The brief was to design and deliver a workshop /activity making a calendar with the Hackney Coffee Club on Mare Street for people with mild to moderate dementia and their carers. I wanted everyone to go away with a hand-made object that was sturdy, lightweight, practical and useful.

The solution: a desktop calendar that came in three parts which slotted together. Holes were were made in the cardboard and the sheets were attached with split-pin paper fasteners. The aim was to create an activity that involved a range of relatively simple tasks plus the final decorating stage.

I tried to encourage individual creativity and was gratified to see some very interesting results not only with abstract combinations of colour and shape but also cut-out imagery which, in some cases, reflected different countries.

This is from It’s Magic! published by Tango Books. I used the old milkman’s wallet as the basis for the the Carlo’s Amazing Changing Room. How to make your own magic wallet, courtesy of Red Ted Art, can be found here.

Having spent a long time working hard on new projects over the Summer, I welcomed the opportunity to do a school visit again last Friday.

I worked with all classes at The Granville School in Sevenoaks on a range of projects from group pop-up books to a large-scale pop-up village. The teachers and children were wonderful and embraced all the challenges with enthusiasm, with proceedings helped along by an extremely dedicated art teacher. The idea of a 3D village was the school’s so I designed a pop-up one, in a book. I arrived with a number of key pieces to construct this and the school supplied the rest. Class 6 created 30 wonderful, highly detailed buildings to fit to the structure.

I wanted everyone to be involved in the day which meant doing quite a few workshops. My aim was to pass on enough knowledge and skills to enable the children to finish in their own time. I look forward to seeing photos of the completed work.