Making Sea Sculptures at Culford School, Suffolk
Artists Andrea Butler and Sheila Ceccarelli inspire year three pupils to invent their own sculptural sea creatures using simple wrapping and binding techniques with scrap store materials.
By Sheila Ceccarelli and Andrea Butler
Culford School invited us to facilitate a workshop for two classes of Year Three pupils, based on a sea theme. The school wanted the session to act as an ice-breaker to introduce the children to each other and took place in the school hall where all of the forty-five pupils could work together. We planned a drawing activity followed by a making session, to inspire the children to invent their own sculptural sea creatures using simple wrapping and binding techniques.
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Lorna G
December 4, 2023 @ 9:16 am
Hi, I really like this idea. This may sound like a silly question but you say that you showed the children various wrapping and binding techniques- I’m not sure what they are. Could you give more detail on the different techniques please?
Rachel
December 4, 2023 @ 1:41 pm
Hi Lorna, Ribbons, here are some suggestions for the wrapping and binding mentioned in the resource:
Cut strips of fabric, string, wool, any sort of binding can be wrapped, twisted, layered, or threaded through holes, and secured with knots, bows, pieces of tape or elastic bands in multiple ways.
Tape can be used in long or short pieces to stick or wrap things together. Soft wire can be wrapped or twisted around an object, and then the ends twisted with pliers to hold them together and taped, or the ends tapped to the object. (Be aware of people around you and also protecting your eyes when cutting wire).
Bindings can be knotted together, if they are too short or wrapped over and over so the binding becomes chunky, (it doesn’t have to be neat & tidy!). The children were encouraged to invent their own ways of wrapping materials in any way that held their sculptures together – the wrapping can add colour, texture and become a real feature.
This resource inspired the Sea Sculptures workshop and shows different way of wrapping:
https://www.accessart.org.uk/brave-young-makers-year-three-pupils-at-ridgefield-primary-transform-materials-into-birds/
Lorna G
December 4, 2023 @ 3:46 pm
Thank you for replying- I’m going to try this with year 1 next half term