I’m on a new mission. I’m collecting stories. Spontaneous stories told by children.
I am animating a few of them too! Plus, once the animated series is out I will publish a beautiful book through Sojo Publishing Mouse, so you guys can read the stories every night!
Here is story number 1, written by a 3 year old called Morris.
“The Baby, the Sound and the Bird”
Last week I was invited to run a Sojo Animation workshop alongside the Lakeside Arts learning team at Cantrell Primary School in Bulwell.
The kids in year five have been thinking about ‘persuasive arguments’ and have been using the book ‘The Great Kapok Tree’ to explore their ideas. What a cracking idea! Hats off to the teacher that thought of this. In the book the animals try to persuade a man not to cut down their tree. 
Rachel from the Lakeside Arts learning team transformed the class room into a rain-forest the evening prior to the workshops, ready for the children to discover in the morning. When I arrived at the school even the reception staff were full of smiles and excitement about how fabulous the room looked. I was in a less rainforesty (made up word alert!) room, but armed with a projector. The children animated their rain forest animals in ONLY 2 FRAMES (that’s extra tricky) and then handed over their freshly snapped jpeg files to me, to take away and compile into one, quite frankly, BRILLIANT animation. Well guys…I promised you that your characters would come alive in seven days so here you are. 🙂
You should all feel extremely proud of yourselves. I was blown away by your creativity! 
I am over the moon that my 3 little ‘Thunk of the Day’ animations have been selected for this! Here’s Thunk no.1, incase you know not what I speak of.
The concept is brilliantly simple… 20 short films from 20 filmmakers based in the East Midlands. Thank you Beeston Film for another excuse to celebrate the huge pool of creative talent we are surrounded by.
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24 middle street, NG9 1FX Beeston, Nottingham, United Kingdom
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Everybody loves a good scribble on their clothes, right?
…Just me?
Well it was my birthday last week (Valentine’s Day actually, incase you want to pop it into your diaries for next year) and we had planned a great big family walk and play in Rushcliffe Country Park
followed by a pub lunch.
Now here’s something every sneaky mama knows…if you’re taking the kiddos to a restaurant, bring fun stuff to do at the table. Standard.
I thought this would be a fabulous opportunity to test drive a new Sojo product idea I’ve been toying with…
…”The No-headed (but potentially 3 Headed)Monster- Finish me, Colour me, T-Shirt” and a bundle of lovely fabric pens.
Ok, the name needs a bit of work.
Anyhoo, everybody LOVED them (apart from my little girl, who was “…FAR too hungry to draw monster heads, are you crazy mummy?!”)
Here are some sneaky pics I took of the lunchtime madness 🙂
The 4 year old’s approach: First things first, let’s swishle (new word) some colour all up on this Tee.
6 year old’s know their stuff when it comes to designing a monster. Easy peasy!
My 9 year Old hard at work.
The 32 year old’s approach: Serious. Very serious.
Tadaaaah!
Tadaaaah!
Tadaaaah!
So tell me, what do you reckon…Should I go for it and develop these bad boys into a crafty product?
Is it the type of thing you might consider buying?
What age range would most enjoy it?
Tell me, tell me 🙂
What a wonderful start to the year. ‘Boo’s Nativity’ has been selected to be screened at The Beeston Film Festival. Look at the lovely laurels! Click the link to find out more!
I am a lot a bit excited about this!
The third ‘Thunk’ in a series of short animations celebrating the imaginations, artwork and voices of young children in Nottingham.
This ‘Thunk’ features the artwork and voice of a particularly brilliant 6 year old girl.
sojo animation 