'A Pocket Full Of Treasures'...A poem by Jonathan Power.

The Head Teacher at Chapel Street Primary School agreed to write a poem for us using the words that children from the Reception and Nursery classes came up with during the workshops.

A POCKET FULL OF TREASURES

Beautiful, curvy sculptures
so cozy and cute,
spiral on sharp-edged rocks…
There’s a snail !

…and a lovely golden flower
with green leaf lines,
so smooth…
…NICE, I like it!

Now an angry, big slug
crawls in the woodland
with caterpillars and a spider,
on the dirty, scaly cracks
of tough, spiky rocks..
…INSECTS!!!

Shapes in the garden
bendy and round,
as the moose and owl
circle leaf imprints
by the flowery trees
so rosy,

and we open our hearts
to the spiky patterns
on yet another flat leaf…

…So SPECIAL – because I made it myself.

Workshop at the Quadrants, on the Fallowfield Loop.

We are running a workshop for the public on Sunday the 9th October 2016 at The Quadrants, The Fallowfield Loop, Manchester with funding from Manchester City Council's Neighbourhood Investment Fund, working with Sustrans, The Friends of the Fallowfield loop, The Friends of Highfield Park and Love Levenehsulme to make the day a great success.

The Finished Sculpture!

Installed over the summer 2016, the sculpture is now in Chapel Street EYFS playground, a lovely addition for the children's imaginations to run wild!

 

Thanks To Jana McBeath at River Medlock Photography for these great pictures!

The Resin Treasures...

We knew that we wanted the children's Treasures to be incorporated somehow and after some deliberation came to the conclusion that Resin would be a robust material that could house the treasures, some resin shapes even becoming the treasures themselves!They are so tactile and gorgeous to look at, we were very happy with the results that came after much experimentation by Sharon. Magnets have been added inside the resin so the treasures attach to each other and the sculpture.

Carving The Sculpture...

Rachel's method of working is to use the final maquette as a focus, but to then also  enter into a 'conversation' with the wood and her tools. It becomes an artistic event in its own right, with woman, wood and saw all working together until finally the sculpture presents itself, then it is sanded down and oiled to be super smooth and incredibly tactile.

 

 We decided to add bolts to the sculpture for the resin treasures to attach to. There are also some bolts running on the underside of one of the curves on the sculpture.

Finding wood in Sherwood Forest...

Half way through this project Rachel moved to Nottingham, we had at first assumed the work would continue in Manchester using the The Treestation in Gorton as a base to work from. It soon became clear that this was not the most efficent way of working so Rachel went to Sherwood Forest to source the wood.