The Wild Classroom Project: Food

The Wild Classroom Project: Food 2023

Stanhope Street Primary School, Dublin 7

Black Church Print Studios artists Caroline Byrne and Siobhán Cox worked on the Wild Classroom project with 1st and 2nd class pupils from Stanhope Primary School in Stoneybatter Dublin 7.

The Wild Classroom project was inspired by an old European folktale called “Stone Soup” which is about food and bringing people together.

Project Artists shared contemporary art practice with pupils and worked with a collaborative focus, generating ideas with the group to form a collaborative artwork.

The artists made vegetable and fruit ink with the children, and used this ink to print onto paper using stamps made from various vegetables.

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An end piece of red cabbage sits on a piece of paper beside three stamp prints made using the cabbage.

Looking into an open glass jar of red beetroot ink, the jar lid is placed beside it.

Session 1: Sowing the seeds.
In March when the pupils were in 1st class, they were introduced to the “Stone Soup” folktale. In this story, a hungry stranger visiting a village is told that that is no food for them to eat. The stranger replies that if they had a pot of water on a fire, they could make stone soup. The people in the village are intrigued, and put a pot of water on to boil on a fire. The stranger puts a stone into the pot of boiling water, dips a finger into the pot and says that it is tasty but could do with an onion being added. A villager who has a spare onion throws one into the pot. The stranger says that it is delicious but needs a carrot. Another villager retrieves a spare carrot from their house and throws it into the pot. This process repeats with various foodstuffs being added to the pot until a hearty stew is bubbling away on the fire. The stranger and the villagers then share this meal together. This folktale taught the children about people contributing towards a common goal, as well as the importance of collaboration.

The children then sowed various vegetable seeds such as potatoes, cabbage, and beetroot which they would then harvest later on in the year.

Blackberries growing on a bramble bush. Some are ripe and black but most are red and unripe.

Five potatoes growing in a large pot that are being pulled up from the soil.

A small pink/purple beetroot pulled from the ground. It has a purple stalk and thin orange roots.

Session 2 – Making inks.
The children explored how to make ink from the vegetables they had grown, as well as from fruits foraged from hedgerows. They cut up beetroot into chunks, put them into a pot of water, and watched as the dye from the beetroot turned the water red. The children also made ink from haws, red cabbage, and blackberries.

A beetroot is cut into large chunks on a white cutting board. A whole beetroot, and a knife stained with beet juice are also on the board.

Slices of beets steeping in a saucepan of water. The water is coloured red.

Haws from the hawthorn tree steeping in a bowl of water, the water is coloured yellow. The haws are red, the skin has been removed from some of them to reveal yellow flesh underneath.

A tree branch is being used to squash blackberries in a white dish. The juice coming from the berries is a deep purple/red colour.

Session 3 – Testing inks on paper.

The pupils tested the various inks they had made by applying them onto paper using paintbrushes. The different colours of ink were poured into dishes and jars, and gum Arabic was added to act as a binder. The pupils experimented with heavy and light brushstokes to achieve areas of vibrant colour, and areas of delicate washes.

A white dish is filled with red beetroot ink. A bottle of gum arabic is placed beside the dish.

Semi circular shapes of red beetroot ink have been made using a brush on small pieces of paper.

Four brush marks made on a piece of paper using blue ink made from red cabbages. The ink is wet and glistening on the paper.

Session 4 – Making plates and printing onto paper.

The pupils added cornflour to the inks they had made in order to thicken them, and transform them into a paste to be used for printing. Using the potatoes, red cabbage, and beetroot that they had grown, the children created printing “plates” or stamps by cutting the vegetables into various shapes. They then applied their printing inks to the vegetable stamps and printed them onto a large sheet of paper, working together to create a collaborative artwork.