As an ongoing project with
Brumby Junior School, Education at 20-21 delivered an Everyday Objects workshop to year six's as part of the school's
creative curriculum.
Mrs Musgrave was inspired by
Jason Taylor's Everyday Objects exhibition, here at
20-21 Visual Arts Centre, and decided that her offer for the school's creative summer term would be for the children to get involved with recycling household objects into artwork!
We started by looking at some of the examples the pupils had made in the lead-up to our workshop:
 |
| Some really fun house plants made of household objects! |
 |
| This one made us particularly hungry! A sports ball, crayons and packaging becomes a delicious hearty meal! |
 |
| This crazed looking doll has mechanics that mean the head wobbles about all over the place! |
The workshop set many timed challenges for the children to think outside the box, quickly. The class were split into groups of three and were expected to use their initiative and observational skills to recreate objects displayed. The workshop leader would hold up unusual objects for a matter of seconds. The children were expected to gather the correct materials and notice methods and patterns in the makings of the objects, before working as a team to recreate them.
 |
| The 20-21 Junk Shop |
First up, the Peg Bowl, a temporary small structure that followed patterns, repetition and direction:
 |
| Notice how the pegs are added in rows of colour/pattern and then another row of a different style/colour pegs is added in a particular direction. The bowls should stand sturdy on their own. Let's see how the children fared up! |
 |
| An interesting example of pattern and repetition! |
 |
| A proud group. |
 |
| All children were asked to write words or phrases that came to mind when making all their objects, throughout the session. This was a good way of recording thinking process and decision making. |
 |
| Starting again after realising it would topple over. |
 |
| Working well as a team! |
Some groups were more successful than others, noticing the patterns of colour and repetition. The outcomes were all beautiful and reminded us of lots of different things, including tarantulas and space ships.
Next up, The Straw Leaved Clover! Thinking along the lines of Jason Taylor's humour regards titles for his objects, our Education Officer used straws and wire to create this "interesting" clover:
 |
| Children were shown this masterful piece for a few seconds, before fetching the objects they thought they'd need. |
 |
| This group kept their straws straight and threaded the wire through in attempt to shape the leaf. |
 |
| This group designed a very intriguing method of cutting along the length of the straws and flattening the curve of the plastic. This was then wrapped and tied together to form the shape of the leaves. |
 |
| This group were nick named The Engineers after deciphering a very intricate and complex method to curve the straws... cutting them into small sections, but leaving the very end the keep them all joined together. |
 |
| The Engineers, with their very successful Straw Leaved Clover! |
Once all groups were complete, they were chosen to display and discuss their method of working as a team and the decisions they made as designers, to create their Straw Leaved Clover.
After a tidying up operation, the final creation session was for the pupils to work independently to create Flyer Flowers!
 |
| These fab creations were made using simple folding and stapling techniques to make some interesting geometric shapes. |
Armed with a stack of old flyers from 20-21's archives, and a stapler filled with staples, the class created some truly lovely and greatly successful Flyer Flowers!
The highlight of the day was watching the class work together and notice the properties of various household objects. Some of the children really thought things through and recognised qualities in objects and each other, that they'd never seen before.
Thank you Brumby Juniors! we'll see on 12th at your sharing day!!
