A guest blog from Lydia Saunders, QE Sixth Form, Work Experience student
Hi, I’m Lydia, a sixth form student at Queen Elizabeth’s Academy. I chose to do my work experience from the 15th-19th July with Significant Seams. Here is a brief summary of what I did and learnt throughout this week!
On Monday, I took part in a mask making workshop. Catherine, another young person and I sculpted faces out of clay and poured plaster over them. Once the plaster had set, I dug the clay out and was left with an imprint of the clay face in the plaster shell. Teresa, an artist who specialises in mask making, taught us about the history of mask making and the plaster making process, which was really interesting. Being creative after a long academic year was really enjoyable, and it was nice to experience this with other people participating in the workshop.
Tuesday involved lots of errands, including going to pick up one of Catherine’s artworks from the Thelma Hulbert Gallery in Honiton. We stopped off at The Beehive for coffee, and then headed to Eakers in Crediton to look for some material to make our own drop spindles. In the afternoon, I sat in on a board meeting via zoom. Despite not being as exciting as Monday, this day taught me alot about product development and planning, and all of the behind the scenes work that goes into making Significant Seams successful.
On Wednesday, Catherine and I went up to 4 Mills garden (where the HAF workshops are taking place this summer) to assess the area for potential risks. In the afternoon I typed up a draft risk assessment and then did some flower pressing. The flower pressed material was used to make clothes for a fairy, which is one of the activities taking place in the HAF workshops this year.
On Thursday morning, I sat in on a zoom meeting with members of the Mental Health Network. It was interesting to hear some of the struggles that many mental health organisations have to deal with. Throughout the day I did lots of odd jobs in Catherine’s studio, like sorting through fabric for the upcoming HAF workshops, putting up hooks for ear defenders and experimenting with SolarFast dyes which only develop colour and become permanent upon exposure to sunlight. I had a lot of fun arranging different plants over my dyed fabric so that when the dye had developed I was left with some cool patterns. Friday was a short day as I had to leave earlier than usual, however I still got to participate in a craft group taking place at the @100 cafe in Crediton.
Overall, I found my work experience at Significant Seams really enjoyable and valuable as I was taught a range of skills throughout the week. I performed administrative tasks such as writing risk assessments and used work management websites e.g. Trello. I also carried out practical tasks such as taking part in workshops, learning to sew and doing some DIY. It was a very interesting week and Catherine was a lovely mentor!
