foThe last two weeks of term we managed to build and paint spectacular houses, as well as finish off the hats, the transfers and anything else left finsihed ready for the exhibition next week.
The houses were made with cotton fabric stiffened with PVA, a technique learned from fabric artist Angie Hughe. This was done before the class and left to dry outside in the sun. The result was a fabric that behaved more like card, so it could hold its shape, particularly with a few stapled added.
The children first made sketches of their house designs and then we worked on how to realise them. They needed to work out a 2d plan of their 3d house, and measure it out exactly – all involving some maths! And of course, if the house was rectangular, or had a sloping roof this would require additional measurements. There was an easier way involving folding over where the corners were and using that to measure the next wall but it could be inaccurate. Whatever way, it is essential to remember to include a small flap to attach the sides together.
In terms of building the roofs, there were two different methods or apex roofs – for square roofs you can add triangles to the plan of the walls (making sure the point of the triangle is directly above in the middle of the of the wall) or with rectangular houses you can add a separate roof out of one rectangle, and then add triangles to fit on the shorter end. With flat roofs simply make a shape slightly larger than the finished roof, make small slits into the corners and then fold and staple the slits together to make a corner. One child make their life much harder by adding a hole in the roof (it’s a haunted ruin)!
It is of course necessary to paint the houses before assembling them, when they are still flat. The kids used a brick stencil for brick effect, as well as adding fabric for curtains and painting climbing flowers and cotton wool for snow.
The assembling is much easier than it looks – once the fabric is dry the stapler (short length and a very useful long arm stapler) was used along the corners for stability and then to attach the roofs. Simples!
