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Machine parts and moulds

01 Jul, 2025

This week, it was the adults’ turn to describe, draw and create a mystery object out of cardboard, masking tape and silver foil; it’s amazing how realistic the finished article is, despite the ‘finisher’ having now idea what the original looked like.

After that, the group moved into the Long Shop to sketch small engineered items such as nuts, bolts and flywheels. Using clay instead of hot metal, they recreated the shapes and added them to a clay base shaped as an imaginary mechanical part.

Last week, the children looked at a Garretts Sporting Shield, decorated around the edges with small discs denoting the winners over a 10-year period.

Out in the Long Shop garden, Ellie and Sam rolled out a large clay lump into the shape of a shield. Using the discs they made last week of their favourite footballers, the children pressed them into the smooth surface of the clay, remarking on how cool it felt to the touch.

Together, they decided that the letters GFC – Garretts Football Club – should be inscribed in the clay, after which Sam added a thick clay rim to the shield.

The children watched intently as the plaster slowly dissolved into the water and Ellie stirred in a metal powder to produce a rusty effect when dried.

When all was ready, Sam and Ellie carefully poured the plaster into the mould, adding a piece of hessian with a wire loop, to give extra strength and provide a means of hanging up the shield, once it is fully set.

A short break for refreshments in the cool of the garden and then the children went off into the Long Shop to sketch shapes that appealed to them.

It only remained for the shapes to be fashioned out of clay and added to a slab just like the shape used by the adults earlier; both pieces will be cast next week.

A gentleman in an orange top and wearing sunglasses has a selection of small cardboard boxes and other craft materials around him and appears to be fixing a toothpaste tube to a circular tube with small tubes either side

Creating the model

A person holds up a print of a precision engineered piece whilst a second person holds up a silver-foil covered model of the piece and a drawing of same

The finished article

A woman stands in front of a large green and red steam engine, noting down something on her clip board

Finding shapes to use on their design

A woman wearing a white T shirt and blue plastic apron fashions a piece of clay in her hands whilst on the table in front are two rolling pins and a cutter

Fashioning the clay

A man in an orange top stand beside a woman, both leaning over a table and using wooden tools to mark make in the clay. On the table in front of them are rolling pins, pieces of clay and cutters

Adding details to their pieces

The people stand in front of a table on which are pieces of clay, cutters and rolling pins. They are all busy mark making

Team work

A person in an orange and white striped T shirt leans forward over a table on which are pieces of clay and assorted tools for working with clay. She is smoothing a piece of clay on to the surface of a larger piece

Smoothing down a final piece

Overhead view of clay slab with smaller pieces of clay adorning it and a hand on the right using a wooden stick to make finer details

As the clay piece is slowly built up, further details are added

The mould for a mechanical penalty popper

A child seated at a table with pink covering, holds up a clay disc on which is fashioned a face

Describing her clay piece, which is based on a photograph of the Garrett munitionettes in their football kit

Overhead shot of child's arm, pressing something into a large shield shaped piece of clay

Making the first mark in the clay shield mould

A row of school children inspect a large shield shaped slab of clay in the centre of which is a mould

The first disc has been pressed into the clay shield mould, and now who will go next?

A child in white T shirt and lilac and white spotted sun hat pressed her mould firmly into the clay as other children look on

You have to press very firmly

Children watch as one child presses into the clay slab in front of her

The shield is beginning to fill up

The clay shield mould now has lots of discs cast into it as well as the letters GFC for Garretts Football Club. There is now a clay rim around the edge

The letters GFC (Garretts Football Club) have been added, as has a clay rim

Adult hands reach into a large black bucket to mix the plaster and add a packet of metal powder

Mixing the plaster and adding the metal powder

Two adults either side of a wooden table, carefully pour plaster into the clay mould

Pouring the plaster into the mould

Children gathered around a table with clip boards, clay and cutters in front of them

Making small clay shapes based on the drawings they did in the Long Shop

Two figures in the background, one obviously a child who is applying a clay shape to a slab of clay

Beginning to make their mould for next week's casting

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‘Today has been satisfying, crazy happy, exciting, impressive, fun, interesting, nostalgic. We've seen the magenta colour of flowers, heard seagulls in the distance and felt the breeze of our faces. We've been designing and moulding and are proud of what we've achieved.’

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