Art of Fun Educational conducts incursions in schools all over WA in such subjects as; Shadow Puppetry, Cartooning and Nature Based Art Activities which focus on specific learning outcomes, designed to suit the needs of the participants and Curriculum Standards Framework requirements.

**Please note that the procedures may need to be adapted for the needs of the project.

Clay Work - Primitive Clay Animal Forms
After sharing some ancient tales about our favourite native species to inspire us, we’ll make a chuditch, python or dunnart from clay and it’s own habitat from grasses, sticks, nuts, stones. We will hand dye some silk to wrap it in as a protective pouch. Then you can take an earth figure home to keep as your animal amulet! Age: Children and or families.
Make a simple hand built form of a chuditch, python or dunnart and gather materials for its habitat. A hand dyed silk wrapping will be included to wrap your precious small animal in. Drawing the animals, spirits from the stories on paper or sand. Learning about their habitats.) (Story sharing of Noongar tales about local species such as Chuditch.

Papier Mache Wild and Wacky Giant Colourful Native Flowers and Birds.
This is Paper Mache like you’ve never seen. Using intensely coloured tissue paper wrapped over a frame work - a wild wacky bird can be finished in the 2 hours or a fantastic flower if both sessions chosen. Reinterpret the colourful wildflowers we see or make a colourful Port Lincoln Parrot. Make a giant Port Lincoln parrot or black cockatoo or tiger snake in stunning colours. No painting required - the colour comes from the papers used.

Festival Giant Floats and Lanterns
Cane that is used in crayfish pots is shaped into giant figures that can reach 6 metres in height and depth. Tissue paper is stretched over the cane and mixed with a Bondcrete mixture. Light weight. Used in many festivals currently. Lanterns made from finer cane and papier mache. Organisation and Administration of Multi Arts Festivals.

3D Animation - 3D Plasticine Animation Scene
A miniature TV studio set is created from Plasticine, complete with cast, backdrop, flats and props. Inspirations drawn from cartoons and favourite TV shows.
|Class discussion: How clay animation is produced and a video of a clay animation such as ‘The Red and the Blue’.

Printmaking Techniques - Make Your Own Wrapping Paper, Decorative Boxes and Greeting Cards, and Book Covers.
Printmaking is not only challenging and fun but has a sense of wonder about it as the final product is revealed! Marbelling, block printing, natural materials, found objects and stenciling to create fantastic fantasy landscapes and patterns. Take home your own wrapping paper and greeting cards to use for gift giving or book wrapping.’

Transparent and opaque papers using a Japanese system, or found organic materials.
Class discussion/prep: Students bring in wrapping papers and examples from magazines of fabric patterns. Design sources: natural environment, contemporary graphic motifs (e.g. surfing, hip hop culture) and found objects. Observing how colours complement and clash and the dynamics of pattern.

Drawing - Still Life and Portraits
Using the principles of ‘Right Side of the Brain’ drawing, we will learn together how to bring out the very best of your drawing ability in the form of a still life or portrait.

Continue with your striking art piece while learning design elements such as texture, colour and experimentation, using fabrics, special papers and textures.

Painting
Colour theory. Use of Acrylics. Learn to paint on silk. Contemporary Survey. Traditional technique. Use of canvas. Mixing colour

Glass Painting
Paint beautiful bottles and jars made from coloured recycled glass with French Glass Paints.

Photography
Photographing on the themes of movement, depth, contrast etc. encourage thoughts about design. Children bring in cameras, or disposable cameras are purchased and colour film is used for instant processing.

Collage
Photographic collage as a follow on from the above session, drawing on examples of famous collage artists. Mural or individual collages. Temporary or permanent. Tracing outlines of individual participants and putting them to backgrounds and contexts formed by group discussion.

Card and Paper Work – Dinosaurs
Make a brilliantly coloured card dinosaur from a choice of 6 designs and create a habitat to put it in.

Textiles- Fabric printing techniques from India, Japan and Indonesia
Shiburi, a Japanese tie-dying form, a simplified form of batik and block prints are used to create lengths of fabric.

Class discussion: Examples of the following textiles are shown to the students with discussions of techniques.

India: Block printing.
Japan: Shiboi, Aidone, and Kasuri (kimono printing techniques).
Indonesia: Batik, regional examples, both block and canting. Ikat, regional examples.

Funky Found Object Jewellery from the Bush
Make awsome brooches, badges and pendants for both boys and girls. Using various media such as feathers, natural seaside materials even plastic electrical wiring. We will explore the various systems of jewelry made today by craftspeople around the world and try some of their techniques.

Treasure Hunting the Forest - Funky Jewellery and Bush Sculpture
Both boys and girls can make these awsome brooches, badges and pendants. Help artist Natasha Stone scour the bush for found treasures such as feathers, nuts and twigs and learn some interesting jewellery techniques using clay.

Then we will be making a giant bush creature together from twigs, grasses and bindings that will live at the Forest for a while - under the trees!

Contemporary Jewellery
Make awsome jewellery such as necklaces, brooches, badges and pendants similar to those seen in the year 2000.

If you like, bring your own found objects such as beads, small feathers, shells or river stones – some of these will be provided on the day by the tutor, along with jewellery wire and fittings.

Paper and Card Work - Awesome Pop Up Greeting Cards and Cool Gift Tags
Use stunning colours and shapes to transform an ordinary gift into a piece of drama and imagination made uniquely by you.

West Australian Marine Animals – Simplified Origami
‘Know more about what’s under and above the water line here in West Australia. Choose as your theme a fur-seal, starfish, crab or tropical fish by folding coloured cards and adding markings. You can hang them in your room or make a habitat to put your animal in. ‘ A simplified form of origami will be taught to create these creatures and the children determine what sort of habitat and markings to use.

Sculpture
Wire armature making and wire 3D sculpture mounted. Plaster sculpture, clay and other media

Masks and Shields - Festivals and Parades Around the World - Masks – Carnivale Exotica
Using card, plaster or papier mache create a mask of your choice from a inspiring variety of examples, opera, primitive, or bird styles to copy. See examples of masks from other cultures. Many different media to choose from.
The masks are decorated with a choice of coloured card and feathers, leaves and bark and clay, or spangles and sequins, coloured card, feathers, leaves and bark ,clay and sparkly bits.

Using various materials create a mask or shield of your choice from a inspiring variety of examples, opera, primitive, or bird styles. See examples of masks from other cultures.

Masquerade Half Masks
Highly decorated masks made from various coloured card with lots of curly bits sticking out.

Papier mache half masks
From the Italian opera traditions.

Papier Mache
By recycling cardboard packing cases and using papier mache techniques with gold paints and decorative additions make highly creative frames, clocks and mirrors. Learning decorative painting technique and embellishing.

Plaster Casting of Sea Creatures
Create a plaque of a seaside treasure to hang on the wall.

Kites
Make a simple windsock-style kite, inspired by those traditionally found in Asian countries. Create your own rainbow serpent then attach your creation to a bamboo pole to take home and fly in your garden.

Underwater Treasure Box
Amaze your friends and family with artwork with a 3D feel! Using sand, shells, seaweed and beachy bits and pieces we’ll use some fantastic paint techniques to cover a box to keep your little toys and treasures in!

Furry Fings
Make a furry notebook or furry pencil and gift cards to match. Other little sparkly bits available to add! What a great present for your best friend’s birthday! We’ll do draw some awesome cartoon characters to put in the book as well.

Public Art Work - Bush Creations and Basketry
Using bush sculpture and basketry techniques, transform native grasses, rushes, sticks and wrappings into semi permanent public art works for display in a local park or shopping area even.

Public Art Work – Mural Mania
Art and photographs by community members transposed onto walls, fences and buildings or a combination of my own artwork with the former.

Mosaic - Small Tiles
Using broken crockery, floor tiles, glass beads, shells, crystals etc. to create stunning mosaic pots, platters or house numbers.

Small Papier Mache Family
Make a set of small figures such as a family, cartoon characters of stage set – they will all be wearing different clothes and striking different poses.

Australian Bush Creature Pots
Make an Australian bush creature from clay with art tutor Natasha Stone. It will be painted with clay colours and nestled in eucalyptus leaves. Come dressed for clay!

Smoke Fuming Dragons
Clay dragons are hand built by children of any age above 5. The finished product can include an incense cone underneath which forces smoke out of the nostrils of the dragon.

Puppets and Dolls from Nomad Tribes
Using the skills of the nomads of faraway lands, learn to wrap, bind and use found objects to make these strange and wonderful characters to take home with you. Bring what you can find (not buy) such as old bits of coloured string, buttons, even small bits of coloured plastic for gluing on.

Winged Doll Creatures
Take the dolls of your childhood and I will help you transform them into the flying monsters of your scariest nightmares! Hang them from the trees for all the world to see at a festival or at your home!

Amazing Miniature Surprise Boxes
Enjoy a laugh and make a friend squirm with these crazy paper jack-in-the-boxes.

Mosaic
A course that will include design and preparation, looking at colours and applying of tiles to make platters, tiles and plaques. Make your own choice of project!

Organic Forms to Surfing Dogs - Clay Sculpture for Young Adults
Enter the third dimension in clay. Learn to design clay sculpture using visual diaries, and look at a contemporary sculptors’ work.

Lots of freedom to explore themes throughout the term while learning fine art skills. Beneficial for portfolio preparation for tertiary entry.

Shadow Puppetry
Make a stage and shadow characters that are lit up from behind. Introductory talk about shadow puppetry around the world. Looking at a fable to incorporate into a shadow puppet show.

Concludes with group show, which includes taped music and possibly taped dialogue.

Sand Sculpture
Create a 5 metre many coloured dragon or sea snake on the beach using non pollutant colours and sand. Multiple layers of decoration will be added and a photographic image of the snake and its makers will be posted to participants. Environmentally safe, and very successful as a Rottnest Interpretation Activity.

2 hour project for all ages.

Machine – Group Project
Make a cardboard toy machine together which you can stand inside and operate.

Bring your own cardboard boxes, egg cartons and other stick-onable things.

Fantastical Insects
Following our great insect talk and walk, make a fantasy jewel beetle, shield bug or other West Australian insect. We will look at pictures of our insects and interpret them using provided bush materials. If you want, you can also bring your own small nuts, twigs and leaves small enough to fit in your two hands.

Clay Bearded Dragons
Make a bearded dragon that may live at Piney Lakes Reserve. This dragon will shelter a little tea-light and it can be fired or air dried.

Cartooning and Animation
In Natasha’s fun classes, students take their own characters on a very funny comic book journey, using their own or copied cartoon characters.

Children can make their characters jump, skate and sneak their way through different landscapes - such as the inside a baseball hat, a tin can or an ocean floor. We will learn drawing concepts of perspective, movement, and composition on a very basic and fun level.

Important to younger students is a sense of ease in developing a character to drawing in backgrounds and contexts for humor. Cartooning does not have to be difficult.

Learning pencil control, and how to erase properly and join up lines.

Published cartooning styles are examined and ways to draw easily without prior drawing skill. We look at how cartooning has evolved historically. A study of a contemporary cartoon book prompts basic fine art drawing skills that anyone can do.

The importance of drawing simply and boldly, and tricks that cartoonists used to ease workload and complicated style. A full page personal logo is produced using interlinked typography and illustration. An exciting and dynamic cartoon page is produced, using the skills learnt.

Discussion about how story-telling in cartooning works. How to create interest and humor without having to resort to the violent content often seen in cartooning. There is scope for students to produce a 3 dimensional framed work at completion, for school acquisition.

Cartoon Funny Picture Shops – Miniature Stages
This one is great for any age - watch your imagination popping out all over the place! Think of the funniest thing that ever happened to you, or even the funniest thing you’ve scene in a film or cartoon and make a miniature stage set that can fold up. It can include slides, doors, fridges, pictures of your grandpa - anything!

Cartooning the Forest
Take your own pouched, winged, or scaley creatures on a two day animated journey through the bush. We’ll make our characters creep, slither and sneak their way through different landscapes - such as through the dark and damp forest floor of a jarrah forest, and high up in the canopy to reach the sun. Only an interest in drawing and cartooning is required.(Learning concepts such as perspective, composition, movement and trying some drawing of native species such as black cockatoo, python and chuditch. An appreciation of webs of life will come out of this workshop as well as a lot of laughter!

Clay Work - Feeling and Expressing Natural Worlds through Art - Nature Inscribed Pottery Tiles
(to Hang on the Garden Fence or place in the Garden Path)

By sculpting and smoothing the surface of the terracotta clay, designs of nature appear to marry perfectly with the natural environment. After tracking down real-life skinks or exploring the form of a seed pod, transfer charcoal designs of nature onto a pottery tile with the help of artist Natasha Stone.