Sewing with adults with learning disabilities/ difficulties  (ALD).

I've been going through my photos of various community projects over the years and I came across these fabulous stitched cakes made by a group of adults with learning disabilities that I taught for a while.  

  

I would have loved to have sewn these all together to make a  wall hanging, but the students were understandably eager to take their own work home.

 

           

 

When I do sewing with ALD learners, I usually help them to cut out their shapes from felt, thread needles and tie knots.  After that, I encourage them to stitch on their own as much as possible.  I really love their quirky stitches and great colour choices.

 

Top a cake

 

 The main learning for them is to remember to put the needle in from underneath.   I sometimes draw the shape on the back of the felt so that they can see where to sew.

                       

Suffolk puffs really look just like piped icing

Pinwheel bicuits, just like my grandmother used to make!

Yummy looking chocolate cake - with a bit of fruit on the side for healthy eating!

 

The class worked on these for a few weeks (1 morning a week) and there was lots of hilarious conversations about cakes, as well as sensory fun with choosing the colours and decorations - try running your hand through a box of buttons! They loved personalising the decorations on the cakes and borders of the pictures. 

Amazing how much happiness can come from a bit of felt and a jar of ribbon scraps!

Hand Printed Tea Towels - ALDD

As many of you know, I teach classes for Adults with Learning Difficulties.

One of these is an enterprise class which I teach through Cambridgeshire Skills.  Last year the class designed and screen printed tea towels to sell at the Mill Road Winter Fair. 

It's such a  valuable experience for the learners.  They were involved in booking their stall, costing out the project, designing, screen printing the tea towels, making labels, setting up the display, talking to customers, taking payments and calculating change as well as keeping records and accounts.

I'm sure, you won't be surprised to hear that they sold out completely by 3.00 o' clock!

Paper Bodice

I am so proud of the learners in the Move on Up class that I teach for adults with learning disabilities for making this brilliant bodice.

Currently on display at the Children's Society Charity Shop in Mill Rd, Cambridge as part of the CirculArt trail.  Made from used maths textbooks and Soduko puzzles which were donated to the shop but which were destined for pulping because the answers had been filled in.  So we could say that new life has 'blossomed' from old papers. (sorry)

Well done everyone, we had a lot of fun cutting and glueing - and what a great example of recycling at it's best!  Come and see it if you are in the Romsey, Mill Rd area.

Mill Rd Winter Fair

As you probably know, during term time I teach classes for Adults with learning difficulties.  Every year  the class does a stall at Mill Rd Winter Fair in Cambridge.

This year the class designed and screen printed these very popular shopping bags to sell on their stall.

This has been a great way for learners to explore their creativity whilst learning all sorts of useful employablity skills - money, marketting, working as a team and developing confidence.

This class is part of the'Move on Up' program for adults with learning difficulties run by Cambridgeshire County Council.  There are also classes in Maths, English, Art, Cooking etc across Cambs County.

Click on the link :
'Move on Up' to find out more.

CirculART trail

If you’re in Mill road area, please come and see our work in the CirculArt trial (see below)

I say 'our' because this year, I've been involved in CirculArt trail in 2 different projects.


Firstly the Move on Up  'Art in Community' class that I teach in Cambridge have taken part and their wonderful work can be seen at the Children's Society Shop in Mill Rd.  

 

  All fabrics used were donated to the shop.  If you'd like to own a piece of this, all  the flowers are attached to pins and will be on sale after the exhibition with proceeds going to the Children’s Society.

And secondly, I have participated in this  project myself - and mine is in the Romsey Mill shop just down the road.

My own work is a dress that I made from old sheets that I dyed and printed (of course).  I was inspired by the sheer amount of bric an brac in the shop -especially tea sets and I wanted make something very bright and quite simple so it would stand out against the very busy Mill Rd.
 

And as you can see, the shop has saved some very secial tea sets to display with the dress. So they will be on sale at the end of the exhibition.

There's lots of other wonderful artists particpating in this event which is organised by Cambridge Carbon Footprint, a charity who’s aim is to promote sustainability  in Cambridge. And this year, all the charity shops (except one) in Cambridge are taking part.


 

The trail is live from 7th June until 28th June 2018, you can pick up a CirculART Trail map from participating shops and other select locations around Cambridge.
 
For an online trail guide:
http://circularcambridge.org/circulart-2018/

The CirculART Trail is a celebration of  art and creativity, repurposing and recycling, and highlights the significant role that our charity shops play in reducing waste.

All artists who participate artists use repurposed materials in their art and display their work in the windows of Cambridge’s charity shops. 

Print Projects, Pilgrim Pru

Just before we broke up for vacation last year I spent a week working with a really interesting school - Pilgrim Pru

The Pilgrim PRU is a medical needs Pupil Referral Unit containing four distinct centres. Each centre designed and printed a hanging for their own space. The banners/ strings of bunting represent the group made up of many individuals.

The Phoenix is a school attached to a NHS inpatient eating disorders unit for young people.  They decided to make these lovely lengths of bunting.

The Darwin is based in an acute psychiatric adolescent unit. They made this banner reflecting the various interests of each young person and includes the 'hospital dog

And The Croft is a specialist child and Family unit for children under 13.



Here's a closer view of a very complicated rocket/ robot?... Whatever it is, I like it a lot!






On the final day we did screen printing with Addenbrookes Hospital School. This time the children printed black onto a predyed fabric because the classroom space was very limitted and this is always a good way to get great effects using a minimum of equipment.





We printed these on individual squares so that they could fit on a wheelchair tray if necessary and I sewed them up afterwards. I had to do a lot of unpicking to get them all the right way up!





The Pilgrim Pru has an Artsmark award and you can see more of their amazing artwork on their website at http://www.thepilgrimpru.co.uk/


Well done to all the young people who contributed to these banners and buntings. I really enjoyed working with you all.

T-shirt printing

T-shirt printing with Mid Suffolk HOPS 

Holiday playscheme for young people with disabilities and additional needs.  Some children created their own designs and printed them.  We wanted everyone to have a T-shirt to take home so we created some special designs with the HOPS logo for children who didn't want to design their own.

This one is for a little girl who loves being in the ball pond.

I can't remember what BBCGL stands for, so it will have to remain a secret.

 

Flying the Flag for Good Mental Health

Jane Frost has been creating a wonderful art-filled courtyard garden for Arts and Mind . It is in a specialist therapeutic facility for children and families.  

Jane asked me to make some flags that would bring colour and movement to the garden.  We had some ripstop nylon and, well....... the colour were irresistable!  

 

Here we have a test flight!

The designs are drawn from some beautiful screen printed bunting made by the children in  workshops - I don't have a picture of these so you'll have to trust me on that.

This whole project has been made possible by funding from Children in Need.

Memories of WW1 Textile - The community

Although I have been the 'artist' on this project what I've loved most about the whole process is that it has been a true collaboration. The Hunts Archive pulled out all sorts of wonderful resources for us.The components of the panels were all made by students from the Ivo School with hands-on help from both their History and Textiles teachers. My wonderful mother, Resa Selsick, arrived just in time to help me with the mammoth task of sewing the panels up. And the collaboration extends to the display 'in the box', shown below.

The Textiles teacher from the Ivo school came up with the wonderful idea of using an old suitcase as part of our display and the Norris museum managed to source one of these.

One of the students from the school did a collage of various newspaper articles and letters we found in the archive and the museum.  I made up a photoscreen from this and we used it as a cloth that draped from the ceiling into the suitcase.

We masked out areas of the main print and included images of some of the young men from St Ives who went to war

We used this as a base for other wonderful things made by the community for the show.

These included little stuffed hearts made by volunteers from the museum, from U3A, from Adult Learning Classes for adults with learning disabilities and from Claire's Creative Cabin.  These replicated the pincushions made by invalided soldiers, using some of the images from the main panels as the focal picture on each heart.  .

Some of these volunteer embroiderers also made exquisitely  stitched postcards on silk organza, (which is not an easy fabric to sew on). These were based on the hugely popular cards sent home by the troops from France and Belgium.

Thanks to Cary for drawing these up for us.

And of course I couldn't have done this whole project without the wonderful Gilly Vose, assistant curator at the Norris museum and great collaborator!

I know these pictures are a bit blurry - if you get the chance, come along and see it all for yourself!!!

It's all part of a bigger exhibition at the

Norris Museum

Weaving into Fence

Fabulous Fence Weaving.  

I don't mean weaving a fence, I mean improving a boring old fence with a wonderful bit weaving.   This is the fence at mid Suffolk HOPS - an outstanding holiday play scheme which brings children and young people together who are socially isolated by both  the disabilities they have and the rural locations in which they live . Find out more about the scheme at  http://midsuffolkhops.org.uk/  

I fixed a bit of sturdy netting to the fence and the children developed the weaving.  We recycled strips of plastics and weather proof fabrics, including  sparkly foils and ripstop nylon into the netting and beyond, into the fence itself!  Some of the children enjoyed just playing with the pile of strips, whirling and twirling in the breeze.

The children knotted in the offcuts from silver balloon manufacture to create a fluttery centrepiece. The final touch was adding pompoms and bottle top 'buttons.' I am expecting more will be added to the weaving as the summer progresses.

And thanks to the Reimagine Resource Centre for the sturdy, sensory materials we used. see Reimagine

Family Adams Project and Branching Out

This weekend I put up a display of the project work that I did with Branching Out in Littleport for the Family Adams Project.  In fact I put up the diplay on Saturday and when I went in on Monday morning it had all fallen off the window into a pile on the floor!  So - up it went again, this time with drawing pins instead of cellotape.  Anyway - it's now in the window of the Branching Out Charity Shop.

The clients from  Branching Out which is a charity supporting adults with learning disabilities did 2 workshops with the Family Adams Project. The first was to create costumes for paper figures in the style of what would have been worn in Littleport between 1910 and 1915. We looked at old photos of the village and everyone designed their own period outfit.  In the second workshop, we looked at various artefacts from Adams Ironmongers  and discussed how they would have been used, drew them and printed a banner. 

See our website for the Family Adams Project  http://www.familyadamsproject.org.uk/.  This  project began with the closing of Adams Ironmongers in Littleport at Christmas last year. Thanks to the Heritage Lottery Fund, ADEC and the Word Garden  the project  has grown as more and more of the shop's history has been revealed through stories, finding  tools and materials in the upstairs store, backrooms and barns. There are  logbooks, catalogues, account books, old skates, cart springs, blacksmith tools - the list goes on.  The celebration weekend with the community play will be on 28th and 29th April at Littleport Village Hall.

Banner - Branching Out Charity Shop

Period Costumes of Littleport, Branching Out Charity Shop.

see the website for free tickets or just come along on Sat afternoon to see the model, the archival book, the photographs and some of the work produced by the schools in Littleport

carnival - Special Needs

I worked with young people from Meldreth Manor which is a school for young people with physical & learning difficulties. Each learner made a sort of giant lollipop which attached to their wheelchairs for the carnival parade.

We used sensory materials which rustled, rattled, crackled, sparkled and shone! They looked and sounded spectacular and everyone enjoyed exploring the materials while making them as well as taking part in the final parade!