Paper Murmuration

Rachel was commissioned by Platform Thirty One to create an art installation for this years Alfreton Festival, Derbyshire which took place on the 28th & 29th September.

The installation in St Martins Church was created from over 1000 individually woven paper units using the five stranded spiral corn dollie weave.

Over 1000 individually woven corn dollies create this paper installation

Student Comments

Heres just a few of the great comments about the natural art classes over the last few weeks:

“I have enjoyed the whole process. I have found that I wasn’t very good at first, but I can now weave fairly well. My favorite material was the willow; it’s texture and smell” Samuel

“I have enjoyed working with the Flanders Red Willow; although it smells, it is great for weaving and tying different strands. I was not very good at first but I have started to get the hang of how the material likes to bend and I have now made a few sculptures.” Kailem

“I liked experimenting with the willow as I have never used it before. I also liked the straws and making designs from out of the blue.” Megan

“I like using the straws better because it was easier to use than the willow was; and I enjoyed this whole process.” Jordan

“I thought the art straw process was good, the willow was tricky which made it fun, but on the other hand it smells.” Jonathan

“I enjoyed using the art straws as they were easy to use and I liked the look of the patterns I created through the twisting.” Emma

“I liked using the willow because you could make a lot with it, but I found the straws a lot easier to use, and they smell better.” Louise

“I thought the art straw was the easiest process we have done as the willow was a bit harder to work with but I have enjoyed working with all of them as it is something different to what we would normally do.”

“I have enjoyed working with the straws because it is easier to sculpt and was better to use when making smaller things; I didn’t enjoy working with the willow as much because it was too hard to sculpt. Overall I have enjoyed the process and learnt a lot of different ways to sculpt.” Ellie

“I really liked the weaving with the willow and the straws. I also liked the techniques we used on the first week and second week. The materials used were easy and fun to use.” Alex

Instead of taking the five strands upwards, this technique takes them outwards to create a more rounded form.

The GCSE students have been working on more complex shapes and weaves over the last few weeks, they are going to be designing their own sculpture for the school using some of the techniques I have taught them. 

Here’s some of the work they did with a five stranded weave using paper construction straws.

Week 3. This week we carried on from the Andy Goldsworthy inspired work using natural materials to create pattern, texture and tone to creating work that would be illuminated.

Leafs and flower petals had been pressed in a flower press for a few weeks and the children had to select their materials based on pattern and shape only. The chosen leafs were laid on acid free wet strength tissue paper in their desired pattern, once the pattern was finished the items were trapped by covering with a second piece of tissue coated with PVA glue.

Some children used lots of textures to create larger scale work.

Mickleover Commission - School program

An important element of the new commission is the involvement of local school children. Working with artists first hand is something that can both inspire and inform pupils giving them an insight to the working life of the artist, how commissions work and how to take inspiration and ideas forward into a fully formed sculpture.

The school that I have chosen to work with is Murray Park School which has a close proximity to the new development. Over the coming weeks and months the pupils will be introduced to natural materials and processes with a view to the children creating their own sculpture for the school premises.

There will be pictures posted shortly and some comments from the students, and in the new year the school and I will be creating an exhibition of pupils art work for the public to view.