Sometimes it just doesn't go how you expect....

Hmm!

We've had some paper mache related problems - too much paper and not enough mache we think!!

We'll have to revisit our giant tea pot on Thursday, with a bit more paste this time!

Like we said sometimes it just doesn't go how you expect, but then you get the chance to learn how to deal with situations where you feel disappointed and have to do things again!

Puppets stage 1...

We started work on our Alice in Wonderland puppets during this weeks art group!

We are making the heads for our puppets using paper mache.
We ripped up newspaper dipped it in paste and layered it over balloons!

Next week we'll start to build up facial features!

This is a really good recycled project, the balloons were left over from a party, the bottles they're attached to used to hold the juice we drink at groups and the news paper is from our recycling bag!

Calm in the middle of a storm...

Sometimes the most beautiful, the most remarkable things happen very qiuetly while everyday chaos happens all around them.

That happened in the art group today.

I hope the emotion that I feel about this comes across in what I'm writing, because it is no exaggeration to say that my heart soared when I witnessed this and I have been left 'wobbly lipped' because of it!

The group was very busy today, literally standing room only, in amongst the madness, one member of the group and her support worker sat painting. This in itself may seem unremarkable, but the group member has recently been away for a month to 'detox' and come off medication that she had been taking for a number of years, her doctors said it would be worth the lengthy process and that it would make a real difference to her life.

Today I saw the difference.

In the 7 years I have been working with this wonderful young lady she has always needed intensive support to participate in the groups. Sometimes I have described her as being a 'passive participant', which I believe to be just as important as active participation, to belong, to be welcome, to interact, tell me that's not important.

Today she painted independently.

We squirted poster paint onto paper and she took a brush and without support found the blobs of paint and brushed them in, again and again!

Like I said my heart soared.

I needed to share this with you all so that this important, important achievement wasn't just something that happened at the art group today.

I started these blogs to celebrate the things we do here, daily, weekly, not just the big things, the things that get in the local paper, the everyday extra ordinary things.

This is what it's all about for me, people having the time and the space to just be.

Cupcake anyone?!

Once we'd finished our bottles that would have contained liquid to make Alice shrink, we needed to make the cakes that would grow!



We were super busy today!

We painted our cakes using the same technique as our bottles, the challenge this week was that we needed to mix the colours for different parts of our cakes!
We hope you'll agree that our hard work produced FANTASTIC results!!



How delicious does this cake look?!

All we need now is.....

... a giant tea pot...

... and a confused dormouse!!!!

Like we keep saying "Watch this space!!!"

"15 blue bottles, hanging on the wall...."

Here are some of the bottles we painted last week, complete with their "Drink Me" labels.
We think Alice would have a hard time deciding which one to drink!

hissssing snake!

This drawing has only just been finished!
At the top it says "I smell for eggs!"
Isn't it wonderful!?

Oh what a picture!

How lucky am I that people leave pictures like this beauty around for me to find!?!

It was painted by a young lady who attends our children's Wednesday Club, it doesn't have a title that I know of... feel free to suggest one!

I'm calling it 'Silver linings and Rainbows'

A lot of bottle...

We painted during the art groups this week.

We worked on HUGE bottles for our Alice in Wonderland project.

We talked about colour mixing and about 'pointillism'. we tried to use this technique in our work and built up our pictures using dots.

We didn't find this easy, but we were really pleased with the results!

Art is a personal thing

One of the members of the art group carries this fascinating

'sculpture' with them.

It is called 'Tubes'.

It's form changes frequently but it is always made of the same components.

Photographed and published with permision of the artist.