Sarah Appleton - Textile Artist Blog

Last week saw this year's final Easter Break children's craft clubs at Walford Mill. On Tuesday we made Springtime Crowns, which were essentially paper crowns collaged with flowers, leaves and bugs. This was a nice simple project that the kids could do fairly independently; they seemed to enjoy it a lot and it was another successful class for me too! Here's a few photos of their results: Colourful and springy! That's it for now, but I'll be back soon!

I've now started teaching some of the children's craft clubs on saturdays and at half term at Walford Mill Crafts. There's definitely been some trial and error on my part with regard to learning the limits of what children can do creatively (e.g. I learnt the hard way that most of them cannot tie knots) and what they're willing to do (e.g. how long their attention span lasts)! But I feel that I'm making good progress now and my confidence with the teaching part is on the up. Next big task: remembering all their names!!! This weekend we made floral wreaths. The children have to be able to finish their project within an hour and a half so the class has to be fairly simple... but not so simple that it's boring. I decided to cut the wreath / doughnut shapes out of paper plates and let the kids decorate them using coloured paper, templates I had created and pens, pencils, stickers, pom poms and buttons. Here's the example that I made: I tried to use differen...

I had even more fun at the Westbourne Craft Collective this week! We made paper hearts for Valentines day, I made mine into a little hanging decoration for my friend. Some of the other ladies made super fancy garlands though! Next week we're making felt owls, I cannot wait! Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. I have also started a paper rose and still haven't finished my needle book, because I get too excited by the new projects, like a dog chasing squirrels... or something. This post was brought to you by the letters V, S and The Everly Brothers.