He Toi ā Tāhua 2 - The next step with stencils

Now that our ākonga have more understanding about stencils, we have moved to making our own using a Scan n' Cut machine. Normally when I make a stencil it is a laborious process involving drawing the design onto acetate, and carefully cutting out each segment using a scalpel. I didn't want our students doing this, so did some research and eventually arranged the purchase a Brother Scan n' Cut.

This device does just what it says: it scans their drawings, then cuts out the pattern from an acetate sheet. While it takes a while to cut, the exciting thing is being able to turn drawings into stencils without the difficulty of doing it by hand, and I can't wait to get our tamariki painting all the taonga using their designs.

Here's a playful artwork by Keelan Heemi-Alofaifo, with clever use of repetition. Can you find it?

Here's one of Te Purewa Akuhata's many interesting designs painted onto the pipes. I'm looking forward to seeing the others go on too, especially that bold mangōpare:

Rangi Apiti Taute made this beautiful tāhua to paint onto the pouaka tangi (ding box). I love the way there's different things happening in different places, it draws your eye around the art:

Annastasha Aramoana-Pakipaki came up with this clever design for the kōrere. 
Isn't it great? Her balanced design and use of tāruarua (repetition) makes it really effective:

 Wow, what beautiful artworks our students are producing! We are just using washable paint at present while we test ideas and colours, and get some practice applying stencils, but next term we will use proper Resene paint and turn the taonga into a rainbow of colour and design. I can't wait!