The Cardboard Catwalk at Strode College in Street returns with a carnival theme

The Art Department at Strode College in Street likes to kick-off a new year in festive fashion with the annual Cardboard Catwalk.

With only two days to design and make their creations the new and returning art students delighted an audience of cheering staff and students as they paraded their amazing creations in this unique event of the college year.

Students worked arduously to design and construct their artwork using only recycled cardboard, brown tape, paper and string.

The task was a challenge to see what they could achieve with this; can it be worn? Can they walk with it on? Can they finish it within 48 hours?

This year's Carnival theme included a mix of masks, hat-type or full-head creations: 'The Pharaoh', 'The Elephant', 'The Mushroom Hat', 'The Skull', 'The Sombrero', 'The Bull', 'The Car Hat', 'The Plant', 'The Viking', 'The Fish', 'The Boat', 'The Butterfly', and 'The Dolphin'.

All of the head productions showed a great deal of thought, inventiveness and imagination, and the work kept in line with sustainability and recycling ethos followed by the department, plus enriching the student's developing art portfolios.

Duncan Cameron, Strode College's foundation art and design course manager, said: "We always like to hit the ground running with a fun and challenging project to wake up everyone's creativity after the summer holidays.

"There were some really inventive pieces this year and the students have shown great design and construction skills with some fantastic masks and hats created in only 48 hours. This year students worked independently due to the current Covid situation.

"By being able to create such fantastic work within a strict and challenging time frame helps to set a milestone for what they know they can achieve over the course of the next year, and I am confident that we're in for another outstanding year of art and design work at Strode."

Students who worked on the cardboard creations are both students returning into the second year of the Level 3 Extended Diploma in Creative Practice: Art, Design and Communication, and those starting on the post A-level Art and Design Level 3 Foundation Diploma.

The event has been running for 14 years and this year's theme paid homage to the long history of carnivals in the area.

Previous years have seen entire full-body costumes created with students working in teams making it easier to break the ice among the newcomers, but this year students worked independently due to pandemic restrictions.

The two eye-catching masks designs that dominated all photos were 'The Pharaoh' and 'The Elephant' as they both were full-blown head masks and were big as they were attractive.

Gabrielle Hodgman from Edington completed her A-levels at Strode College and has progressed to the Art and Design Level 3 Foundation Diploma.

As part of the Signs and Symbols project all students were assigned for this autumn school term she concentrated on Egyptian art.

"It was easy to decide on the most emblematic Egyptian figure, 'The Pharaoh' the challenge came when I started working with cardboard as it was hard to smooth-out or bend. It took me close to 16 hours to complete," Gabrielle said.

Oliver Jones from Street, a second year student on the Creative Practice: Art, Design and Communication Level 3 Extended Diploma created the interactive elephant.

He said: "The idea came to me from last year's 'Snail'.

"I wanted to develop an extremity, but as we only had the opportunity to work with the head for a mask there were restrictions.

"The other feature I wanted to work on was adding water. I designed the elephant's trunk to hold a water bottle inside and it worked. My costume could spill water!"

Sophie Wilkinson, from Wells is currently studying Art and Design Level 3 Foundation Diploma. She designed a technically complicated design 'The Skull' as it had to fit perfectly with her face shape and much sketching preparation went into this mask.

She said: "I just thought of the theme I am dealing with for the Signs and Symbols project which is 'Punk Aesthetics'.

"Generally, the movement dealt with rebellious attitudes and uses skulls as symbols. I started measuring my face and then scaling the future design to be congruent with my own skull size."

Ea Baron, from Wells and formerly of The Blue School, is in her first year on the Creative Practice: Art, Design and Communication Level 3 Extended Diploma, and was the creative mind behind 'The Mushroom Hat'.

"I wanted to stay away from animal designs or masks but I was thinking of something that would still sit on my head," Ea said.

"I wanted to design something where my body was an extension, the stem… plants came to mind, but as I started gathering the different recycled cardboard and wrapping paper available it was obvious to me that something big and bulky as a mushroom could easily work, and then I just measured around my head and production started."

Ea took about six hours to put together the piece of artwork and was one of the productions that stood out during the procession, as it was full of life.

Strode College also teaches Art and Design Level 2 Diploma and a wide range of creative A-levels including Photography, Graphic Communication and Fine Art.

For full details of courses available and for more photos of the cardboard creations visit the college website: www.strode-college.ac.uk.

Follow the Strode Art Team online on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/strodecollegeart/ and Tumblr: http://strodefad.tumblr.com/

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