Gone Fishing...
Day 6 - Ideas for a 'mobile' project....and the answer to yesterday's photo teaser!!
I have been asked to come up with an idea and prepare a workshop for a mixed group of adults with physical and mental challenges, to be delivered just before the group take their Easter Holiday - so I still have a while to prepare. I have done a number of these workshops and find them quite challenging - but very rewarding, as every body is so friendly and they are all so excited about making something new.
There are usually between 15 and 20 people who attend these workshops and I try to prepare things to a point where everybody is given a 'kit' of partly prepared materials so that success is assured but they still get a chance to create their own work of art from a bag of what appears to be bits and pieces.
I have decided to help them each produce a mobile, with the main feature being colourful 3D fishes. I wanted to steer clear of obvious Easter themes so that the mobiles can hang all year round without looking out of place, and I wanted something that would be suitable for both men and women to make without feeling awkward. Fishes are fairly unisex - aren't they??!!
So, I have been having a play today to see what I can come up with...
These fishes have been made from photographic paper printed with small, colourful, repeat patterns - which have been cut into strips and then shaped into balls - with other little additions to magically transform them into fun, fat fishes!
These are just prototypes but I'm sure you can get the idea from these. Each mobile will have a number of these fishes of various sizes and colour combinations which will be able to freely 'swim' around (when once I have devised the rest of the structure!) And I have discovered accidently, that they throw brilliant patterns onto the wall when light is shone through them...so they will have added value!
I think it will be fairly easy to prepare 'kits' for these. I will cut all the strips, fins, tails and 'kissy' lips for all the colours and sizes and start off each fish by pushing a 'split pin' type of paper fastener through the lips and then through one end of each of the strips for that fish. I will then fan the strips out evenly and glue them into place (photo 1) so that they can't move out of place when being worked on.
Then each individual will be able to thread the other end of each (numbered) strip onto a second paper fastener to gather the shape into a ball (photo 2). And then the tail can be threaded on to hide the ends of the split pin (photo 3). Then all the little fishy needs is his fins to finish him off (photo 4).
I will have to cut and prepare some sort of structure and nylon line to hang these fishes from...but I haven't go that far yet!! ...That will be for another day - but I think this idea is worth developing.
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And for those of you who wanted to know what yesterday's 'thing' from 'Much Ado About...?' was a photograph of... here it is...a jar of mixed, shredded vegetables and red cabbage prepared and packed into a jar in preparation for me turning it into saurkraut! It was so colourful and pretty - I just had to take some photos of it!
I really do have some very bizarre things in my inspirational photograph collection!!
Posted by Barbara
