Plaster Casting workshops at St David's and St Patrick's Primary schools

Last month I spent a couple of days in 2 different Primary Schools doing plaster casting workshops with the pupils. The workshops formed part of North Lanarkshire's Cultural Festival, Encounters. They were developed to coincide with my exhibition at Motherwell Theatre and Concert Hall.

The children were great to work with, full of ideas, enthusiasm and were very well behaved. At the end of each day we had a group discussion about the work they had made, what they had learned, what ideas they now would like to pursue and so on. Everyone had enjoyed the activities and had done something they had never done before. I felt a real sense of achievement knowing that it had been such a positive experience for them, and I was really proud of the work they made.

At the beginning of the day I talked to the groups about the process of casting, and showed them examples of other artists who make work by casting.

Pupils made their moulds using cardboard covered in parcel tape, and then created a boundary with clay and poured the coloured plaster into the shape.

Everyone was eager to get their hands in the mixing bowl!

They watched attentively as I showed them how to do each stage of the process.

I hope that I get the opportunity to do more workshops of this kind, and so please do get in touch if you are interested.

Plaster Caster workshops as part of Encounters Festival

October is the month of North Lanarkshire's cultural festival, Encounters. I was asked to develop and lead a plaster casting workshop for school children in conjunction with my exhibition at Motherwell Concert Hall and Theatre.

Over the past couple of days I have been leading the workshops, first based at St David's Primary School, Airdrie and another day at St Patrick's Primary School, Coatbridge. I was working with children in P6/P7 classes, and had just under 20 students each day.

Both days went really well; the children were well behaved and all immersed themselves fully into the activities, producing some excellent work.

I began the workshop by introducing myself and talking a little about my art practice. I then explained what we would be doing in the workshop, showed examples of the materials we were going to be using, and handed round some of my work. I showed them documentation of other artists who have used casting, and simply explained the process.

The children were given a square of corregated cardboard and asked to cover it with parcel tape. They then used clay to make a boundary wall to form the shape of their mould. Working in small groups, the students made different colours of plaster and poured the plaster into their moulds.

The students made a variety of colours of plaster, and they all got a chance to engage in ever stage of the casting process. In addition to pouring the plaster into their cardboard and clay moulds, I had also given them a range of plastic containers for them to fill and had covered some tables with sheets of baking paper for them to pour and drip plaster onto in a more freestyle fashion. I showed them all how to remove the cast from the mould as they would need to do it the next day once the plaster had dried properly.

I ended the session with a question and answer session where we discussed what they had learned, how they had found the workshop, whether they had enjoyed it and so on. They also asked me questions about being an artist.

I am delighted that the children responded so well to the workshop, and the teachers were also very pleased with the workshop.

I am looking forward to receiving an email from the teachers with photos of the children holding their casts once they had been removed from the mould.