Ralf

It’s Friday at Insight Dynamics, and time to embark on a project together. We like to keep things current and topical here, so we regularly consult the calendar for world events, to inspire new activities.

At the moment it’s National Pet Month, and we have Jamie and Jasmine here from Petroc College (no pun intended!), on their first day of work experience with us. The Insight crew have drawn, coloured and painted pets during previous art sessions, and now it’s time for them to get crafting and go 3D! A life sized papier mâché dog seems like the perfect project to get Jamie and Jasmine settled in with our guys, and a fun activity for anyone who’d like to join in.

To prepare for our activity we use a session plan sheet. Jamie seems fairly confident to give it a go with our help, filling out participant names, materials needed, and potential risks! We have a latex allergy amongst us, so no balloon base for the dog. Instead, we raid our cardboard stash, and Andrew helps craft the frame, which he’s rather excited about! Lots of shaping and sticking and the cardboard dog is looking surprisingly dog like!

He’s been named Ralfold now, which seems just right somehow! With his long stocky body and floppy shaped ears, Ralf (for short) has developed some character, that of a Dachshund – or a “sausage dog”! Now time to give Ralf a coat! Some of the group are tasked with tearing up newspaper whilst the paste is made to stick it all on.

We think we’ve got potential risks covered, donning the aprons to protect clothing, but glue on the carpet is one of those wonderful hindsight revelations… Fortunately, the damage is clean-up-able, and we do it super quick before Josh or Ken (the manager and director) see our mistake and feel concerned about the new carpet! Eek.

Panic contained and mess cleaned up, we cover the floor in newspaper and carry on! By the time Ralf is complete, he’s even more characterful because as we didn’t have total agreement on what colour he should be, Marcus, Andrew and Sarah make him a patchwork from our fabric collection!
If anyone knows of a good home for our patchy mâché dog Ralf, do let us know!

Insight Dynamics.