Making

It might be supposed that ‘making’ is a simple and uncontentious term for art educators, referring to the practical experience of using materials and processes to bring works of art, craft and design into being.

Indeed, there have been times when the art and design curriculum has been perceived as being based simply upon a list of materials to be learned in rotation, in what Rod Taylor once referred to as ‘the stranglehold exerted by making alone’ (Rod Taylor, The Visual Arts in Education, The Falmer Press 1992).

In fact, ‘making’ is not a simple and discrete aspect of the art and design curriculum but, since the Art Working Group’s Final Report for the National Curriculum in 1992, 'making' has to be considered as part of a continuum of experience taking account of 'what' is to be made, 'how' it is to be made and 'why'. 

Art educators will wish to consider the breadth and range of students’ learning about materials and processes and developing practical skills, which takes full account of the context and purpose of these activities.

This will not only embrace the range of disciplines and making practices that are used by professional artists, makers and designers but will also embrace the critical, aesthetic, cultural and historical knowledge and information that will illuminate these disciplines and processes for students.

See the comparison of the Art and Design Curriculum for England here

New technologies further break open, or loosen, the boundaries between different disciplines of making as digital and virtual processes emulate traditional processes and open up further possibilities. 

Making with increasing levels of skill using hands, tools, technologies and requires:

  • Respect for and response to materials – with sensitivity to material and to the tactile and expressive qualities of process and technique 
  • Exploration of bespoke, commissioned and small-scale production / edition outcomes
  • Exploration of functional and non-functional products
  • Crafting of outcomes

MAKING includes:

  • Ceramics
  • Pottery
  • Glassworks
  • Textiles
  • Applique
  • Embroidery
  • Garment Construction
  • Weaving
  • Jewellery
  • Monoprint
  • Block print
  • Screen print
  • Batik
  • Papercraft
  • Assemblage
  • Automata
  • Decoupage
  • Collage
  • Casting
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