I LOVE My Job!

Since the middle of August, I've been working on a great project with Aspired Futures.

  We received £3000 funding from Youth Community Awards, through a bid that was co written by some of the older children.  I've been given the responsibility of spending the money on art materials and holding workshops with the kids to undertake a project to brighten up Kensington House.

Since Lego is a big favourite of both the kids and myself (and nearly all the Lego men have disappeared from the boxes!), I decided we would build giant wooden Lego figures to stand around the house and bring some extra characters into the mix!

First we decided on a range of characters to be our band on the recently built music stage.

  We went with a punk guy and a punk girl (still in production!) and decided John Lennon (in Sgt. Peppers uniform!) should be our lead singer and Jimi Hendrix our lead guitarist. (Only the best for Aspired Futures!)

Then, to mix it up and make it fair to girls and boys, we decided to make a Tinkerbell, a skater chick, Wonder woman and Iron Man! 

  Iron Man was an absolute treat to paint, but the other three are still in production.

I've held 8 workshops so far, not all of which the kids have attended due to them going back to school and progress was slow at first due to the good ol' British weather, but it's been good getting them doing a project like this, sanding the wood and spray painting some of the larger areas on the figures before I add all the details in.

We wouldn't have been able to do the project without the help of a splendid chap called Ken, who is the father of one of our helpers.  He sourced the wood for us and once I'd pencilled in the outlines for each character, he took them away and cut them out with a jigsaw. (Ken also built the music stage I mentioned earlier)

It really is a fantastic place to work, if that's what you can call it!? 

  Amazing people, great kids, quality vibes all round! 

  Watch this space for the next four characters!