Fold an Origami Crane

Lucy Lean's visual aid for origami workshops

Discover the Othery Village Crane Trail at the annual Street Fayre on Saturday 16 June 2012

Red, yellow, blue and white paint, a tub of water and paint brush. These were the tools given to everyone at the Somerset Art Works' workshops at Othery inspired by The Great Crane Project.

Reflecting the local community and surrounding Somerset levels where the amazing cranes are being re-introduced, throughout the last month people of all ages have started making their marks and painted their own life-size crane decoys under the guidance of artist Kitty Hillier.

‘Blossom’ was the theme for Isabel and her granddaughter, Lizzie. Young Daniel didn’t know what he was painting as such, just having fun with colour and rainbow colours. Local resident Pat was ‘just playing’ - freely painting a pastoral scene depicting day and night, with the stars and moon on the Crane’s head so it could see at night.

You can see the flock of painted Cranes from this series of workshops at the Othery Street Fayre on Saturday 16 June 11.30 – 4.30.
Collect a map from the Somerset Art Works (SAW) stall and discover the trail around the village.

Banksy Crane in Lyme Regis

Thanks to Natalie Parsley for drawing our attention to this Banksy crane in Lyme Regis - time for a trip to the seaside!
http://www.banksy.co.uk/outdoors/crane.html

Lucy Lean - Paper Crane Project

Lucy Lean , 2010

SAW is delighted to appoint emerging artist Lucy Lean to work on our Paper Crane Project.  Lucy impressed us at interview with a wealth of creative ideas, showcasing her extensive research plus a large bag full of origami cranes in different materials and beautiful sheets of stitched together paper cranes.


Lucy will be leading a series of community and school workshops throughout June and July to amass a large quantity of recycled paper cranes for this collaborative project. 


These cranes will then take form as a large installation, devised by Lucy, for Slimbridge Wetlands Centre in Gloucestershire during the Summer of 2012 and at The Avalon Marshes Centre during Somerset Arts Weeks 2012.  This project is part of SAW's ongoing project work with the Great Crane Project and Lucy's placement has been generously supported by Bruton school for Girls.


Lucy graduated in 2010 from Somerset College and her contemporary 2D and 3D work with textiles and mixed media has continued to develop. She finds the main source of her inspiration in the naturally occurring patterns and forms from around her rural home in West Somerset. The processes she uses in her work are experimental and often involve a repetitive use of stitch, cutting and layering.  Lucy brings these skills, ideas and elements to The Paper Crane Project. www.lucyleanart.com

Take Part in SAW’s Paper Crane Project with Artist Lucy Lean

Individuals and Somerset school and community groups are invited to take part in SAW’s Paper Crane Project led by Artist Lucy Lean. 

Hundreds of paper cranes will be made of recycled paper and drawn together for a huge installation at Slimbridge Wetlands Centre during the Summer and then at The Avalon Marshes Centre at Shapwick during Somerset Art Weeks 2012.  If you would like to contribute to this collaborative project please contact SAW for further information and instructions:

01458 253800  info@somersetartworks.org.uk  

Guide for size and materials to make Paper Cranes for this project: 

Use any recycled or used waste paper (but not newspaper)

Each square to be accurately cut 20cm x 20cm

Each participating school/group/individual may like to choose paper, or mark it, in a way that will identify their cranes 

A Somerset Art Works (SAW) Project in partnership with The Great Crane Project

Othery Workshops a Great Success

Well we've still got one more workshop this Friday 18th May, but the two that have taken place already have been well attended with a great community atmosphere.  

It's been fantastic to meet the enthusiastic and creative people of Othery and the surrounding villages. We've had quite a few family groups, really nice to see the whole family get involved in something creative.  Also we've had several adults and couples - ages ranging from 1 to 60s!  

       




Derek and Gwyneth have proudly represented The Great Crane Project, sharing their knowledge and answering lots of answers about the cranes. Kitty Hillier, Belinda Brownlee and Lucy Lean have guided the painting of decoys for the Othery Trail and led origami paper crane making.  In her introduction Kitty encouraged everyone to think about what is special about where they live, about their village, the Somerset Levels, what it means to them and as inspiration for their painting.

I was particularly impressed by how everyone immediately got going with the activities, the focus of the younger children was amazing and seeing everyone express their own styles as they painted the decoys was inspiring. 

 

Make sure you come along to the Othery Street Fayre on Saturday 16 June, we'll have a stall alongside The Great Crane Project so come to say hello, grab a trail map to explore the village and see the Crane Trail.

  

 
We will also be holding a workshop at Othery School for the older children on Monday 28 May.

http://www.otheryvillagehall.org.uk/Whats%20on.html - Othery Street Fayre info