This week’s class for little ones is called First Impressions and it’s all about print making! This week I am trying to structure the class so that each day we work on a different “piece” using a variety of techniques and media. Obviously, with a lot of printing and stamping. Today was found object printing.
First, I taped a grid pattern on some fantastically large pieces of watercolour paper using painter’s tape.
I let the kids loose on these with watercolours to create a background for our prints. The tape acts as a resist and when it was removed the white lines add a bit of visual interest. (In retrospect I think it also helped them cover the page)
Then the printing began. We used a variety of found objects pressed onto homemade print pads (felt covered in paint) in gold and black. The gold didn’t show up much but the black was great. The results are quite beautiful.
Children always enjoy printing with found objects and discovering what marks they make, but the results are sometimes slightly underwhelming. Of course, exploration is very important and it is good to value that without feeling the need for a finished product. But all that being said, there are also times when “framing” exploration in a way that will make a “piece” is worthwhile as it encourages excitement and helps peopled realize that what is going on is special. This experimentation is quite striking and it feels important because of that.
