Earlier this term, the year 10 art students were able to have a workshop with Chris Baxter, a willow artist whose aim along with the Basket makers Association is to promote the knowledge of basketry, chair seating and allied crafts. Chris began willow working in 2011 and made a professional career out of the wonderful art. She sells hand woven baskets and teaches classes involving the natural material, which is common in Nottingham. We were lucky enough to have a great day, where we learnt certain techniques in order to make what we wanted. Some of the pupils made stunning pieces and everyone managed to make something, whether it was a dragonfly or a fish. 

Hannah created a spider using the random weave technique for the head and body and then inserting willow branches to create legs. She then creatively cut some thick willow branches and into short ones to then create a set of eyes.  

Another student called Kashvi created a deer head using that same random weave technique for the head, however her branches were more carefully placed to create somewhat of an image of a face. Ears were made using the figure if eight weave technique, which is also used to create fish. The ears and antlers were added therefore completing the deer head.           

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http://www.chrisbaxtersbaskets.co.uk/

Year 9 Cavalleria Rusticana workshop

On the 21^st of January, year 9 music students had a workshop based around the opera ‘Cavalleria Rusticana’ We made our own pieces of music whilst also combining elements of opera and learning about opera as well. Firstly, we were put into groups and a professional opera singer came to help us write our lyrics. Then we put together a performance making each group flow into each other by having a short interval in-between each group. At the end of the day, all of the year 9 music students performed their pieces of music to the year 7’s  (who were currently having a music lesson at the time) and then we had an opera performance from 2 professional opera singers.