Finishing touches

I have added more Liverpool themed details since the REDI girls visit. 

The sculpture is almost complete, so I'm covering the surface with paper mache now.

Working in Faith's studio

Applying paper mache to the sculpture.

The girls spent time looking for items they had made at the workshops held at Y Kids, Bootle. Altogether the girls have had eight sessions (2 hours each) working with Faith, plus this studio time between January and April. To get the 'Spiral of Life' to this stage Faith has also spent another eight days working on it in her studio so far.

Visiting Faith's Studio

Tues 19th April. REDI group gathered outside the Bridewell Studios, Liverpool. 

Ready to see Faith's progress with compiling the 'Spiral of Life' sculpture!

Adding the detail

More figures added onto spiral, all linked together as the girls at REDI requested. Also including local references they chose (and sometimes supplied) such as the Beatles badge, Mickey Mouse for Disney shop, Superlambanana...

The word 'Liverpool' helps support the spiral.

 

Positioning the key elements

The Spiral framework is now built. Faith begins to position the key pieces within the sculptural installation. A person, boat and 3D word were roughly placed on the spiral to judge the sculptures' height and scale. Then other figures were added and moved around to get it to look balanced.

Faith begins building the installation at her studio!

Faith has taken the REDI group's sculptures and design ideas back to her studio (Bridewell Studio, Liverpool). 
To complete the work she begins by building a spiral structure which will hold the sculptures. The spiral was chosen to reflect the shape of the lovely staircase in the atrium, under which the sculpture will be displayed.

Session 7 & 8 - Making figures

The girls at REDI continued to construct small sculptures for the main installation. They created and dressed figures of adults and children, adding props for realism such as hoodies, high heels, rollers etc. Each figure was made on a wire frame, clad with parcel taped newspaper, then paper mache the surface.

Session 6 - Designing the sculpture

Faith showed REDI a design drawing of the sculpture and talked through the ideas within it. The girls put a copy on the wall at the club, so they could reflect on the details as there was such a lot to take in!

Copyright - Faith Bebbington 2011

Session 5 - Making Boats

Sarah Stevenson from NML showed the girls a Powerpoint slideshow of the range of vessels using the Mersey, both past and present. Then we made some 3D boats out of cardboard. Here is the 'Ferry cross the Mersey'!

Session 4 - Design Plan & 3D Words

At this session we mocked up the size and shape of the museum atrium display case using bamboo canes. This helped us realise the scale needed for the final sculpture. The display case is being tailor made to fit the space underneath the spiral staircase. We also began making 3D words using twisted newspaper strips to form letters and cardboard for larger letters. We are including a lot of words in the sculpture so this process of making letters is simple and very effective.

Session 1 & 2 - Getting started

In late Dec 2010 workshop sessions began at REDI's base - 'Y Kids' in Bootle, led by artist Faith Bebbington and supported by the youth workers and museum staff. Each session lasted 2 hours.

We started by looking at what the young women love about contemporary Liverpool. Faith asked them to suggest and collect objects that represented something special or important about Liverpool. Ideas included shopping at L1, football, music, even 'scouse' slang! Some of these objects will become part of the sculpture.

We learnt how to create simple sculptural figures using newspaper, wire and parcel tape.

Session 3 - Hard hat tour of new museum

In Jan 2011 we were lucky to have the opportunity to go on a tour of the new museum to see where the sculpture will be sited. Read about the Echo article - www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/

REDI group, staff and Faith standing in the space where the sculpture will live!

How REDI got chosen for the project

REDI were chosen as part of a competitive recruitment process with other schools and groups. A panel of judges interviewed the candidates who each did a presentation on why they wanted to be involved in the project. REDI got the job because we liked their enthusiasm and fresh ideas, such as including Scouse slang!


www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2011/01/24/liverpool-echo-in-the-community

Interview presentation to judges
Front row: Faith Bebbington - artist, Catherine Jones - Liverpool Echo Arts Editor,  Janet Dugdale - Director of Urban History Museum of Liverpool, Lizzy Rodgers - Curator of Community Content NML. 
Back Row: REDI Extra girls and workers.