A PORTFOLIO OF SELECTED PROJECTS AND PROCESSES FROM THE ATELIER
2021-22
Talking Textiles
What if pieces of weavings could talk? What kind of stories would they tell?
Text and Textile have a very rich history, they even originate from the same Latin mother, the word texere. From spinning a tale to weaving a story, the correlations between them are many.
Exploring this relationship between text and textile with technology as our friend in the early childhood atelier birthed the talking textile project. This project was realised in collaboration with the children and technology expert Elizabeth Perry.
The five and six year olds in this atelier did not simply become capable weavers and storytellers. But they also learnt how to use MakeyMakey’s to make their weavings interactive. With the help of a basic program on the Scratch programming language their weavings found a voice. It was the voice of the weavers that created the woven textiles.
LEEDS
The city of Leeds is hosting a year of culture in 2023. As a city that is invested in the future, they wanted to make sure that children and young voices were not left behind in this monumental year of culture.
When they published an open call for school partnerships we found that talking textiles fits well with the industrial history of Leeds. Their industrial revolution was a textile revolution, and their heritage of mills and textile production was a fertile context for us to situate our project of stories, textile and technology.
Our textile project was offered a R&D grant to help us further develop our idea within Leeds in the year 2022. As a part of the grant we visited museums, textile mills and archives and hosted a workshop for interested early childhood educators at the Tetley Museum.
2020-21
Atelier of Sunflowers
What started with an enchantment with an unknown object in the atelier led to an enquiry, fascination and a long relationship with sunflowers. From suspicious seed robbers coming in to steal sunflower seeds to building traps to save the sunflowers. We learnt to observe, to make plans, to sew and work together to save our sunflower monster from a robber
Link to Learning Stories
Sound scientists
Worked with a homeroom teacher Amber Slouf to bring together a library of sounds. Experimenting, making connections, documentation and eventually curating a sound library
Link to Learning Stories
Identity and self
Building an identity and understanding of self with the help of mark making and self portraits.
Link to Learning Stories
2019-20
Atelier of Transformation
Charcoal was once wood and pigments were once objects you found within nature or kitchen scraps. Atelier of transformation tapped into this magical transformation our art supplies goes through.
Link to Learning Stories
Elephant and Prague zoo
I love elephants. So when in the peak of the covid pandemic a new baby elephant was born in the Prague zoo it was time to get the children who were now on zoom as excited as I was. We embarked upon the journey of naming the elephant, hoping our ideas might be recognised by the local zoo.