A couple of weeks ago, I began an exciting project in my son’s primary school. As they are 6th class and preparing to move into secondary in September, we decided it would be nice to create a piece of work that they could present to their principal on their last day in June. The piece would then be displayed in the school for the rest of the children in the school to enjoy.
Inspired by a project I did with Difference Days when I first began working with ReCreate, I visited the class earlier in the month to chat with the boys and discuss the possibilities. They were shocked to hear that Ireland is the top producer of plastic waste in Europe. after mentioning that we produce the equivalent of nearly 2,000 water bottles, or 5,550 disposal coffee cups, per person each year, we agreed we would make a colourful wall piece from bottles that they would collect. Another parent kindly made a wooden frame which I covered with wire mesh, so we could attach our plastic creations. Here is our first session and over the next few weeks I will share with you our progress.
When I arrived into the classroom the boys had gathered three large bags of plastic bottles in clear, green and blue. With help from their teacher and I, we removed the bottom of the bottles and they began cutting and designing their plastic ‘flowers’. They created different shaped petals, with waves and curves and some manipulated the plastic to make it curl at the edges.
Once each plastic flower was cut to the desired shape, we took advantage of the wonderful weather and went outside to spray paint them in a range of colours such as orange, red, yellow, purple and green. Using gloves and masks the children sprayed their own flowers, 3 or 4 each and they were left on a sheet of paper to dry.
I had brought some plastic materials from ReCreate such as mesh and foil and once dry they brought their pieces back into the classroom and cut and shaped these for the centre of their flowers. By now we had been working for almost 3 hours and we decided to wait until next week to finish them and begin attaching them to the frame.
I will continue to record the progress and share the next steps to completing their piece in our next blog.
Watch this space 🙂
Deirdre
Creative Director @ ReCreate