I  these days we were working on this wonderful book, published by Tara Books and we observed that the whole book is crafted by hand, each page is silkscreened on handmade paper in India by a commune of printers from local villages.

The book features a tree on every page printed on black paper- the colours almost glow- they are so intense.

The  drawings are made by three artists of the GONDE TRIBE of Central India- Bharjav Shyam, Durga Bai, and Ram Singh Urveti and each is accompanied by a short paragraph of folklore.

Now you can go to this link and have a look to the book if you don't have it:

Here you can watch a video about the printed story:

 This book is more beautiful than we can ever describe- so just get yourself one- it’s an edition of 1000.  We  really want to try printing on black paper now!

Antoni Gaudí i Cornet   (Reus 25 June 1852 – Barcelona 10 June 1926) was a Spanish Catalan architect and the best-known representative of Catalan Modernism. Gaudí's works are marked by a highly individual style and the vast majority of them are situated in the Catalan capital of Barcelona, including his magnus opus, the Sagrada Familia.

Much of Gaudí's work was marked by the four passions of his life: architecture, nature, religion and his love for Cataluña. Gaudí meticulously studied every detail of his creations, integrating into his architecture a series of crafts, in which he himself was skilled, such as ceramics, stained glass,ironwork forging and carpintery.

He also introduced new techniques in the treatment of the materials, such as his famous trencadis, made of waste ceramic pieces.

Between 1984 and 2005 seven of his works were declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO

Here you have a presentation about his work: Gaudi

Antoni Gaudí i Cornet ( Reus    25 de junio de 1852 – Barcelona, 10 de junio de 1926) fue un arquitecto español, máximo representante del modernismo catalán.

Gaudí fue un arquitecto con un sentido innato de la geometría y el volumen, así como una gran capacidad imaginativa que le permitía proyectar mentalmente la mayoría de sus obras antes de pasarlas a planos. De hecho, pocas veces realizaba planos detallados de sus obras; prefería recrearlos sobre maquetas tridimensionales, moldeando todos los detalles según los iba ideando mentalmente. En otras ocasiones, iba improvisando sobre la marcha, dando instrucciones a sus colaboradores sobre lo que tenían que hacer.

Dotado de una fuerte intuición y capacidad creativa, Gaudí concebía sus edificios de una forma global, atendiendo tanto a las soluciones estructurales como las funcionales y decorativas. Estudiaba hasta el más mínimo detalle de sus creaciones, integrando en la arquitectura toda una serie de trabajos artesanales que dominaba él mismo a la perfección: cerámica, vidriería, forja de hierro, carpintería, etc. Asimismo, introdujo nuevas técnicas en el tratamiento de los materiales, como su famoso “trencadís” hecho con piezas de cerámica de desecho.

Aqúi tienes unos vídeos sobre sus obras y unos enlaces para trabajar sobre ellas realizados por dos colegios catalanes

Now you can have a look to this page on google maps

and then you  have to work on this document:

GAUDÍ DOCUMENT

We were making some crafts about the TRENCADÍS tecnique and we asked to 5th classes to make some activities with us. These are the results :

Today, 27th May we are very lucky because we are going to visit a bus at Principe street where there's  an exhibition about LA PEDRERA that is one of the most  beautiful and  important buildings he buildt in Barcelona as the SAGRADA FAMILIA, BATLÓ HOUSE, PARQUE GÜELL...

Now it's your turn, have a look to this presentation and make yours:

Spring is here! I took this pictures on our school garden,.We love the flowers and the sunshine! Colour, colour, colour for this season, that's what we like about the trends for Spring! That's why we are trying to make some blossom trees in a different way.

We use a straw to blow on some  painted tree branches. Each pupil will create a tree with free-form, natural-looking twigs and then we will use tissue paper to make the blossomed flowers. Each painted tree will have character and a one-of-a-kind look, just as nature intended; that's why we took  some photos at our garden and here they are:

Use your imagination and  "grow" a painted tree of your own.

Have a great season and  let's celebrate the coming with this song!!!