Light and Shadow Creative Workshops

I was working in a school all of last week with all Year 5 and Year 6 (aged 9-11) pupils at Millfields School in Hackney, 
to create light-boxes for part of their 'Creative Week'. 

I worked with each class to produce one box, based on a fairytale with a modern telling. The class was split into small groups. 

I began by asking the first group of pupils to draw out their ideas.

 

The second group of pupils worked on the design for light box. They took inspiration from the initial drawings, and worked indiviually to design and draw out each layer for the light box, considering the scale and placement of the overall design. 

They were each given a layer to draw, within  a frame.

 

The final group used craft knives to cut out the designs from white card, and then glue their cut-outs onto a cardboard frame.

  I assembled the frames, gluing them together, and fixing a coloured led light strip (of the pupil's choice) into the back of the box.

Each box has a sheet of clear transparency paper glued onto the front, to protect it. 

 Here are the pupil's final designs.

(I think you'll agree, they did a great job!)

 

Aladdin

 

 Hansel and Gretal

 Little Red Riding Hood

 The Little Mermaid

 Cinderella

 Peter Pan

  The boxes will go on display this evening at St James's Church in Hackney.

 This is what the boxes look like without the lights switched on.

New Products from Roger La Borde

Here are some new products released from Roger La Borde this month, and available for a limited time on my online shop. 

 

These include notecard wallet, greeting card, and sticker labels (useful for gifts, jars, books etc...) 

Currently Available Online 

http://www.sublackwell.co.uk/online-store/#!/Stationery/c/4222007/offset=0&sort=normal

Book Cover Artwork

Gregory Funaro's book 'Alistair Grim's Odditorium', for which, I created the art-work for the cover, was released to acclaim this month. 

To read an earlier blog-post about the commission go to http://sublackwellstudio.blogspot.co.uk/2014_05_01_archive.html

http://books.disney.com/book/alistair-grims-odditorium/

I'm currently working on the sequel to Alistair Grim's Odditorium. The details of which, will be published soon...

Greeting Cards

One of the designs available on my Online Shop

The Enchanted Forest 

 

http://www.sublackwell.co.uk/online-store/#!/Greeting-cards/c/7148278/offset=6&sort=normal

Printed in Britain on responsibly sourced paper

https://rogerlabordeblog.wordpress.com/2014/07/01/a-fairytale-woodland-su-blackwells-paper-cut-artwork/

'Shadow and Light' School Workshop

I was invited to lead workshops at Millfields School in East London, as part of their Creative Week.

The first (one hour) workshop was to introduce teachers to simple shadow boxes using layers of paper cut-outs, lit from behind with a light source.

I'll be working with groups of Year 5 and 6 pupils (ages 10-11) at the school, introducing them to paper cutting, and experimenting with light and shadow, to create shadow boxes of their very own, based upon their favourite fairy tales, (with a modern twist). The pupil's work will be displayed in a local church for a day.

I'll be documenting the work that I do with the pupils here on my blog, and will be posting the layouts I used for the teachers workshop in my next monthly newletter. If you're interested in receiving my newsletter, please subscribe to it here. http://www.sublackwell.co.uk/subscribe/

As I only had one hour to work with the teachers, I prepared and made a box for the teachers to re-create, to introduce them to the techniques required.

The set-up is quite simple, but the effects are stunning. 

 

 Teachers working on their shadow boxes

 

The boxes look really cool when lit up