Week 7: When Collograph turned the classroom into a printing press
- Chandhni Sivashunmugam
- Jan 29
- 2 min read
Having had a fun Sunday with cyanotype, we were greeted with excitement and wonder as to what they are going to try this week. This week was extra special as it was the children who helped to set things up in the art classroom. They took ownership of how the art materials are placed and are divided between the groups and it was wonderful to see them with so much energy and initiative.
The class started with a couple of children reading Tamil picture books which had beautiful landscape illustrations. We showed them a video of the collagraph process and the children were quick to grasp that it was something similar to stamps but on a larger panel.
With just a little nudge and a few inspiration images, they quickly made collagraph panels on cardboard with foam paper. We could see different landscapes emerging like oceans and cityscapes. The collagraph panels weren't limited limit to just landscapes, they also made illustrations of their favourite anime characters and also religious idols using foam paper.
Once their collograph panels were ready, they wanted to figure out the next step - making prints with their collagraph panels and paint. Seeing the paint rollers made them super excited and they started rolling it like racing cars in the class. We had to race behind the boys to match their pace; getting the paint station ready; cutting papers for them to make prints and helping them with the rolling and printing process.
The class quickly turned into a printing press and the children rushed to make beautiful prints. The idea of them making panels that can be reused to make multiple prints in different colors made them very excited.
One thing that was special about this class was that children learned from each other. They went around the classroom to look at some ideas from their peers and each child made a unique print of their own. We also saw children giving ideas to each other as to what prints their friends could make.
It filled our hearts with joy to see how one idea and simple materials like foam paper and cardboard can make a group of boys come together to express and create beautiful kutty kutty stories in just under 2 hours.
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