A message from a proud art teacher: Are we living in a material world?

Being an art teacher can have its challenges: four lessons a day, 120 students. In such a practical subject you can feel as though it is tidy-up time as soon as you get your equipment set up. However, the summer term brought with it ‘Project Fortnight’. My favorite time of year. Two weeks with 26 students, working with another colleague on a project of your choice.

I teamed up with a media teacher who has an illustration background. After a couple of meetings, involving interest research, coffee and well… more interest perusing, we had it. ‘Are we living in a material world?’ was born. We shared visions of an Alice in Wonderland inspired tea-party table topped with cakes made from felt, flowers crafted from book pages and hand sewn patchwork tablecloths. We set about creating some teacher examples and material ordering (another of my favourite activities- like a child with the Argos catalogue at Christmas, well, maybe twenty years ago). Of course the students needed to be on board- and they did not disappoint. Arriving at our door at 8.45am on Monday morning all bright-eyed and full of busy, we had lucked-out with this lovely bunch.

We started with an actual tea party, and whilst munching our way through biscuits we introduced ourselves, and then got straight to work, researching and creating mood boards. Each day of the two week project focused on a different material or technique. During the first week they learned to sew. Students were 11-13 years old and had limited sewing knowledge. I demonstrated how to thread a needle, put those all important knots in the end, and also discussed consistency in stitch length, spacing and direction. Whilst there were a few hairy moments which resulted in threads being cut, the students picked it up remarkably well. By the end of the day we had the most beautiful handsewn doughnuts made from felt.

Cardboard cupcakes, cellotape-cast wine glasses and tissue paper flowers are a few of the other creations during these weeks. My favourite day and activity was a bit of an afterthought. We had the most beautiful table to exhibit, dressed with with handcrafted loveliness, but we were without chairs! A quick email and a few responses later led me to some unwanted school chairs dumped around the back of the building. Fantastic.

I had a vision I wanted the students to share. We looked at various images of ‘guerilla art’ and ‘yarn bombing’ which inspired what came next. Students worked furiously over the next day and a half – wrapping, plaiting, glueing and sewing. They worked in groups of 4 and each took a different role. The chairs were a bit of a gamble, but all hard efforts were paid off. At the end of the school day when the children had gone, I just sat down and gazed at them. Quickly followed by a photograph and an Instagram post ‘#proudteacher’.

Before we knew it, Exhibition day had arrived and we welcomed parents, teachers and members of the community into school to view our project, the tea-party table installation. We were showered with compliments followed by questions such as “how on earth did you make that?” and “Is that real?”.

I can honestly say it was one of the most tiring yet rewarding two weeks of my career. It’s amazing what you can do when given a bit of freedom and your imagination can run wild.