My first residency since going freelance was all been a bit of a rush but I enjoyed it very much, from interview to first session was only a week but the students in the childcare department at Newcastle College seem to have been enjoying having a chance to experiment with new crafts. I mainly ran one off sessions giving lots of groups a chance to try some new crafts, do some team building , and learn a little bit more about creativity and tinkering.
This aim of this residency was to encourage creativity from the students and introduce the lecturers to a new way of doing activities, looking at Tinkering and how the focus on the journey is more important than focusing on the outcome.
Working with GLOW and the college I developed a series of activities that would each have a different creative focus, looking at mechanisms for simple moving toys, function over aesthetics, creating simple 3D forms, and mindful activities. Alongside running some team building sessions, with the established groups and as part of an open day for new students, to encourage them to work together and experiment.
Over the May bank holiday weekend, I spent many happy hours delivering workshops at the Centre for Life for visitors to create their own Mini-beast mask. At the start of the year I created some prototypes and then used these to create some printable templates and stencils that the public would be able to use to design their own mini-beast mask
I created 5 prototypes to begin with, an ant, a spider, a bee, a butterfly, and a ladybird. They were all slightly different style of mask covering the face in different ways, sometimes sharing eyes with the mini-beast and sometimes having their own eyes.
Over the three days of workshops the participants enjoyed being able to create they own designs using the printed templates or card stencils, using glue guns and other tools along with a variety of materials to create their own individual mask.
While at the Centre for Life, I was involved in many different projects.
I started as part of the Exhibition Building Team in 2010 that built Curiosity, a new Gallery that would be in the Science Centre, a gallery without instructions and no answers, a gallery or exploration and leanring through Play. 13 years later and some of these exhibits are still in daily use at the Science Centre.
A few years later I started work as a Maker as part of the Erasmus Tinkering Project Phase one, this invovled working with museums and schools in Europe to develop and deliver new Tinkering projects. Projects that focused on the process rather than outcome, that encouraged learning through play and risk taking, being able to problem solve and experiment. As part of this project: I delivered CPD sessions to teachers; delivered sessions in schools and at Northumbrian Water’s Innovation Festival with primary and secondary school student groups; and delivered sessions with families in the Centre for Life.
Alongside being part of the Erasmus project I was also employed as Maker within the Science Museum, I created a Making Studio within the Centre, a temporary space, built with what we had and open every holiday and weekend to begin with. Throughout the 5 years I was at the Science Centre, the space proved very popular, as it moved around the Centre to find new homes in many different places and this was proven true when a permanent Making Studios was opened. During this time I developed and ran activities for pre-school days, adult events and the public visiting. Often developing acitivies to match the themes going on within the Science Centre such as Dinosaurs, Space, and one memorable half term, Poo.
While at Life I was also part fo the team who developed and worked on Maker Faire UK. A Maker Faire is a convention of do it yourself enthusiasts established by Make magazine in 2006. Participants come from a wide variety of interests, such as robotics, 3D printing, computers, arts and crafts, and hacker culture. This was a chance to meet Makers not only from the North East but also across the UK, to help organise a huge event and make sure that everyone there enjoyed themselves.
For two yers prior to starting at the Centre for Life, I had a stall at Maker faire, all about the 3 R’s: Reuse, reduce, Recycle. Where visitors could make an upcycled keyring from an old toy or a piece of upcycled jewellery.
Crooked Halo Crafts and Design 