Evaluation

I chose the Moving Tides Project as my SDP because I instantly knew that it was the kind of working environment and type of project that would suit me perfectly. It was creative, out of the workroom, exciting; it involved interacting with children and people in a professional environment. I also knew it would eventually give me an outcome and a reward for all of my hard work which for me I am quickly finding out throughout my degree is of high importance. This project has confirmed that I want to take all the skills and knowledge I will learn from my degree and use them in a situation where I will be able to work with others or give them some sort of pleasure. I want to work with people, all different kinds young and old but incorporating my love for costume and being able to create costumes with them or for some sort of community project.

I now, looking back know that I made the right decision choosing this opportunity and I pride myself in the fact that I know my strongest skills and what makes me passionate; I have confidence in the fact that when I graduate I will be able to make professional and personal decisions that will forward my learning and I will be able to take on jobs knowing I can do a good job and that I will work to my full ability.

My expectations of the Moving Tides project have been, I would say, pretty much fulfilled. I will say that my ideas and imagination ran away with me at the thought of a carnival in the first week or so as I imagined huge floats and millions of colours and thousands of feathers but I think that is a natural reaction. The process of brain storming, group tutorials where we would bounce off of each other’s ideas and developing my ideas with the Moving Tides Company, teachers and Adele was as successful if even more than I had expected. I really enjoyed the feeling of working as a team along with Adele which I did right from the beginning. I am definitely more a team player than a solo artist. The style of a working project where decisions were being made along the way by us and for us by Sarah and Adele meant I felt comfortable and in control throughout the whole of this project and I have really enjoyed that feeling of being on top of my work and forward planning enough in advance.

I think that I could have pushed myself more in terms the amount of work I have produced or handed in. I think that I have created a carnival design that is manageable for my class to work with for their age group but for them to still look effective. I could have gone further with my personal prototype and done more experimentation of ideas but because I was so sure of my idea from very early on I lacked in this. In some ways this is a good thing, that I thought of an idea and stuck to it but I still think I could have done some more experimentation.

I think that I have handled myself well during the project and produced a good body of work with my class at St Andrews. I have had good feedback from my teachers who have said that I have conducted myself well, run the class and planned my lessons in the same way any teacher would and really got the children excited for the carnival day.

I have learnt that I can organise and deal with organization well without getting stressed. I have improved on my self-motivation by getting myself into a routine of early rises and early nights so that I have the energy to get jobs done or a good amount of work. I was highly surprised by this as I expected to find it very hard keeping up to date with my blog or doing sections in my sketchbook but I have found that I have the ability to self motivate which will be a very useful skill to have after I graduate. I have also felt a huge step up in my self confidence and the way I present myself; I now feel I can talk to anyone with confidence and will be able to hold my own. This is reflected in my choice to put myself forward for course rep after shying away from this for two years regardless of my interest. This is another thing I would be able to add to my CV to help me gain a good job after I graduate.

Standard Development

This is a photograph of the final standards for the carnival. They have been the same willow design the whole way through but they way they are displayed has chnage quite a bit. My original idea was the have the jellyfish hung on a goal like shape made from willow but after a design tutorial with Jo and Sarah I decided it was better to have them help up individually. I had planned to have them suspended from a curved willow pole right up untill my last lesson at St Andrews. After the children had added all of the decoration they gain alot of weight and when I got them home the willow poles were not strong enough so I took a bamboo pole and covered it in various fabrics and secured it inside the wiloow structure with a glue gun. I think this will be a much more secure and sturdy option and it also means that the children can move the jellyfish up and down more easily causing the tenticles to float around.

Final School Placement

My final lesson was spent working on the Jellyfish willow structures and the class finishing off their T-shirts. They all got very excited by the glitter sprays which we used on both the standards and the T-shirts and it got them talking about and excited for the carnival day. I have been really impressed by the childrens skill throughtout the whole of this project and their ability to produce exactly what I had designed or what I had in my head. It was a lesson spent finishing off jobs and working on the standards as a team and a really nice way to end the placements.

Third School Placement

 

My third lesson was alot more relaxed and calm compared to my first two.I found that I was able to sit down and talk more with the children because the task I had set was alot more relaxed. It gave me an opportunity to help some of the more quiet children who might have got forgot during the manic previous lessons. The class also got to know alot more about me aswell as they asked me questions about where I go to uni and what I studied. I really enjoyed this lesson and the T-shirts are looking amazing.

Budget

I have just done a count up of all my costings so far. I have bought things like Bubble wrap, shower scrubs and feather boas. I have found that I will take a supply of shower scrubs with me and they will very quickly run out so I have had to keep buying more.

I feel that I have done very well with my budget, I have not spent the full amount of money and it is looking very unlikely that I will. I have however purchased things that I did not originally put on my costings sheet as I did not research what I would need or think far enough ahead to be able to plan properly for my lessons. I think this is because I had no structured plan for the construction of my jellyfish umbrellas and that because I had the idea to let the children go wild and use whatever they wanted I didn't think of what materials I needed or that would be particulary popular.
                              

Student Artists Name	Imogen Walker
School Name	St Andrews
Project Name and basic Description	Moving Tides- Local Marine Life specifically the Jurassic Coast Jellyfish Umbrellas costumes decorated by the children individually Customised Tie Dyes t-shirts Group work on Jellyfish willow standards
Number of costumes to be made	20
Material	Supplier	Quantity	Cost per items	Total per item	Purpose
Transparent Umbrellas	Poundland G&T’s	20 1	£1.00 £1.99	£20.00 £1.99
Plain White t-Shirts	Purchased by Moving Tides	20	-	-	-
Cold Dye (for tie dye)	AUCB	Blue and purple (4 tsps of each)	45p	£3.60	Tie Dye
Feather Boas	G&T’s	16	£16.00	£16.00	Umbrellas and Standards
Face Paint	Purchased by Moving Tides	Blue,pink, purple, sliver glitter	-	-
Glitter spray	Claire’s Accessorises The Range	2 1	£3.50 £4.79	2 for £4.50 £4.79	T-shirts
Silver Fabric	Fabric Land	0.5m	£5.35	£2.56	T-shirts
Elastic bands	Ryman Stationary	1 pack	£4.49	£4.49	Tie dye
Shower Puffs	Wilkinson Pound Land G&T’s	10 2 (pack of 3) 9	45p £1.00 29p	£4.50 £2.00 £2.61	Umbrella’s and Standards
Ribbon	Fabric Land	8 m	32p	£2.56	Standards
Bubble Wrap	Wilkinson	5	£1.00	£5.00	Umbrellas and Standards
Silver beaded string					Standards
Tissue paper	Wilkinson (White)	3	65p	£1.95	Willow structures
Silver foil paper	Wilkinson	2	£1.00	£2.00	Umbrellas
Feathers	Wilkinson	3	£1.00	£3.00	Umbrellas
Silver string trim	Fabric Land	2m	£2.99	£5.98	Standards
TOTAL				£87.53

Second School Placement

My second lesson was just as hectic as the first! The classes swapped around and the other half of Year 6 got to start their own umbrella and everyone that is actually doing the carnival finished theirs off. I took in my sketchbook and some images of Jellyfish to explain to the children that we needed to add more tneticles than  just four as Jellyfish have millions! This worked really well and they fully understood what I was asking of them. By the end of the lesson we had lots of finished umbrellas with lots and lots of tenticles!

Thank You Email

School Placement 1

On the morning of my first placment in St Andrew's Primary school I felt quietly nervous but I also felt confident because speaking infront a crowd, be it age 10 or age 30, doesn't normally worry me and I take it in my stride. This is one of the many reasons this project was a good choice for me as I have had to be able to put my ideas across to Sarah, my Peers and Adele and although I already feel confident in doing this it is good practise in a porfessional environment and it is all building on my people skills.

I had everything organized into a craft box full of lots of bits I had bought or collected from my housemates or home. I had the umbrella's ready to go and all the blank t-shirts for the tie dye. I felt really organised and this is a skill I have really improoved on not just since startiong this project as I have had to motivate and schedule myself but since the begining of University. I have found that when there is no one there to do things for me or promt me as it has been since I left home I rather enjoy getting myself organised and ready for such events as a placement, hand in or a project. It gives me a clear head and I feel I can tackle anything that I have coming.

In terms of my first placement, i felt it went really well. Regardless of how prepared my materials and supplys were, as soon as I let the childrens start making thier umbrellas all hell broke loose. Tinsle, beads and glitter everywhere. I feel i managed the class sucsessfully; I had a system of calling 3 children out from the mian umbrella task at a time to tie dye thier t-shirts and then they would rejoin the group and this works quite smoothly.

I really enjoyed seeing the children putting all of thier creative input into the umbrellas but it was clear very quickly that I needed to re-stock on materials. I did not run out but I felt like I could of had larger quantities of what I did have as alot of it was scraps or odd bits I had found.

Another thing I really want to stress to the children in my next session is to add some sort of material around the outside of the umbrella that will have a fair amount of movement in the wind on the carnival day. Alot of the children had very stiff decoration and this will not have the desired effect on the day and will not aid the choreography that they will be taught.

*One admin type note is that my teacher had alot more children in the class than the 20 children confirmed to do the carnival on the 9th. The 30 children there were all shared an umbrella between two or 3 and this worked really well as there was also limited space. I still have some umbrellas left for the next session but all of the plain t-shirts have already been dyed and we are going to swap the classes round to make sure everyone gets a part of the experience. We are going to use a box of old t-shirts which unfortunately have a design on but this will mean the children still get to do some tie dye if they havent already. 

First School Placement