Sign In / Register
Students at Matakana School were busy being creative with wool last month, when members of Kowhai Art & Craft’s spinning, weaving and felting group visited Years 3 to 6 over two days.
Members of the group showed younger children how to weave using a grid of knitting wool on a cardboard square, while senior students took on the task of making pictures by felting wool.
This involved layering fluffed-out felting wool of different colours to form a picture, then soaking it and bashing it so the fibres all melded together, something that everyone seemed to enjoy.
Senior team leader and acting deputy principal Claire Allen said the weaving and felting have-a-go days were part of the school’s latest 10-week inquiry unit.
“This one is all to do with the arts, visual and performing, and this is part of our ‘spark week’, which kicks things off with fun, hands-on activities,” she said.
Items made by the children will be on public display during the next school holidays, when regional spinning, weaving and felting group Creative Fibre Northland stages its biennial exhibition at Matakana School from October 4 to 6.
As well as artistic displays, the three-day ‘Transformations’ exhibition will feature trading stalls, demonstrations, raffles and a series of workshops on various aspects of weaving, felting, spinning and knitting, such as making a 3D vessel from felt and Fair Isle knitting.
Warkworth member Rosemary Burnby said the group had worked with the school and exhibited there before, though when the school was much smaller than it is now.
“We did the same thing in 2009, but the number of children has grown considerably since then – there were more than 200 children this time and only 10 or 12 of us, but they all did really well,” she said.
Info and workshop enrolments: https://www.creativefibre.org.nz/calendar/ or contact Linda Macdonald on 027 482 9725 or j.l.macdonald@xtra.co.nz
