Reflection and curiosity
Looking back, the metal embossing workshop allowed participants to come up with their own ideas to express their creativity, individuality and what they felt in the moment. One father who is a surface pattern designer approached his metal embossing in a similar way to how you would approach a pencil sketch on paper. Another lady approached her design using purely dots, similar to pointillism, this was visually appealing, and something that I had not explored before with metal embossed designs. I had learnt something new about the possibilities of the technique through observing the participants at work.
I was mindful of curating the space and being thoughtful about what tools and how the materials were laid out on the table. Upon seeing the tools individually laid out, one child spotted the wire cutters. He showed great dexterity handling the wire cutters. He was then curious about the vice clamped to the table. His interest led me to show him how to twist copper wire using a brace and vice to clamp the wires. He was then given the freedom to explore and develop his own knowledge of manipulating and shaping electrical wires.
We had a range of children and babies making paintbrushes out of wire and natural found objects/ materials such as twigs, leaves, foliage, feathers. This allowed the children to paint and do mark making on rolls of paper fixed to the wall and ground outside. A lot of the parents commented that this was not something that they had experienced before.