Lantern Making

An update about the lantern making I have been assisting with at the Junior Artists Club. Last week was the structure building and when I arrived at the centre today, a lot of them had fell apart! Me, Carole and Becky had the tough job of rebuilding the lanterns before the children arrived. Luckily we managed to get them all strong again and ready for when the children arrived.

The next process is to add the candle to the structure and cover them in the extra strong tissue paper, you cover the paper in watered down glue and then glue stretch it over the bamboo. As it dries, it becomes really strong and they stiffen up.

The lanterns need two layers of paper and within the second layer you can add shapes, and drawings to give you different patterns when lit. Overall it was a really succesful workshop and the children loved it! I am loving the volunteering now and seeing the children get so involved and enjoying it just as much is really rewarding. The lanterns still  need a bit of work adding to them, but here is how they look now.

The Jellyfish that me and Madison and Lewis, 7 worked on.

A dolphin, with tracing paper drawings inside. Made by Amy, 10.

Fish, made by Josh and Harry. 7.

This week...

This week has consisted of lantern making, learning, x factor and autumn walks. As my CRB has just cleared, I haven't been able to start work yet. I'm hoping to hear from them on Monday with when I will be starting.

To keep myself busy this week I have been trying to learn some Sketchup add on packages. This week has been IDX Renditioner, it is really simple to use and gives a completely different look to my designs. The only problem being my laptop, it is getting up to 4 years old now and with its lack of hinges and over heating fan it doesn't cope well at all with any form of rendering software. Its making it really hard to learn how to use this properly but I will carry on. Even if Sketchup does "bug splat" a LOT! The time has come for me to start saving for a new laptop :( Something I have been trying to avoid.

I volunteer each week in the Halewood Arts Association, one part of that is the Junior Artists Club. I love it, its a group of 7 - 12 year olds and they come along each Wednesday and get to do lots of creative things. On the 31st October we are taking part in the Liverpool Lantern Companys Halloween Lantern Carnival. (if you are looking for something to do on Halloween come along, they put on an AMAZING show and I can't wait to see / been involved in it.) So this week we had a really nice woman named Becky come in from the LLC and me and her helped the children to make some lanterns for when we go along. We used bamboo and masking tape to make the frame work and it was really fun. Some of the bamboo is a bit tempremental and can snap quite easily, but once you get into it, it becomes really easy to use and very flexible. There was jellyfish made, fish, dolphins and squid. We are adding the paper to them this week and I'll add some photos once we do.

Sefton Park in the Autumn is lovely.

WE GOT THE FUNDING

Since the beginning of Summer I have been volunteering in Halewood Arts Association. I have been helping to plan and organise a Big Draw event in the Halewood Environment Centre. Its been a bit up in the air the past couple of weeks, as we have been waiting back to hear if we have the funding... Putting a lot of effort into something and having to plan it without 100% knowing if we'd get the funding has been a worry, but thankfully Carole called today to say we got it! I'm really excited as its the first event I've been involved in since leaving Uni. Carole has been amazing and has let me get involved in so much, meet so many people and I'm even going to be hosting the "Halewood at Home". Something I will talk more about next week.

After Carole had spoken to the children who attend the Junior Artists Club, we decided to come up with a theme of habits and habitats for the event. This allows us to take full advantage of the environment centre and Halewood Triangle.

The junior artists club have been learning all about the habitats around the Halewood area in the workshops running up to the event and on the day there will be a lot to see and do. It is free and open to all ages, with everyone welcome. Our aim is to get everyone involved and there will be lots of drawing, painting and making to get stuck in to! I can't wait and if anyone wants to come along there is some details below...

Quite a busy couple of months!

The last couple of months have been quite busy. What with travelling to visit Uni friends, volunteering and getting myself my first out of Uni job, I haven't had much time to keep this blog up to date. 

I will try and keep an update brief. I suppose I should mention my new job! I am very very very excited to get started. I am going to be working as a "Lead Arts and Heritage Support Worker." It basically means I will be assisting in various art based workshops throughout the Knowsley area. I'm so excited to start and can't wait to get involved in it all. Its going to be so nice to get back into something creative, I really miss it after leaving Uni!

Volunteering is something that takes up a lot of my spare time and I like to do as much as I can fit in. World Liverpool Museum is somewhere I have volunteered within since last Easter. I love it. The past couple of months I have been able to help out and assist with the craft areas of the museum. Making butterfly crowns and tiger masks with the children has been a great way to prepare for my new job, and obviously really fun! 

I've also recently joined the Mersey Vs team. Once a month a group of the volunteers from the museum, meet in the museum offices and offer input and advice on how we think things are working. I'm really enjoying getting to have a say and help the museum to come up with new things and exciting projects for other Volunteers!

I was also lucky enough to get involved in the CBBC Live 'n' Deadly day at the World Museum... Me and 7 other volunteers helped A LOT of children to make animal masks. The museum had so much for people to do that day, there was Eagles, and MASSIVE owls, snakes and scorpions everywhere and they had a giant green screen which the children could stand in front of and make them look like they where swimming with sharks. A lot of it was filmed and next Saturday you may see me loitering in the background of the programme. The museum was so busy, I think they had 5000 visitors in one day! 

So I am now going to keep this blog more updated, so no more long breaks.

This wasn't as brief as I had hoped!