The Owl and the Pussy Cat

The children have been working for several weeks on this collaborative textile art piece based on the owl and the pussy cat poem. They have done all the sewing themselves either by hand or on the sewing machine. R even tried some free machining.

The Owl and the Pussy-Cat

By Edward lear

The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea

   In a beautiful pea-green boat,

They took some honey, and plenty of money,

   Wrapped up in a five-pound note.

The Owl looked up to the stars above,

   And sang to a small guitar,

"O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,

    What a beautiful Pussy you are,

         You are,

         You are!

What a beautiful Pussy you are!"

Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl!

   How charmingly sweet you sing!

O let us be married! too long we have tarried:

   But what shall we do for a ring?"

They sailed away, for a year and a day,

   To the land where the Bong-Tree grows

And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood

   With a ring at the end of his nose,

             His nose,

             His nose,

   With a ring at the end of his nose.

"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling

   Your ring?" Said the Piggy, "I will."

So they took it away, and were married next day

   By the Turkey who lives on the hill.

They dined on mince, and slices of quince,

   Which they ate with a runcible spoon;   

And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,

   They danced by the light of the moon,

             The moon,

             The moon,

They danced by the light of the moon.

First they took a piece of cotton and dyed it blue. Whilst the dye was still wet they sprinkled on some salt crystals which gave a mottled effect as they soaked up some of the dye.

Once the base colour was dry and the salt brushed off they used stencils and paint to add the sea and some stars.

L designed the cat character whilst R worked on the owl. They drew their designs onto fabric pieces with dissolving fabric markers. The cut out pieces were layered and glued together with a thin layer of gel medium.

L also designed the pig

R made the turkey.

They worked together to make the boat, moon, and the trees. Everything was stuck to the background with gel medium.

They used the sewing machine to outline all the pieces. R free machined the difficult curves. L added some hand stitching for the birds' legs. We stuck on a paper £5 note.

After all that hard work it's now on the wall.