The Art/Design Project Day saw Form 3 pupils given the opportunity to spend a whole day in either the Art or Design Technology departments. In Art they focused on one area of Art, such as painting, textiles, or sculpture and in Design Technology they tackled design challenges.
Director of Art, Mrs Elinor Brass, tells us more:
“It was a busy day in the Art Department with pupils experimenting and creating lots of new work. There was a group creating textile illustrations using appliquéd fabrics, different textures and stitch. Pupils learnt to use the sewing machine as if it was a pencil to add detail to their figures and backgrounds.
Another project allowed pupils to create a sculptural piece using an old book. The book was the inspiration for the sculpture and the materials from which it was made.
Two groups explored a range of printmaking and transfer techniques, learning to play with processes and to develop images to make a personal piece of work onto wood.
Other pupils used colour and compositional design through contemporary materials. They took inspiration from the Bauhaus movement and Damien Poulain to create a banner and even had a chance to try some screen printing in the afternoon.
The final group created a constructed sculpture, drawing inspiration from the artist Sayaka Ganz.
It was fantastic to see the pupils having the time to spend on a particular area of Art, pushing their creative skills and producing quality pieces of work.”
Meanwhile, in Design and Technology, Form 3 pupils were set two challenging problems. Both problems tested the pupils to ideate and model solutions using a restricted range of materials.
Head of Design and Technology Mr Tim Weston said, “The first of the problems was to steer a pirate ship to a pot of gold, or in simple terms make a boat that was powered by wind to travel the length of a 2m gutter filled with water. Using foam, lollipop sticks, paper, card and tinfoil, pupils designed and modelled a wide range of solutions. A marine version of wacky races for those old enough to remember Dick Dastardly! The competition was fierce, as pupils raced their models against one another, in heats and ultimately a final.”
Tim continues, “The second part of the day challenged pupils to design and make the slowest marble rollercoaster out of spaghetti, paper, straws and tinfoil. The aim was to get a marble from A to B (500mm) in the slowest time from a starting height of 120mm. Pupils soon realised that this was not an easy challenge, but many innovative structures were made. The winning designs achieved a time of over 8 seconds, for which pupils had ultimately realised that both a reduction in gradient and extension to the distance travelled was necessary.”
