Kubella now has eyes and eyelashes

Kubella now has eyes and eyelashes giving her a little character of her own. Ellie mosaiced the eyes adding her bit to the now cute elephant with very long eyelashes inspired by some of the children's books I read during the '70s!

Kubella has had many visitors today including Clare Luxton & 'Bex', co-founders of Stitch 'n' Bi**h, a knitting club held at All Fired Up on a Thursday night, students Karrie & Lucy, famous Dorset artist Abi Kremer (currently exhibitioning at Kube), yoga teacher Nina Tarratt with Sophie Anderson to mention a few!

Kubella has now got a mosaiced foot (and legwarmer!)and the other feet are coming along nicely...a way to go, but looking good!

Dates for dropping in and sticking a couple of mosaic tiles..

Come and stick on a couple of mosaic tiles onto Kubella the mosaic elephant, from 11am 1am and 1.30pm to 3pm on:
Tues 15th, Wed.16th,Fri.18th, Sat .19th December 2009. The gallery closes for Christmas and then I will be back on: Tues.5th Jan, 6th Jan, 7th Jan,8th Jan. Sat. 9th Jan, Wed. 13th Jan,14th Jan, 15th Jan. 2010. (This could be subject to change)

KUBO is now KUBELLA

Kubo is now a lady elephant! We felt that with mirrored feet, pebble ankle detail and the plan for long eyelashes, the mosaic elephant has more feminine traits than previously.

There were different people sticking tiles onto 'Kubella' including a lady from Devon, Alice Hunt from Southbourne, Dominic aged 6, from Ascot, Hannah Perry, a local solicitor and even the band Dita's Dream added their tiles for prosperity!

Kubella, as she is now known, does look like she is wearing legwarmers at the moment, until the next pale blue tiles are added next week.

On to sad news..

We at Poppies are saddened about the closure of Kube gallery at the end of January 2010, as reported in The Echo last week. It is such a lovely friendly place with great art, art workshops for the community and always something going on!

Without getting too political, art is all around us to some degree, designed by man or nature and galleries are such a wonderful starting place to recognise this and how it is interpreted, expressed by individuals. Art education is being squeezed out of schools and other community atoms, due to lack of funding and recognition of their importance.

It has been the first day of sticking mosaic tiles on KUBO. Both Sam and Ava were the first to help this morning.

Some of the toenails have also been mosaiced in smaller white tiles to add interest. The elephant has been a real feature in a rather busy day in the gallery, with a visit from the Mayor of Poole, who told a story of an elephant in India, that once you give him a rupee, he blesses you with his trunk!

The majority of the mosaic tiles have arrived from a wonderful supplier Azzura based in Norfolk and I can't wait to start using them!

Introducing KUBO the mosaic elephant!

We are now mosaicing a fabulous major community project of a full size fibreglass 3D baby elephant!

This elephant will form part of the London Elephant Parade next year. It will be part of a herd of over 200 elephants that will be exhibited at different outside locations from March to June next year. The elephant will be mosaiced in aid of The Elephant Family – a charity set up to promote the awareness of the decline in numbers of Asian elephants. We have name the elephant “KUBO – the seaside elephant” and the colours we will be using were inspired by the waves of the sea starting with foam from lapping waves with small mirror tiles to the very darkest blues representing the depths of the darkest oceans. We are expecting the elephant to be delivered from London in an ECO van very shortly and it will be temporarily housed at KUBE Gallery where it will get its multi-coloured mosaic coat. This is a very exciting community project – maybe we should have a competition to guess the exact number to the nearest thousand of mosaic tiles used. I hastily add I don’t want to be the ones to count this!

Welcome

Mothercare promotional art workshops - badges galore!

Welcome to the brand new blog of Poppies Art Workshops, brainchild of Natalie Guy. Poppies is based in Bournemouth and travels to deliver wonderful art workshops, which at the moment are mainly mosaics.

We have had a very busy year since we moved from London (almost a year ago – where has the time gone?) to the fabulous South Coast. Looking back over the year we have had some wonderful highlights during a busy summer creating children’s ECO projects. We made a big papier mache Noah’s Ark with a wide range of animals using our secret recipe of ECO paste (no toxins, no nasties, just wholesome ingredients) recycled newspapers, packing boxes and loads of creativity.

Spot the dog, Stripey the blue elephant and the giraffe are some of my personal favourites

alongside the many animals seen through the window of the Ark.

We made a family of life sized cardboard robots at KUBE Gallery in Poole. Each robot was lovingly constructed and had their own personality. “Sargeant “robot came alive, with the help of Tim who donned the unique decorated robot costume and was able to move around the gallery waving his movable arms, much to the delight and skills of the participating children and now smiling parents. “Sergeant” even had his own radio in his top pocket! “Molly” had a cut out face for children to pop their heads inside for a wonderful photo opportunity. “Disco” robot had the most sparkle with Michael Jackson shoulder pads, tinfoil coloured strips to catch the light as he moved around.

We decorated eco drawstring bags, to economise in the use of plastic bags, with younger children and even made badges to encourage healthy eating.
We have had wonderful days in schools running art workshops mosaicing the children’s drawings. The themes have been incredible.

We have had pastel coloured beach huts with sailboats, allotments of children’s grown vegetables, Thomas Hardy’s cottage, doves holding an olive branch in its beak, the world, jigsaw puzzles, musical notes, school crests, forest animals, children in school uniforms, bees, butterflies, rainbows, flowers, trees, birds – we are constantly amazed and inspired by the children’s perception.