 Dandelion

White Lily

 Hazlegrove House

 Sword in the Stone

 Sunflower

 Hazlegrove House II

Paris

 

Feather III

 

Cricket Pavillion

 Garden Chair (in progress)

Purple Lily (in progress)

 

Business cards

12 sales and 2 commissions - yay pennies!

And finally, leavers cards...

So for the hundreth (but probably not last) time today.... Goodbye :)

The end.

Tomorrow is the last day of term. The last day of being artist-in-residence. The last day of Hazlegrove.

But I'm not sad. At least I wasn't until saying goodbye to the girls and reading my goodbye card from the boarders. I'll be honest, there are kids (and staff) that I'm really not gonna miss, but there's so many that I will - girls in the house (the loveliest, funniest girls I will ever meet), the year 8 boys in the art room, the serious artists (we have some amazing artists!) and even the runny-nosed, over-affectionate receptioners!
But I am ready to move on, to start my own teaching career, and who knows, one day I may be back here as an actual teacher!
I've learnt so much, from the kids and staff, over the past year - here's all that I can put into words...

• A class always takes longer than planned to clear up
• I'm shorter than a year 5.... must wear heels!
• Technology will always let you down
• Take your breaks when you can!
• Boy, girl, boy, girl.... it works
• No matter how clear your instructions there will always be a 'Miss, what are we doing?'
• Children apparently eat/steal rubbers and sharpeners
• 'We got stuck behing the cows' is a valid excuse for being late to school
• It's almost impossible to differentiate between a girl crying or just having a runny nose when waiting for them to get to sleep
• Don't let children know your first name
• ..... or anything about your personal life!

There is so much more, and I'm sure I will be doubling this in a years time!

The girls boarding house

The Hazlegrove cows

The rest of the world is a long way down the drive

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Clubs and creations

Art Club.

One of the things I've been meaning to do in art club this year was to have a book-binding session. I learnt how to do this on my foundation and forgot how much I enjoyed it. This is how we got on...

Week one was spent experimenting with marbling inks on paper. Much fun and mess occured.

Then we made covers with said marbled paper, old sketchbook backs and strips of colourful hessian. And finally we sewed the papers together and glued them in. I think the girls were quite proud of the result. I am!

Textiles Club.

This terms junior textiles club was started off with a bunting making session...

It also happened to double up as a nice banner for my display :)

In senior club, I introduced the girls to silk painting. I think they are now addicted...

Creations. 

I think my last post featured the beginning of this piece... which I hand-embriodered through the canvas then painted.

Then, realising this was a bit of a backwards way of doing it, I embroidered onto calico and then sewed it onto an already painted canvas... I actually prefer the original, although it killed my fingers, it sits better against the background. I also prefer the gold outline

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Inspired by this piece of my AS level textiles, I remembered how much I loved machine embroidery and applice. Out came the machine...

With this one I stretched the final piece over an old frame I ripped the canvas off

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Wanting to combine silk painting with free-machine embroidery, I translated this painting with gutta, one in clear and one black (which I haven't sewn into)

 

Back view

 

Close up before trimming threads

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Most recently, I have been 'thread-sketching' as they call it (apparently) Hazlegrove House.

I really like the playful, continuous line drawing effect this gives

 

 

Photo placed around machine embroidered house. Love the contrast, may try to incorporate this. And possibly maps....

Sorry for the lengthy post. I've been getting quite snap happy with the new camera and wanted to share my new creations. It's nice to be creatively busy again :)