This project will be presented at Futurescan4 in January 2019, and the blog will be updated after that. F
Update: follow the link below to read the paper.
Design
Exhibiting the work from the project
A selection of the children’s drawings, beanbags, mites and other work from the project has been on display in the School of Art in Brighton during October 2018.
Exhibition of work at the School of Art, October 2018
Top-up workshop on stories at Seahaven Academy
As the project has progressed it has become clear that the stories for the animations need additional input. The workshop with the younger children at Coldean School was vibrant and exciting, but the number of children made it quite hard to firm up any ideas, so it was decided to slot in another, interim workshop before the main animation one in June.
This took place last Thursday, and some of the work will be posted when I receive it.
Preparing for Workshop III
The next workshop will concentrate on storytelling – with our lovely storytelling facilitator Julie. Half the group will do this, whilst the other group will fill and sew closed the beanbags decorated with prints of their own drawings.
I filled my trial beanbags with out of date mung beans and wheat grain that I had in the cupboard. I am a little reluctant to use mung beans, as they are a food crop, but then wheat is as well! I know some people use rice, so I may choose that instead… perhaps I will let the price decide.
Whilst there will be a chance to finish off their mites, I really want the story telling to take precedence. Students from Seahaven Academy are coming to the workshop to work with the younger children to draw storyboards and take photos of them telling the stories with their mites. If the mites aren’t completed at this point I don’t think this is a real problem, as the stories will still work.
The final workshop will be at Seahaven Academy when one or two digital media professionals will work with the GCSE students to create ‘multi-media collages’ of their photos and videos based on the storyboards from Workshop III.
All very exciting.
The bean bags are being printed as I write
The order has gone off to PrintmePretty; they were so helpful with this. Because the project is through the University, purchases have to be done through the finance system, which is a bit involved. The company found solutions so that I could use the online upload method, but the invoice would be paid separately, as opposed to paying on order. All a bit complicated, but I am so looking forward to seeing the results!
When we were speaking on the phone I commented that the children were very excited by the thought of seeeing their drawings printed on fabric, and the reply was, ‘..adults are too’. To be honest, I am already thinking what designs I can have printed myself.
Uploading files to PrintmePretty
Its very exciting seeing the edited images all together.
Here are a few that I particularly like:
Ela’s mite
Hours and hours spent editing drawings in Photoshop
the 50+ children’s drawings were scanned in and I have just completed editing them. Because they were pencil it’s been necessary to thicken and darken the lines and enhance the colours. They were on white backgrounds, so I have added pattern fills behind them so that the beam bags will be COLOURFUL. Yey! The children drew on A4 paper, but the drawings are to be digitally printed on cotton to be made into bean bags of a specific size, so re-sizing and some editing was needed. Despite being asked to put their name and on the front, not all have them. It may be tricky finding the owners.
I’m using PrintmePretty for the printing as our digi printer at University is busy at this time of year. A metre and a half will be enough for the 50+ beanbag outers, and I will have another length printed for display when the animation is shown.
Exciting!
Lying on the floor is an Invitation for the dog to play
We have just spent a giggling 5minutes with me lying on the floor whilst Ross drew around my silhouette as a pattern for the person mat.
Unfortunately Pepper thought it was a game. Only a few rips in the pattern paper resulted. Now it’s folded in half up the centre line and the outline firmed up.
The pattern with dog
Close up of the hand
I luckily have two large curtains that are now spare, so those will make perfect backings for the mats. If they work OK I may not make the vinyl mat cloth is easier to fold away and transport.
Off to buy the felt tomorrow from good old Fabricland. £3.95 a metre, very good value.
Update: after all that, I’ve decided the ‘person’ is too complicated, and have reverted to a plain mat that the children will add mites in different sizes that will represent different scores in the bean bag game.
Testing out cool-melt glue-gun on vinyl tiles
Yes this seems to work. So I have taken the plunge and ordered two and a load of glue sticks for the workshop in two weeks time. I don’t think they get hot enough to hurt anyone, and the glue adheres really well, (and to me unfortunately). Whilst the fabric mat can be stuck with fabric glue, the glue guns will make the vinyl mat far easier to manage.
Trial mat
I will post a link to the instructions for making the legs once I have written them up.
Half the mites are stuffed – but not seamed up yet
My thumbs ache after stuffing the mites this afternoon. They can wait and be sewn up later on; stuffing them will allow the seams to ease a bit and take a better shape over time. I used about 25% of the stuffing – and there are another 26-27 to go still that Stef is making. It will be lovely to see more fabric patterns – I am bored with mine already.
The more colours the better!
Stuffing the mites – its amazing how much stuffing is needed.
I’ve checked out using a sewing machine to closeone of the pale pink ones in the picture, the other is hand closed. Machine stitching with a short stitch and narrow zig zag works fine.
All done and up to date