SHEEPFOLDS AND LANTERN-MAKING

The multi-media artist Jasmine Jones worked on a lantern-making project with twenty five Key Stage 2 children from Lamplugh CE School, based on a visit to 'Megan's Fold' in the Bretherdale valley near Tebay.

This work by Andy Goldsworthy had originally been called the 'Millennium Fold' because his intention was that half of it would be built late in 1999, in the 20th century, and the second half completed in the year 2000. The waller, Steve Allen, built the two halves butting up to each other with a straight joint creating a clear vertical 'time' line but, whilst working on the fold his wife gave birth to a baby daughter on the 1st January 2000. As a tribute to the baby, Andy renamed the fold 'Megan's Fold'.

It was these ideas and events that led Jasmine Jones to focus her work on the notions of time and narrative. The preliminary visit to the site enabled pupils to sketch and record their feelings about the environment, the colours and textures of the stones and to sense the passage of time as seen in the fold's construction. Their ideas were then incorporated into the structures of lantern frames by bending the willow to form number shapes and by writing descriptive words and images onto the tissue paper surface. The children enjoyed learning the new skills which Jasmine introduced and were delighted with the delicate tracery of their sheepfold lanterns.

Lamplugh School subsequently revisited other aspects of Andy Goldsworthy's sculpture when, on another field trip, they used leaves and found materials to create ephemeral marks and patterns on the landscape.

Artist Jasmine Jones
Contact teacher Veronica Cresswell, Headteacher. Tel: 01946 861386

Photographs: constructing the lanterns; (3 & 4) finished lanterns.