Year 5 have been studying the textile artist, Cas Holmes. Cas Holmes has been working with textile art since earning her fine arts degree in 1983 and is known for the unique surfaces she creates with paint, dye, layers and stitch – techniques she cleverly combines with discarded cloth, paper and found materials.

The children looked at examples of Cas Holmes art and noticed how many of her pieces are centred around nature. She describes herself as a ‘magpie’ who uses materials that she finds within her work.

Year 5 have designed their own piece of textile art inspired by our research. They have hand-stitched their designs, added on additional fabric that they have selected from scraps and used fabric pens to add additional detail.

The children worked on their designs over two afternoons. Aspects of the sewing could be particularly challenging. Overall, Miss Allen was delighted by how the children persevered and showed increasing resilience to follow their designs. Over the two afternoons much progress was made. Children who initially got themselves in a tangle, were able to produce neat stitches.

We tried hard to follow our original designs. Occasionally, we had to make amendments to our design. The children were pleased with the outcomes and felt a real sense of achievement when reflecting on their finished piece.