Hearts For India

These heart brooches and magnets were handmade by my students in their own time as part of a fundraiser. Students raised over $1500, which went to the Growing Through Education Foundation, a not for profit organisation based in Melbourne, Australia, who provide financial and practical assistance to schools and school communities with specific development needs. 

I was fortunate enough to visit some of these schools and communities in India's Eastern Himalayas recently, as part of a voluntourism trip to during school holidays.

Part of the monies raised by the 'Hearts For India' project were spent on basic art supplies for schools and the remainder will go towards building a new school in Yelbong, for the younger students, so that they can attend school in their community until they are old enough to walk to school in the neighbouring community. 

This fundraising project was inspired by some wonderful school projects I had seen on blogs such as the 'Heart to Heart' project at Artzy Creations, 'Houses For Haiti' at The Unquowa School and 'Houses For Second Harvest' at Teach Kids Art.  

You can find out more about the Growing Through Education Foundation and some details of our trip HERE. I will post more about my teaching experience in India soon!

Students rolled slabs of clay and used heart-shaped cookie-cutters to cut the shapes. They then used textured stamps or the soles of their shoes to create a pattern on each heart. 

Once dry the hearts were glazed in several different coloured gloss glazes before firing.

 

We used a hot glue gun to glue either brooch backs or magnets to the back of each heart.

 

The hearts were then stuck to cards explaining our cause and sold at lunch time stalls.