storiesofstjohns

Apr 16, 20193 min read

Creative Activities with Art Students of East Coast Collage (Great Yarmouth)

Updated: Apr 17, 2019

In our research we found that the Reverend Ivan Lilley was a keen supporter of art students at the Great Yarmouth College of Art when he was Chaplin of the college in the 1970s. Inspired by this memory the project offered four creative workshops to level three art students from East Coast College (Great Yarmouth), relating to the St. John's heritage paper items, found at the St.John's Grade II listed Victorian Church, formerly known as the Beachman's Church of Great Yarmouth in the possession of Great Yarmouth Preservation Trust since 2016.

The students were free to interpret the techniques to suit their own project work for inclusion in their sketchbooks.

Creative Activity 1- Papermaking Workshop at East Coast College (Great Yarmouth)

Delivered on 14/01/19 by Carol Desborough & Toni Nixon

Introduction to paper making inspired by the project's focus on paper conservation. Recycling old papers, the level 3 students from East Coast College (Great Yarmouth) enjoyed the introduction to paper making session and experimented by adding various bits to the pulp to create textures in the paper samples.

Creative Activity 2 – Introduction to Calligraphy at East Coast College (Great Yarmouth)

Delivered on 17/01/19 by George Middleton

Introduction to calligraphy inspired by the WW1 Roll of Honour handwritten in the old English style of calligraphy also known as black letter. George Middleton an instructor to the museum services delivered an introduction to calligraphy workshop to the level 3 students at East Coast College (Great Yarmouth), where they practiced with three alphabets including black letter. George was impressed with the students work considering it was their first time and the session was relatively short in terms of practicing the art of beautiful writing. Calligraphy is a skill that takes a lot of practice to master and George told us that if he were tasked with writing the Stories of St. John’s Roll of Honour he would need at least a week to complete it.

Creative Activity 3 – Marbling Workshop at East Coast College (Great Yarmouth)

Delivered on 21/01/19 by Carol Desborough & Toni Nixon

Introduction to marbling on paper was inspired by the inside covers of the Brundish Bible and the GY WW1 War volumes, held in the archive of Great Yarmouth library and used for research by the project team.

Toni Nixon from East Coast College (Great Yarmouth) and Carol Desborough from the Stories of St. John’s project attended a marbling on paper workshop at Norfolk Record Office in December, in preparation for the paper related activities planned for level 3 Art Students at East Coast College (Great Yarmouth) in January. Again, this was an excellent workshop thoroughly delivered by Norfolk Record Office.

This workshop was inspired by the marbled inside covers of old books; the Brundish Bible and Great Yarmouth Library Great War Record Books have printed marbled inside covers. A trip to Norfolk Record Office, assisted research for this workshop and saw a variety of books with original marbling. The students took part on the session with great enthusiasm and excitement. Making good use of the left-over size, we also experimented with paper straws, pieces of wood and fabric, some of the students were so impressed with the technique their t-shirts and hoodies were receiving a makeover too!

Creative Activity 4 – Journals Workshop at East Coast College (Great Yarmouth)

Delivered on 04/02/19 by Carol Desborough

No stitch journal making were inspired by the Army Prayer Books and other pamphlet style booklets found at the church. The last of the group of 4 workshops held at East Coast College for the level 3 Art Students demonstrated 4 types of versatile 'no stitch', folded journals; including a pamphlet style, similar to that of the Army Prayer Books. The students were free to interpret the styles to suit their own project work for inclusion in their sketchbooks.