ILLUMINATE FESTIVAL is the transition celebration. We signed our pledge, and understood a bit more about our new head of transition. Each project classes performed and showed the parents what they have prepared during semester two. Our class focused on Visual Art, which we delicately made the beautiful pinatas and shone them onstage.
TO BEGIN THE PROJECT, we researched about the mythical hybrid animal and traditional pinata. Using the images found from the research, we drew on A3 paper.
Then, the teacher planned us into partners, which we shared our designs and chosen over which we liked. Amanda was my partner, and we started with introducing our own designs. We tried combining our designs to make it mythical. Towards the end, we decided to combine her wolf with wings to my peacock. We picked the body of the wolf, and the tail of the peacock. I especially liked the hybrid wolf, because it was unique with feathers which spread neatly across its body. Amanda liked the tail of the peacock, because it had a pretty shape that gave us a feeling of warmth.
WORKING AS A TEAM, we came up with the idea of fading from one colour to the other. For example, after deciding using warm colours for the two wings, we faded from orange to red. Together, we drew the designs together, while also gathering colour ideas. In the end, Amanda came up with the colours of the wings, body, and sides; as I settled the colours of head, tail and legs.
When making the pinata, I was in charge of sticking onto sticky tape, while Amanda helped cut the tape and held the pinata. We made a good team, because we were very aware of the limited time until the festival, so we didn’t distract ourselves, but busied with work. I was given time during InnovatED to apply Gesso, used to seal the pinata well. The double period really helped with catching up to the rest since we have such a complicated shape. After we finalised the Gesso and shape of the pinata, we started the sticking process. Thanks to Ms Elscot, the students in InnovatEd helped cut shapes like triangles and rectangles.
At first, both of us worked separately on the cutting and sticking process, until we realised that we were behind everyone else due to the large surfaces. By being inquisitive, I came up with the idea of specialisation. We took turns to cut and glue, it saved us time and was a efficient method because we only needed to focus on the given task, which is either cutting or gluing. To make the shapes look more realistic, we only glued the top half of the cut triangles, and curved at the edge of each, making them stick out. It applied the fur-like texture towards our design.
After the pinata was finished, we used the same method with every other process in making the pinata. Using the specialising method, adding with the given time in InnovatED, we were one of the most efficient partners and finished way before the due date, which also saved us time to help others with their pinatas.
PROBLEM SOLVING took a huge role in the pinata making process. Due to lack of some types of coloured papers (the shiny ones), my partner and I thought of combining the two types of different textured papers. We used the plain textured ones to create a navy blue collar, and the shinier one which reflects room lights as the fur. After finishing the first side of the pinata, we noticed the resources and colour choices left was limited. To fix it, we used other colours to fade into, leaving us more colours to use for other parts of the pinata.
When we moved onto the other side of the pinata, we realised that the colour choices are not enough, because we are sharing this with others who also used similar colours as ours. We have no choice but to use other textured colours. The other side didn’t work because of the lack of colours.
When finalising the pinata, we had to paint the edges. Amanda liked the neon pink, I liked the freshness given from the green. So, to solve this problem, we decided to mix a bit of everything. The pink could fade into orange, who fades into yellow, who fades into green then into blue. Each colour section on the edge matched with the colours on each two sides of the pinata. Towards the end, the pinata was extra neon and beautiful. It stood out from the rest because of its rainbow sides.
ORGANISATION was an important element while working on our pinata. We were organised because we talked less and worked more. I made sure that our group were ahead of the rest, and left time for us to help others. My partner and I were always ahead of everyone else. Before we put the pongs-pongs on, we were the first to finish, so we decided to help our peers with their pinatas. Not only did it add experience to ourselves, we also worked as a team and made eaiser for others to make their pinata by giving them a hand.
We even came to the art room at lunch time sometimes to work on our pinata onces or twice. Because of this, Amanda and I finished very early. We had our pongs-pongs done within a lesson, and our lights in another. Our hardwork made us more efficient, we also had a lot more time left to help glue to pongs-pongs on for the others who were behind.
THE FINAL PINATA turned out to look amazing. It had its fur-like texture, multicoloured, and its pretty outline. I think working on this semester was definately worth it, because we had such an awesome product produced from all the time we spent on it.
THE ILLUMINATE FESTIVAL went well as we walked onto the stage. Everyone had their pinata ready, although we had one to fix in the last minute. All the pinata students wore stage black, and were organised when we went onstage. A problem I found was that some students appeared to have forgotten their position on stage, which made us very crowded all together in an awkward position. The people in the back row stood a row forward than they are supposed to; and the front row stood a row back than they are supposed to. The two middle rows were basically squashed. As we performed, I felt like it would’ve been better if we could’ve had more time to show our pinatas. On the night after the performance, my parents gave me a suggestion, which I thought was very useful for the people next year, or even for ourselves if we will be doing the illuminated pinatas again in the future. They said that my pinata’s outline was too complicated, the lights were more inside than on the edge, so next time it would be eaiser too see if we glue the lights more on the surface of our pinata than on the side/edges. They also suggested that if I could do a simpler shape than the one I had, because it was hard to tell what shape it was.
Overall, the I think the night went well, it was full of surprises and breathtaking performances from our students in the cohort. I enjoyed the dance the most, where they were dancing as dolls. I also enjoyed the time when my partner and I worked on our pinata. It was worth it.