The day we made fridge magnets

Jo had the brilliant idea of creating fridge magnets using the wax crayons and some small magnets. We used small foil pie dishes and cut up the wax crayons in fairly big chunks, about half a centimeter, and arranged these in the bottom of the dishes in various patterns. Then we applied the heat gun to melt the wax until it all went runny. We left them to set a while but before they completely hardened we dropped on the magnet to sink down into the wax a little. A few moments later the wax was hard and we tested it on the fridge!

You can glue the magnet onto the back as it can be a bit hit and miss dropping it on while the wax is molten.

We also tried writing into the foil on the bottom of the dish to have a message showing though this didn't work too well!

The day we tried Thermowaxonography (made up name!)

The WellArt group has a history of heating things up so when we discovered lots of cheap wax crayons we decided to apply more heat. First of all we tried shaving the crayons onto small pieces of card, covering them with paper and ironing them. The results were quite pleasing but a lot of wax stayed on the paper (though some of these looked good too!). Here are the cards:

The bits of paper we ironed looked good too. If you do this don't forget to put a piece of paper over the crayon when you iron or you end up with a very messy iron!

Then we used a heat gun- sort of a hair drier but hotter! Again we arranged shavings and bits of wax crayon onto card then heated them so the wax melted. One word of caution- don't get too close with the heat gun at first as it will blow all the wax bits away and it is a real pain to hoover. Here are a selection:

As we went on we became better at arranging and mixing. As we had more ideas we thought we would try again in another session.



The day WellArt put up a front.

After having the gallery recently in an empty shop the management of the Elephant Yard in Kendal kindly let us use another empty shop and fill it's window with our work. This gives WellArt and Workbase publicity and it looks far better for the shopping centre than having an empty shop. A win win situation!

The day we made 25 foot long Christmas decorations!

Workbase, the Mental Health charity where WellArt is based, was asked to decorate the Kendal Town Councils Christmas Tree. The project is being led by Ruth the art coordinator at Workbase. To help out the WellArt group agreed to spend a session working on the decorations. They consist of 25 foot lengths of plastic balls (the sort they use in children's ball pools) sewn and bunched together using fishing line and inter spaced with reflective strips.

They will look really good strung out and when on the tree with the lights on  and will be very colourful in the day and at night. Here are some pics of the WellArt group making some of the strips.

The day we were influenced by MOMA

A year or two ago I attended a talk by a lady, Carrie McGee, who worked at the New York Museum of Modern Art here in the UK. They described a project where people with dementia were brought into the museum and had talking sessions around the artwork on show. More can be found at the MOMA website www.moma.org. This really helped them regain some of their ability to converse and was very inspiring. It made me think of how when I had mental health problems I retreated inwards and didn't interact but by becoming involved in art opened up and aided my improvement.

With this in mind I used a pack I downloaded from the MOMA site and adapted it to use with WellArt group. We had slides of the artwork and looked at a selection based on the theme of music and rhythm. It was a really good session as everyone was soon joining in and chatting about the images with careful questions leading them into discussing different aspects of the pictures.

At the end we has a creative session where the group produced images in the style of one of the artists but based around the theme of music. We all really enjoyed it and came away feeling great.

The day Tim Farron MP called on our Gallery.

The WellArt Gallery has been a great success attracting a large number of people in to have a look round over the week we were there. We were really pleased that we had service users and volunteers working on projects in the gallery as this made it feel more open and people were more willing to talk and interact with us.

Tim Farron, the local MP, was kind enough to call in and support us as he has done with all our projects based in shops. Afterwards Tim kindly commented:

"I was inspired by the work I saw and it is fantastic use of an empty shop in Kendal. I want to thank Elephant Yard for taking the bold step and allowing Workbase to use the space. Mental health is often considered a taboo, but this exhibition helps to break that taboo and gives local people the chance to express themselves in a really powerful way."

The Gallery has raised the awareness and profile of the WellArt group, Workbase and issues around mental health. We plan further exhibitions of this kind in the near future and hope to involve other local charities and artists. Watch this space!



The Day We Took Some Video Of The WelArt Gallery

Below are a few videos giving a tour of our WellArt Gallery in Kendal. Still worth a visit if your in the area!!

The day we made little wire figures!

Well now we have the shop gallery the WellArt turned its thoughts to creating some pieces of sculpture that could go into it. We plan to have a multitude of small figure heading up the wall of the shop then out across the ceiling.

We made them by bending wire, three equal pieces, first for the head and body then the arms and the last bit the legs. Twist or hold them in place with masking tape. Then tightly wrap round the figures with newspaper or scrap and hold with masking tape again to form the rough shape and bulk out the figures. Finally wrap bandage with plaster of paris just like they use in hospitals for breaks. You can buy it in art shops but you can also get it from some craft shops or online cheaper.

Of course you dont need to do figures you could do animals too! Ant way multiples always look good.

Final job when the plaster has dried is to paint them All the same colour works well but really bright and luminous colours too. We will put them in our gallery on Thursday so I will take some pics and put them here.



The day we organised our own gallery!

Great news.  Jo and I have managed to negotiate the use of an empty shop as an art gallery! We will be filling it with artwork by people who go to WellArt, volunteers and service users from Workbase and other individuals connected with the charity who create artwork.

The shop is in the Elephant Yard in Kendal near the top of the yard. You can park in the M+S Car Park and walk down or walk up from the main street by the side of Costa Coffee. We will be open between Friday 23rd September and Tuesday 27th September inclusive between 10 am and 4 pm.

We are planning to have art demonstrations and rag rugging demos as well as have people painting in the shop. We will also hold that fridays WellArt group in the shop. Please come along if you can.

We will post some pics when we have it set up.

The day we made the front covers!

Not in a tabloid sense of course. We bought some very cheap notebooks from a bargain shop and then used all sorts of bits and odds that we had. Simply a case of applying the glue. Some used a sealant which was black but I prefer good old PVA which dries clear. The keys came from the keyboard of a broken laptop. Computers can provide many interesting bits to use in artwork and the keys from the keyboard can be turned into all sorts with a bit of imagination.

The day we made our chalk pastels all wet

We have used chalk pastels before. Sometimes called soft artists pastels but not oil pastels. These pastels are good for quick sketches and getting colours down and can be blended and smudged with your fingers. Having done this however we experimented with wetting them too. Draw your image in chalk then run over them with a wet brush and the effect can be brilliant vivid colours and sometimes a little like watercolour. It's worth having a play to see the effect you can achieve. These images are from the WellArt group having just such a session.

The second day we tried lino printing

After finding our feet the first session this time we went for it and produced some great stuff. I almost like the lino pieces as much as the prints. Here is a selection from the second session.