The World Around Us

Pupils explore the shapes, lines, colours and textures to create a collage reflecting many of the shapes and textures found in everyday life.

What you'll need:

Drawing materials
A variety of everyday fabrics of different textures
An assortment of threads, beads, scissors, sequins and ribbon
Scissors
Sticki Dots/ Sticki Tape
Glue

Develop a Design

Look at natural forms, eg plants, seed pods, roots, leaves, flowers as well as cross-sections of fruits and vegetables, examining line, shape, colour and texture. Look at botanical illustrations and architecture. Examine designs based on plant forms, animals, birds, insects found on everyday objects such jewellery, tableware, tiles or fabrics as illustrated.

Excellent examples can be found in the works of Henri Matisse and William Morris.

Experiment!

Pupils can develop their drawings into a design for a textile collage¬ – creating a pattern – by copying and arranging the main shapes on to paper. Discuss the size and relationship of different shapes and how they should be placed on the paper in relation to each other. Keep it simple: pupils could simplify the design by enlarging the main shapes.

They can use the paper pattern to transfer the shapes onto the fabric and then to cut out the shapes. The next step is to choose the fabrics they would like to use in their collage.

Create the collage

Encourage them to try different fabrics, threads and other materials to create a fabric collage. Use Sticki Dots and Sticki Tape for a simple and clean way to attach materials to the collage.

Useful Links

Related themes for class discussion

How architecture mirrors nature: look at how architecture reflects nature

Design in nature: look at some intricate designs found in the natural world – spiders’ webs; snowflakes and so on.

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