Teaching woodcarving at Perry Court primary school in Bristol

The weather was hot and sunny last Friday as I set up to teach woodcarving at Perry Court primary school in Hengrove, Bristol.

Ben at Youth Moves had invited me along. They work with young people from around the area and I'd previously worked with Ben a few times, including doing pendant carving at the Northern Slopes 'Wildfest' in Knowle. The carvers were all in their final year at the primary school, so were aged about ten or eleven years old.

Each person got a block of cedar wood and they were invited to carve an animal or plant onto it. I chose to use cedar as it is durable outdoors, easier than some other softwoods to carve and it was available!

 

When everyone had produced their carvings,  one of the students helped me to assemble the blocks and fix them onto a frame.

The school has recently begun work on an art/nature trail through some trees on one side of the grounds. While I was carving with year 6 pupils, Nick from Olas art was making colourful signs with other students, to be put up elsewhere on the trail.

After we'd finished assembling the wooden frieze...

... it was tied onto some trees along the trail with sturdy rope, so as to cause as little damage to the trees as possible.

A great way to spend a sunny afternoon!