Wednesday, 31 August 2011

Furniture fit for a fairy.

To challenge the girls thinking further regarding design, we invited them to each plan for and then create a piece of fairy furniture. Initially the girls worked with black on white to draw their plans and following on from this they worked to construct their furniture using the beautiful natural materials which we had collected from our own garden, as well as up at Mt St John.


Here are some of the completed pieces:



Fairy bunk bed: Sydney



Fairy beach umbrella: Victoria C



Fairy swing: Victoria H



Fairy bunk bed: Harriet



Fairy swing: Olivia



Dining table and five chairs: Ella



Fairy Christmas tree: Siena



Fairy ladder: Natalie



Fairy bunk bed: Priya



Fairy bunk bed: Ishani



Two fairy chairs: Mia



Fairy beach umbrella: Alice



Fairy bunk bed: McLane




Thursday, 18 August 2011

Monday, 15 August 2011

Wonder and imagination.

'It's easy to believe in magic when you're young.  Anything you couldn't explain was magic then.  It didn't matter if it was science or a fairy tale.  Electricity and fairies were both infinitely mysterious and equally possible - fairies probably more so.' 


- Charles De Lint



Artist: Alice

Adding colour to our designs.

On Friday the girls were invited to add colour using dye, to their fairy house designs. The girls worked with such care adding colour to their work and were delighted with the way in which they turned out. Here are some images of the girls at work:




Be sure to check out their finished designs on display near our painting easel, and we'll add some photo's of these to the blog over the next week too!

Designs for fairy houses.

Next we asked the girls to reflect on their favourite aspects of their own homes and following on from this we invited the girls to create their very own design of a fairy home. We were blown away by the level of thought that went into designing the houses and the detail that was depicted in the images.


We invited the girls to share and explain their thinking, related to their designs and it was once again fascinating to hear what they had to say. Each aspect of their designs seemed to be carefully thought out and you could easily pinpoint what they were sharing, within their images.


Here are some of the girls initial designs:



Artist: Alice



Artist: Harriet



Artist: Siena



Artist: Ella


'Creativity is a great motivator because it makes people interested in what they are doing. Creativity gives hope that there can be a worthwhile idea. Creativity gives the possibility of some sort of achievement to everyone. Creativity makes life more fun and
more interesting.'


- Edward De Bono

'Fairies are very little you know' -Victoria


Recently on a visit to Mt St John, as we sat on a beautiful log in the shade of the trees, a fascinating conversation was had about fairies. The dialogue encompassed ideas such as size and scale, and the possibility of working to create not only houses for fairies, but also furniture and clothing. The girls began to theorize about the difference in size between people and fairies, and considered the natural materials which they could utilize to create fairy sized items.


“We could make the fairies some furniture...using all of the things of nature”
Priya explained.


Intrigued by the possibility of taking the girls interest in fairies in the direction of design, architecture and construction, utilizing natural resources, we caught hold of this idea. We came up with some questions to provoke the girls thinking and shared these during one of our morning meetings.


We asked the girls to share with us just how big they perceived fairies to be and there was a general consensus that they were indeed very small.

Sunday, 14 August 2011

Too much fun!



The pants and laughter say it all. Thanks Ka Man for joining in the fun and challenge on Mt St John.