Children's and Student's Papier Mache Workshops

children's birthday party papier mache workshop

Children's Papier Mache Workshops

Anita loves working with children. She comes from a large family and enjoys banter and fun. Her two children are now grown up but she has worked part time in a specials needs department of an outstanding local mainstream secondary school for 14 years. She has a great knowledge of her craft and is used to differentiation. Anita believes that anyone can make something they are proud of. She supports and teaches from year 7 to A level in art and specialises in sculptural papier mache, mixed media and collage. She gives tuition in Art and does private art lessons, art therapy sessions, GCSE catch up and tuition as well as specialised themed art sessions. Please take a look at the Adult’s workshop page as well as many student’s can work to this level too.

Many years of teaching Art Certificate, holding private workshops and hosting events have meant Anita is very relaxed, knowledgeable and at ease with her students. Groups are small – a max of three so that there really is a chance to have very good tuition. Small birthday parties, family groups or just friends have enjoyed papier mache, refreshments and seeing a lovely sculpture take shape.

Sessions are normally two hours and we suggest that children are 7 years or above for them to be able to concentrate enough to enjoy the art workshop. Some children come back and paint and some finish on the day with a form of decoupage.

papier mache hamster - papier mache workshop

Teaching Class Sessions in Schools

Anita has done many workshops in primary and secondary schools with whole class groups. Here is a London Eye sculpture complete with a townscape surround. She has done this workshop now three times. Other workshops have been based on Mexico, butterflies, birds, Greek vases, the planets, Tobias and the Angel, a large puzzle on friendship; a collaborative work involving thirty children and some collage sessions.
Sessions normally involve two days one a week to allow for drying time before finishing. Normally a class is up to thirty children with a teacher and two helpers from the school. Anita understands that children work at different paces, may get funny about getting their hands gluey and she has a great sense of humour coupled with endless patience. She is also CRB checked, first aid trained and has defib training.

In this London Eye workshop, Anita created a standing wheel that was secure. The children made the pods, papier mached the wheel and decided what surroundings they would like. They created houses, a cafe, the river, boats and buses and a clock tower. One Year 6 class was involved for the day and then the item was painted at another time. The children worked in small groups. They came up with their own designs. Anita facilitated their ideas through instruction and encouragement.

Spiderwick fairies papier mache children's workshop

There are opportunities for each individual to take their own idea and implement it. This year 8/9 Spiderwick workshop involved creating a wire armature and then after a few layers of papier mache creating clothes, embellishments and features to create the fairies. The sculptures dried in the hot sun in-between the tissue and the mache sessions.

Tobias and the Angel

This sculpture was created by a primary school and set up by ‘Take one picture’, at The National Gallery an initiative for schools. It was based on Andrea del Verrocchio‘s painting, ‘Tobias and the Angel’. The children had to come up with ideas in a large group at their primary school. The term’s work across many subjects was based on the painting. The sculpture then spent some time displayed in the school’s local village hall. Anita was there for three days over three weeks working with two classes. She had to create a wire structure that was solid before arriving. Sometimes on large projects you have to build in prep time as wet paper is very heavy and the armatures need to be secure or the whole thing will topple over. Anita provides worksheets for the children on the structures and also provides a DVD to be played at the beginning of the session giving some context. As you can tell a lot of preparation is done to provide a smooth trouble free session at the venue. Please look in the gallery below to see the original painting. One sure sign the children warm to Anita, is that at lunchtime there is a queue of helpers who want to give up their lunch-break and continue.

Children's and Student's Papier Mache Workshops photo gallery

The projects below vary from school to private small group sessions at Anita’s home. The skeleton heads are done by year 2/3 in primary and the Greek vases were year 3/4. The planets were done by early years. The two free standing fish were done in art certificate over a period of one double lesson a week for 5 weeks. These were students not doing GCSE but a similar age. The rest are from private sessions at home or at The Young Carers in Richmond. Children range from 6 to 15 years. The work below shows a full range from young children to teenagers and it is their own work. Anita’s workshop for teenagers at Strawberry Hill House was fascinating as she was asked to replicate the astounding papier mache white and gold ceilings at Strawberry Hill House through a craft project for teenagers with a set of workshop sessions. This involved creating small frames, replicating paintings from the house to go in them and then adding relief work using string and card. Finally the raised areas were embellished with gold leaf. These are in the gallery below. You will see the painting by Verrocchio that the Tobias sculpture was based on. There is a robot which was made from recycled items and papier mache. He was used to escort an EHCP student around The Natural History Museum so we photographed the museum through his eyes. See the photos.

RACC parent and child papier mache workshop

Planets in order of size in papier mache