This Family Art Club session was led by Nicola Ellis – a sculptor, originally from St Helens but now based in Manchester. Nicola creates non-representational sculptures using unusual and experimental materials. She arrived at the art space with two huge sculptural armatures constructed from wire and decorators expanding foam, and several buckets of premixed papier mache.

The participants were shown how to mould and apply the paper mache to the armature, mixing colours and moulding the shape as they liked. New arrivals were initially reluctant to put their hands into the cold, sticky paper mache mix but as soon as they overcame this they began to experience the tactile enjoyment of it. This activity was suitable for all ages and everyone from toddlers to adults was able to have fun with it. At several points throughout the afternoon I noticed a quiet concentration on the faces of everyone involved.

As the workshop progressed the armatures began to disappear beneath a mixture of pastel colours. We had a couple of problems with lumps of paper mache dropping off, where they had been applied too thickly by over-enthusiastic participants, but this was easily repaired. From time to time we had to carefully lift and turn the wet sculptures so that the entire shapes could be completely covered. By the end of the session the sculptures were complete and resembled organic forms. The texture reminded me of pumice rock but in pastel colours.

It was an excellent activity session that perfectly filled the time allowed. It especially appealed to younger participants who sometimes find the more process-involved activities quite difficult.

The hardest part of the day for us, as facilitators and instructors, was cleaning up afterwards!

Please click on images below for larger view.