Slate- Blaenau Ffestiniog

[Richard Emmans <r_emmans@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi John,

I did a project with school kids in Germany last year
carving basreliefs out of breeze blocks. Every builder's
supplier has got broken bits of these which they can't sell,
but are happy to give away. The project lasted a day, in
which techniques were demonstrated (very basic scratching ),
designs developed and executed. At the end we painted the
works. Basically it was a lot of fun for me as well as for
the kids, and for 8 - 9 year olds some amazing results
popped up. We used screw drivers as tools and plain water
colour to paint.

I organized a similar project a couple of years back
involving children with behavioural difficulties. Over two
days we had kids, who couldn't sit still in school for two
minutes concentrating on their work as if it was all the
world contained. I can only recommend it, it is one of the
most rewarding things to do for a carver/teacher.