It was a couple of weekends ago that we had a fun afternoon in Morden library - a very lively affair it was too with a winning combination of paint, excited children and a range of wombles!
Tha project was really the first step in a couple of projects that we have embarked upon with Morden library as part of the library activities for the summer holidays. The Paint A Womble session was to introduce children to all aspects of the wombles - the books, furry toys, the naming of young wombles. This will then help us with our 'Wonderful Wall of Wombles' banner and then possibly an exhibition in a local gallery. Exciting stuff!
Paint A Womble - Morden Library
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| Ready to go! |
The session began with a gathering of the participants around a conveniently placed flip-chart and we started off by explaining just exactly what wombles are. They’re not quite as popular as they used to be, so I thought it best not to take anything for granted in assuming anyone knew anything about them at all, which wasn’t a bad assumption to make, to be honest! Having used some convenient stuffed wombles as guides as to womble height, general looks and dress-sense we then moved on to a brief master-class in how to draw wombles. Or specifically (in this case) how to draw Great Uncle Bulgaria!
I had worked out that he basically consisted of a circle and a square with a few fuzzy bits added so I thought I could at least give a general indication on how to go about things and it seemed to go about as well as an arts master-class could go when being conducted by someone who can’t draw!
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| Drawing end |
Next it was the allocation of the tables, each of which had its own particular artistic method available with and example of how the finished womble might look – a table for coloured pencils, one for chalk drawing, some delicate watercolours, wax crayons…. anyone??? (Not one taker at this point and things are looking grim) OK then who’d like to use the poster paint? (Every hand went up in eager anticipation with shirt fronts popping with eager anticipation. It seems nothing can beat the lure of sloppy paint and water proof bibs, so we laid in another table quickly to cope with the extra demand and off we went!
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| The very popular painting table |
Between Toby the librarian and myself, we had managed to produced a gallery of wombles to provide some visual stimulation and hints and these pictures were spread around the library and on the tables and it was these that provided initial inspiration. Once the children were into it though, they took to it with a will. Just as everyone was finishing their first bout of creativity we had a visitor.... Haydon himself popped by to see how everything was going and was immediately mobbed - by the parents!! Cameras were out and photos were taken and all thoughts of painting were abandoned for a few minutes, at least until Haydon made his excuses and left.
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| Name your womble! |
Once the children had finished their painting they then took their womble to the 'naming table' where Morden library volunteer and AFC Wimbledon season ticket holder Lili Nettun-Ure was on hand with the library atlas. This was a crucial tool because, as everyone knows, wombles are named by a random finger in an atlas. This is very democratic and ended up with some interesting results - New Britain womble anyone??? Over thirty wombles required naming so thanks to Lili for her professionalism in the role of registrar.
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| Finished womble |
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| Drying picture |
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| The Wall of Wombles! |
The event was a great success from all aspects and I'm now working on the pictures to produce an enormouse wall of wombles that I hope will grace the Tempest End in the not too distant future!
2 comments:
Some Wombles (Bungo) choose their name by a randomly pointing in an atlas. Other Wombles consider the matter too important to leave to chance and put a great amount of thought into it. The name they choose may be a place they are curious about, have seen pictures of, wish to visit someday (Wellington travels to visit his name-place in New Zealand in "The Wombles Go Round The World"), or simply like the way it sounds. See the first few pages of "The Wombles" for more information. I suspect time was tight at your event and the random naming would certainly speed things up - and avoid the inevitable argument should two or more children decide to use the same name for their Womble. Thanks for organizing the event and encouraging the next generation to "make good use of bad rubbish."
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