At the start of this year I stepped foot into my first ever primary school as an artist and had an extremely enjoyable afternoon working with a class of children on a nature inspired tile making project.
Being a Mum of a three year old, I wasn’t used to slightly older children but they all made me feel totally at ease and were a joy to work with.
We started off by exploring the school grounds, foraging organic objects and any leaves or flowers we could use to imprint into our tiles.
After the tiles were rolled out back in the classroom, the mark making could begin. Watching the children focus intently on how each of their nature findings made a mark into the surface of the soft clay was admirable. Some made actual pictures of a scene, and others went for more of an abstract design. The goal was for everyone to make their own individual tile that was completely unique to them.
The aim of the project was to piece all of the completed tiles together to display as a collaborative piece of art on a wall outside of the school.
The process involved decorating the tiles with coloured slips. All of the children fully embraced the project and got stuck in. I was particularly impressed with how well they shared, helped each other and worked together.
At the end of the session we did question time. No question was considered a silly one! I really enjoyed answering the children’s questions. It’s amazing how children’s minds work and how they think differently outside of the box.
I took the tiles away to glaze and fire in my kiln before returning them back to the school a few weeks later. The class teacher said the children had never been so excited and asked if I could go back again 🙂 Such a compliment!
I made a tile to feature in the centre of the display and the school chose what they wanted it to say.
Once the care taker mounted the tiles onto the wall outside of the year 2 classroom, the teacher very kindly sent a photo featuring two of the children who’s parents had agreed for them to be photographed.
A brilliant experience and beautiful wall tiles!
“Charlotte led a session where the children created a wall tile piece together. The children were incredibly enthusiastic, engaged throughout and so proud of the tiles they had all made! Charlotte led the session with such clear instructions, she took the time to help individuals and she was encouraging to the children throughout. She encouraged the children to experiment and be creative in their designs. She even created a beautiful centre piece for the children’s artwork. We are so thankful for the time that Charlotte took to create such an unforgettable opportunity for the children! Thank you!”
Thank you so much to Mrs Sims for leaving this review on Trustpilot. You can view more of my reviews and ratings here.
After the success and enjoyment of this project, I wanted to visit more schools throughout the year and have been to three others to date. Pictures of the completed tiles from two of the other schools are below, but the third school is still in progress as I have been working with the whole school on over 200 tiles!
Year 6 School Leavers- Legacy Tiles
“We used Charlotte to come into our local school to produce tiles with the Year 6 leavers, both for the experience for the children and as a legacy. These tiles will be displayed around school and built up year on year. Charlotte was great to work with, her communication was excellent and she went above and beyond to make sure that everything was perfect. We look forward to using her again next year!”
>> More details and pictures to follow in another post featuring the whole school tile project coming soon!
