Before her death in June 2004 Vivienne Mountfort gave the Kidsfirst Kindergarten, Mount Pleasant, some of her precious wool and felt. Rather than use this up in the day to day creative activities of the kindergarten we elected to create a project that would use the material in a special and permanent way. At the beginning of 2005 the work began. We decided to explore our environment around the kindergarten, which incorporates the estuary, and depict this in a wall hanging, in the style of Vivienne's own work.
The first task was to take an outing with the children, exploring beyond the gate. We discovered bridges and sticks in the water, saw birds, roads and cars, a big tree at the end of the walk. We even talked of a taniwha in the estuary.
After this adventure we discussed the design then started to create with the felt and wool we had been given. We felted, wrapped, wove, and sewed. The children drew pictures of the environment and these were translated to the felt with a sewing machine.
After the initial landscape had been created we added a frame that reflected the changing seasons: spring at the top, to the right summer, bottom autumn and left winter. Some of the things on the frame evolved as we worked. One child while sewing created a nest as she pulled her stitches tight, so when we came to do the felting we made eggs to go in the nest. Some weaving became the sun and one child's 'couching' looked like the moon so we added a star. Every child stitched a line for the centre of the road or the rain or made french knots for flowers.
Our wall hanging was two terms in the making: 20 weeks of creativity, learning and fun. Created by children at Mount Pleasant Kidsfirst Kindergarten, Christchurch.
