I love going into schools and working with pupils on Japanese culture, I particularly enjoy running workshops around symbolism in Japanese design. These Kimono book covers have been produced by some very talented year 3 pupils.
It’s always a real pleasure working with children and it never fails to impress how creative they can be. Last Saturday I have a lovely afternoon working with children ranging from year 4 – 7. They loved making the and designing their books as well as coming up with stories and content ideas, so much so that they all wanted to work through their break!
Have a look at some of their wonderful creations…..
Here some feedback from the participants:
“I really enjoyed this workshop.I liked just letting my imagination turn into a book”
“I thoroughly enjoyed this workshop – it was really fun and everyone got the chance to do something different. I recommend it to everyone who likes to be creative and using lots of materials!
“It’s amazing how much creativity goes into making one book”
Japanese symbolism in design with fan making
It was great last week having the opportunity to work with a small group of children on Japanese culture again, this time at the lovely Pound Arts Centre in Corsham. We covered a lot of ground including facts about Japan, some basic language and greetings, looking at artifacts and their uses, trying on traditional clothes, learning about symbolism in design and making fans inspired by the symbolism. The girls learnt about fans and how they are used in dancing, they were eager to have a go at a fan dance themselves and asked if they could perform in front of the mums and dads and people in the cafe, which is exactly what they did, they loved every minute of it!
They workshop was a great success, we could have carried on all day!
If you are interested in Japanese culture and want to find out more about the types of activities I can offer, don’t hesitate to get in touch on paula@paulatew.co.uk or 07889119907 or look at the education and community page under Japan here.
I had a great time screen printing with Joe yesterday in my studio. He designed a brilliant image for his t-shirt which he proudly modelled for me afterwards.
Book Making Workshops
I had the pleasure of working with some wonderful children today at the Pound Arts arts centre in Corsham. They had great ideas and produced amazing books. I love days like today!
It was the first time I have been to Pound Arts; it’s great venue with lovely staff www.poundarts.org.uk
Harris High School
This was an exciting project to encourage students to think laterally, to challenge conventions and preconceived ideas of what images represent and what a book is, to be experimental with different media and to allow the unexpected to inform possible outcomes, to enthuse students to produce creative writing -develop creative writing and speaking skills- verbally telling story to the group.
It also gave them experience of many transferable skills including: team working, negotiation, decision making, compromise, thinking creatively, taking risks, researching and working to deadlines.
For more information and photographs of this project click here
Secondary School book making and research workshop
I really enjoyed working with a group of secondary school students recently (years 7 – 11). The session was a great success, they all produced their own unique books and enjoyed using them for their research project.
They started the day by discussing how sketchbooks can be used for recording research and they investigated examples of different books and techniques I had taken in. They then set about making their own books before going out and about to collect information for possible enquiry/research projects, observing the environment around them, really looking and investigating things which often go unnoticed.
One of the participants gave the following feedback: “It is very interesting and really sets off a firework in your mind enabling you to think in a completely different way, by writing an idea down you can then reflect on it and improve.(The workshop is) well worth it, really gets you thinking!”
Book making with years 3 & 4
I was really impressed by the engagement and enthusiasm by all involved in a recent book making workshop.
I had a great day yesterday working at the Interconnected Learning Conference at the University of Bath.
It was a youth research conference aimed at helping KS 4 & 5 students to become better researchers and learners in today’s competative world. I ran workshops on using sketchbooks and journals as research tools.
I very much enjoyed working with years 3 and 4 last weekend on a Japanese culture workshop. The theme was the ‘Tanabata’ star festival which the children learnt about and made their own festival decorations for the class tree. They all worked really hard and produced some lovely decorations. They also got to investigate unusual artefacts and learn about the country, try on traditional costumes, lean some language and greetings and play games. A lot of fun was had by all!
