A bit of re-organisation - Year 3 & 4 went to The Blue Planet Aquarium so we worked with Years 5 & 6 this week. Real team work was needed from the children for this project. After measuring doorways, the children designed and constructed the frame for a 2.4 metre x 2.4 metre stingray. Once this was done, it was covered in a specialist tissue and various paint techniques were used to decorate the stingray.It has to be said that they were very proud of their efforts, and everone was very impressed.

Commissioned as Residential Artists, we started working with the students of Summerbank Primary on 8th June.  The topic was 'Oceans'. All the artwork is to be displayed high in the dining room ceiling space.

We started with Nursery and Reception children who all wove cellophane over a pre-made fish shape.

Fresh with ideas from the Blue Planet Aquarium, Year 3 & 4 designed and constructed 4 separate willow and tissue fish. The boys all seemed to want sharks, but we all agreed in the end that one shark was enough! The children worked really well together and the results were beautiful!

This week we have worked with year 1 & 2. The children were given ready made fish shapes and shown how to weave willow into their fish. They also used recyclates to add colour and texture to the fish. Most of the children were very happy to use the recyclates in preference to the willow, achieving some lovely colour combinations.

Only 4 people arrived, which was what I was expecting. Some had clashes with family obligations so understandable. The participants all chose what they wanted to do, so we had two butterflies, one dolphin and a bird. I think that it is best to wait to see what happens before you decide what you are making with birds. There are thousands of birds, and although you may want to make a duck by the end of the day it could evolve into anything! I remember a 'henduckchickwren' being made last year!

Well another long year, another 'outdoor' Christmas! Is it me or are our friends avoiding us?

The Harvest was good, The big willow was still big and there was more of it. Some of my new hopefuls in what I had hoped would be the basketry bed had turned out to be a disappointment. The Golden Willow and the Vitellina were too branchy to be much use for basketry. Some of the other varieties were also too big, unless we were talking hot air balloon baskets I suppose!  We replanted those we thought would be most use.

We could see that we had not got enough Basketry Willow. We had a lot of big stuff over 2.3metres but not very much fine willow. I went back to West Wales Willows web site and chose what I hoped would be some good colours and more appropriate sizes. The final list was:

Salix Alba x Fragilis Flanders Red

Salix nigricans

Christmas approached and so did our first harvest. We knew that this would not be massive and decided to replant some of the willows. Most of our cuttings had taken but the few that had failed were replanted with the new growth. We planted 3 new willow beds with existing varieties, except the Dragon Willow. We already had 50 of these and could not see much use for them except to sell on as cuttings. We had enough for that! We also only used 3 of the Viminalis - Reienweide, Viminalis 'Talles' and the Sweedish'.

Ok - all planted, so I should find more courses to teach me what to do with it when it is ready! There is not much call for willow fish!

I found 'Creative Days'. They ran courses from a base at Llanisilin, near Oswestry at a lovely Old Vicarage. This had the makings of a good plan! Not only could I go and learn about willow I could also escape! Nothing wrong with my familiy, but there are a lot of them and a break (or more) was definatley attractive. I'm sure that they could manage to feed themselves for a few days!