Firday 12th June

I never got round to writing up the blog from last week, but it involved the 5th & 6th Class and 3rd & 4th Class. They were carrying out the last of the paper mache on the large items for the installation. All the pupils were glad to hear that it was the last workshop doing that technique and were looking forward to painting all the objects.

We started with the 5th & 6th  class and it was their job to decide on designs for the different items. For the teacups and saucers they worked in pairs with one person doing the teacup and the other the saucer. We had some images from printed out of the most familiar characters in the story to give them a starting point on their designs. The different character that we had decided to use are: Alice; Cheshire Cat; Rabbit; Queen of hearts; Tweedle Dum & Tweedle Dee; Caterpillar. The hat will already be representing the Mad Hatter so there was no need to include him. 

It took a bit of figuring out and they were able to practice first on paper before drawing on the finished design. They had fun trying to work out how to use the shape of the cups themselves as a way to add to the design. Once they were happy with the design they then had to decide on colour schemes for each place setting. The 5th & 6th Class started the painting and then the 1st & 2nd class took over when they came to the workshop at 2pm. 

To give some texture to the surface of the Mad Hatter's Hat, we used a combination of red and black paints, layering them on using tissue to dab on the additional layers. It will need some further work this coming Friday so we will use sponges this time to give that textured look. 

They also had to decide on colours for the cakes and sweets and had a lot of fun coming up with some very colourful results!

We decided to go with the very familiar blue and white patterns for the milk jug and sugar bowl. While the teapot is a very bright yellow that will need more painting also in the next workshop. Also, we will need to make sugar for the sugar bowl which will be made from styrofoam painted with glitter glue.

The final workshop is taking place this coming Friday and the installation will be put in place and be used for the launch of the Blarney in Bloom Festival that takes place on Thursday 25th June. It is hoped that as many pupils as possible will get the chance to see their hard work in the beautiful setting of Blarney Gardens as well as taking part in a photoshoot for the launch along with the IGD and members of Cork County Council.

Friday 29th May

We started the day with the senior infants as they still had to paint their teacups. There was lots of discussion about what design they might use and to help get them started we passed around some patterned paper and printed designs such as flowers, butterflies, pirates etc... to give them some inspiration. The limiting of only two colours really challenges the children to think about how they might make their teacup stand out from everyone elses. To apply the paint they had to use cotton buds as these encourage them to make patterns a lot more than if they used a brush. The natural instinct when you hand the younger children a brush, is to cover the cup in the one block colour! They did a fantastic job and are all very excited to see what the finished installation will look like.

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5^th & 6^th Class.           

It was now time to start on all the big items for the tea party so the children were getting back to the construction part of the process.

 For the plates on the plate stand they stuck together the pre-cut cardboard circles. The sugar bowl base is an old plastic plant pot.

 

For the milk jug they cut a large rectangle of cardboard and taped it into a cylinder shape with added circles on the base and inside to hold the shape. To strengthen these circles they cut two of each and taped them together with the grain of the cardboard running at right angles, this makes it stronger and less likely to bend.

 The donuts were made from a length of hose pipe inserted into foam pipe insulation and then covered in bubble wrap.

The slice of cake was made from aeroboard cut and stuck into the triangular shape.

The bottle is a large fanta bottle. 

The teacups were made by smearing the outside of a large salad bown in Vaseline, covered in cling-film and then covered in paper mache. They then inserted circle cut outs on the inside as otherwise they wouldn’t hold their shape. The handles for the cups are made from floristry wire wrapped in newspaper and bent into the question mark shape.

All these items were then covered in paper mache using newspaper and the flour paste. Once they had applied 2 layers, they then used cardboard that had been soaked for a few minutes, excess water squeezed out, and then the layers separated. Using cardboard in this way is much quicker than newspaper for building up layers and also makes items very strong and durable.

The 5^th & 6^th class started the process and carried out most of the construction part of the process. There was lots of discussion about how the cakes and donuts might be decorated with suggestions from the children of using beads to look like sprinkles and suing sand to give texture to the sugar lumps. Those making the milk jug suggested painting the inside and using cling film  to make it look like liquid and this could also be used for the teacups. The 1^st & 2^nd class then continued from where they left off and did most of the paper mache. There was also lots of talk about what flavour donuts they should be with chocolate being voted the top favourite.

After some debate about what type of cake to make, it was decided that a strawberry sponge might work best as the colours would be easy to replicate and be very effective. Some children were close to drooling imagining the cakes were real! They did a fantastic job and all the finished items are well on their way to being completed.

This coming Friday we will be applying the second layer of cardboard to most of the items and getting started on the very large teapot. They will be able to add more detail and shape this week by taping on rolled up paper and other items to add parts such as the cream on the cake and icing on the donuts.