Double elephants and laundromats

All in the name of Extra Time.

Last week being half term, there were no sessions; instead, the artists Jo Chapman and Ellie Rodwell spent two days exploring the Long Shop Museum archives and discovering new stories about football (and work) in the factory.

Inspired by those findings, guided by the artists and created by participants, some of those stories will be brought to life over the next few weeks in a collection of unique artworks.

This week, we were joined by a group of adults, some of whom had never previously visited the Museum. After a brief introduction by Jo they were soon roaming around the Long Shop in search of different patterns and marks to create rubbings.

From iron gratings, giant washing machine drums and proto-type mill stones to wooden engravings, serial numbers, floor blocks and pock-marked columns, they experimented with textures, objects and materials, producing a wide variety of impressions and drawings.

The work was so engrossing that it barely left time to admire what had been achieved before it was time to finish up and get ready for the children.

The children enjoyed a ‘wellbeing’ walk from their school along a route past the allotments (complete with gentleman watering his potatoes) and up a back street to the Museum.

They were greeted by Jo – and a long line of trophies, and soon they, too, were searching for items with interesting marks and textures.

Using the trophies as inspiration for their own designs, the children worked on long stretches of lining paper (about as close to ‘elephant’ as we could get), first drawing their own trophy and then using their textured foil and patterned papers to embellish the cup.