Today we met for the first time at the LEAF allotment. Ruth, Ellie, Abdullah, John, Keelan and Lily walked over from Longley Park Sixth Form with their tutor Rob. After introductions and a chat we set off on a tour of the allotment led by Diane Cocker of LEAF.
Diane did an outstanding tour of the site. She talked us though issues of growing, taught us about planting, showed us all the different trees and plants and fruits and vegetables, told us about the bees, explained the different areas of the allotment, talked through composting, recycling and many many more things. A couple of the group had not previously been to an allotment, some had not had any contact with growing before, or not since they were young. So the tour was extremely informative and quite an eye opener for the students.
Diane then demonstrated how to plant a sunflower for us and explained some general pointers for planting out seedlings.
And then it was our turn! Everyone including Rob and I planted a sunflower which we will all have the chance to return and see how they progressing. There was much talk of who's sunflower will be 'the winner'!
The students seemed to really enjoy getting hands on with the planting. Everyone took great care to follow Diane's advice and plant their sunflower.
Once we had planted the seedlings I then asked the group a series of questions about the allotment and growing and asked them to write a word or a sentence on a veg marker. Questions included: Do you have a memory of a garden or allotment from when you were young? can you sum up the allotment in one word? Name a smell you have smelt today? And so on.
We then planted our markers in an empty bed. These will go on to inform to word that is written on the handle of the silver spoons that the group design and make with Sally and Drew at Persistence Works.
Mitsy the allotment cat tried to get in on the act...
Some really nice ideas and thoughts came out of this exercise which will feed well into the spoon handle.
After lunch I set the group off on drawing studies around the site. The drawings that they produced will go on to inform the design for their bowl decoration so I asked them to make sure that whatever they drew really inspired them and to make sure that it was really something of interest to them. Whether that be the sheds or the plants or the cat! The group spent an hour carrying out 5-10 minute studies of different areas of the allotment.
After that I talked them through some of the drawing techniques that I use to combine and layer up the drawings that I do. We discussed combining different subject matters, colour, marks and different methods of drawing and applying colour.
The students produced some fantastic drawing and studies that will lend themselves well to ceramic design.
