An Art Work About Plastic and The Sea - by Janie M McDonald & the Children of St Mabyn Primary School (England)

220 cm x 160 cm. 2019.

Janie : "This Art Work was created with a local primary school in Cornwall, England, exploring plastic in the oceans for the school's environment week. The title was chosen by the children - 'An artwork about plastic and the sea'.


An Art Work  About Plastic and The Sea - by Janie M McDonald & the Children of St Mabyn Primary School (England)
It is made from plastic supermarket bags, bread bags, paper, oil pastels and embroidery thread. It was incredibly difficult to stitch through the plastic but the children were passionate about showing their parents and the village they live in that they care deeply about the planet. It was put on display during the school's environment open day.

This artwork was inspired by a photograph taken by diver Caroline Power, looking up at a 'blanket' of plastic covering the surface of the ocean.

We talked about how blankets bring us comfort, keep us warm and help us to feel safe. We thought about the sea creatures trapped in plastic and killed by plastic in the photo.

I told the children how people used to make patchwork quilts by recycling old clothes, curtains and bed linen. I showed them an example I made from my children's clothes. We started work on our own blanket of plastic.


An Art Work  About Plastic and The Sea (a) - by Janie M McDonald & the Children of St Mabyn Primary School (England)




An Art Work  About Plastic and The Sea (b) - by Janie M McDonald & the Children of St Mabyn Primary School (England)




An Art Work  About Plastic and The Sea (c) - by Janie M McDonald & the Children of St Mabyn Primary School (England)
























































































Class 1 drew their favourite sea creatures, coloured them in beautifully and then solemnly put each of them inside a used transparent plastic bread bag.

Class 2 stitched the bags together into rows to start to make the transparent centre for our art quilt. They also used templates to cut out patches from supermarket 'bags for life' to make the border, and they stitched them together into pairs.

Class 3 stitched the long rows of sea creatures together to finish the centre, they cut out more patches and made the stitched patches into bigger sections of four.

We used embroidery thread to stitch it all together. We thought about how stitching is associated with mending and about how we can try to mend the planet.

Although our art quilt is very pretty and is made by recycling brightly coloured plastic, it has a serious message. A blanket of plastic covering the ocean is the opposite of keeping things safe and sheltered, it kills."