Jumping back on the Tube
By Darrell Wakelam
Darrell Wakelam is a creative artist who mostly works in cardboard. He has worked with children through community workshops and in-school activities.
Like most kids, I used to make things out of cardboard tubes. I’m not sure if it started before I was old enough to see it done on TV programmes like ‘Take Hart’ or ‘Blue Peter’, or whether they inspired it. Whichever way around, my mum collected them for me. Funnily enough, sometimes she still does.
As a child they regularly became space rockets, aeroplanes, or more complex things like the legs of long necked dinosaurs. There’s nothing wrong with any of these, they are perfect, but in the last few years I’ve been revisiting the humble cardboard tube, exploring its properties, and highlighting its versatility.
I’ve spent many years as an adult creating 3D artwork with children, offering them my experience, but also learning from them. Watching them problem-solve, imagine, and innovate sometimes makes you become more like them. If you are lucky, some of their own magical alchemy shoots out a spark and your own creativity happens to be there, and dry enough to catch light.
Let’s face it, cardboard tubes are great, they are free for one thing, readily available, commonplace, and they are strong too. In fact, they are beautifully engineered little curves of possibility.
I often use them precisely because of these properties. Much of my 3D artwork is relief work, built up from a background or base. This really stems from the fact that it is easier for children to construct. Full 3D sculptures require a piece of artwork to stand up, carry its own weight etc, whereas with a relief sculpture the children can focus more on the design and detail, and not have to worry so much about the strength or stability. There are also other benefits though, it’s easier to display, and provides the option for creating a background too, offering extra creative possibilities.
A great example would be a ship like this one. You could use a range of materials, but often I find that children actually enjoy the challenge of creating as much of the work as possible from limited resources. It makes them think more carefully about what they use and the properties of the materials they have at their disposal. More often than not, this means they waste less too, throwing less away, or even sharing leftover materials with others.
The subtle curves of the cardboard tubes can offer a fantastic opportunity to play with viewpoint, perspective, and form. The sails on the ship look like they are caught by the wind, the curve of the tubes gives a suggestion of direction, or even speed. You can see the same effect used on the parakeet too. Alternating between convex or concave pieces of the tube helps to suggest form, both on the feathers of the bird and also on the leaves in the background.
Children like this aspect, it’s also something they can play with, trying different options and making decisions as they go along. It doesn’t have to be something as complex as this, it could be a simple flower or fish, playing around with the overlapping pieces of different size or shape. Children as young as early years are capable of this, in fact they love it.
I also often do what I call ‘pure making’, where the children aren’t allowed to throw anything away. So, for example, going back to the ship, all of the surplus pieces of tube leftover from the making of the ship would have to be used in the creation of the sea, nothing is allowed to be thrown away. Yet again, this offers a secondary challenge, something that requires additional thought, and often conversation, or teamwork too.
So, all in all, these humble tubes can offer you a great deal. A free or very cheap sculptural option. One that’s versatile, easy to resource and explain, fun to do, and which you can increase or decrease the complexity of in order to suit different ages or abilities.
So, start getting everyone to save their tubes up for you. Don’t ask my mum though, those one’s are already spoken for.
* If you are interested in my simple 3D making projects then please do check out the work I share freely at www.darrellwakelam.com, or follow me on either Instagram or Twitter @darrellwakelam.
