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BUILD Art — Steel & Salt: Surface, Stencil, Repeat

Autumn 2 (7 weeks) · Made by Matt · madebymatt.uk · Trinity Arts Award Bronze route (supported) · 2026–27

Unit enquiry

How can pupils take the surfaces of their own place — rubbed, cut, layered and repeated — and turn them into images strong enough to teach someone else how to make?

Where this sits in the year

Autumn 1 delivered Explore (The Local Canvas, 8 weeks). Autumn 2 opens the Bronze route for the same pupils. Trinity sets no requirement to have passed a lower level first, so this is a genuine step up rather than a repeat.

Media — and why it changed

The obvious Autumn 2 move from a surfaces unit is relief printing. It is off the table: there is no press, no rollers and no printing inks in the room. Rubbing and stencil work reach the same place with what is already on the shelf, and they are far more teachable, which matters because Bronze Part D asks a pupil to teach a skill to somebody else. A pupil can show someone how to take a rubbing in about two minutes. Teaching relief printing in an alternative-provision session would have produced a staged skill share, not a real one.

The diagnostic spine — the thing that makes Part D work

Every making week carries a three-way diagnostic: what it looks like when it goes wrong one way, wrong the other way, and right. Too wet bleeds under the stencil edge; too dry goes patchy; right gives a crisp edge you could cut yourself on.

This is not decoration. It is the unit’s technical backbone, and it is what a pupil will actually teach in Spring 1. Teaching someone to spot and fix a fault is worth far more than teaching them to hold a sponge — it is harder to stage, more useful to the learner, and it produces Part D evidence that could not have been faked.

The edition of five

A stencil repeats. Sponge through the same one five times and you have an edition, with no press anywhere — which recovers the editioning idea without the kit. In Week 6 each pupil keeps one and places four: corridor, reception, a named adult, a peer. Real audience receipts, no exhibition logistics, and it feeds the AUDIENCE and INFLUENCE zones at the same time. An edition of three is still an edition.

Bronze-route design

• Part A runs all term, not in one lesson. Every rubbing, stencil and layer is Part A evidence.
• Part C carries both halves. An artist who inspires you and an arts or cultural organisation. The organisation half is the single most commonly missing piece across this whole suite; it goes in at Week 2 rather than being patched later.
• Part B has a recorded route. A live visit is first choice, but the pre-approved recorded / online event bank means a missed trip never blocks Part B.
• Part D is scoped, not delivered. Week 7 names the skill, names the learner and writes three steps. Spring 1 delivers it.
• Every week has a recovery route evidencing the same Part. The adviser audits Parts, not attendance.
• One week, one A4 page, with a before/after mount on every page — process and outcome side by side, which is exactly what Bronze Part C asks for.

Evidence lift (the ladder)

BUILD entry: notice, try, select with support. BUILD secure: compare alternatives and explain one decision. Bronze reach: explain a decision to an audience, and show someone else how to do it.

Week 1: Surface Hunt Bronze Part A

Enquiry: What can a rubbing tell you about a surface that a photograph cannot?

Diagnostic: too hard tears the paper; too light gives a ghost; right gives crisp raised detail.

Week 2: Arts Inspiration — Artist and Organisation Bronze Part C

Enquiry: Which artist makes me want to make something — and what exactly am I taking from them?

Diagnostic: too vague names nothing; too copied repeats the picture; right names one specific thing and where it will show.

Week 3: Stencil Lab Bronze Part A

Enquiry: How does cutting a shape away change what an image says?

Diagnostic: too wet bleeds under the edge; too dry goes patchy; right gives a crisp edge.

Week 4: Audience Week Bronze Part B

Enquiry: What did I actually think of that — and how do I say it so someone else can use my opinion?

Diagnostic: too vague, too polite, or right — names a specific part and says who you would send.

Week 5: Layer and Combine Bronze Part A + C

Enquiry: How do rubbing, stencil and colour work together to build one Teesside image?

Diagnostic: too many layers goes to mud; too few stays flat; right lets you still read the surface underneath.

Week 6: Resolve the Piece and Pull an Edition of Five Bronze Part A + C

Enquiry: When is it finished — and can I make it five times?

Diagnostic: drifting means the stencil moved; soft edges mean an overloaded sponge; right gives five that read as a set.

Week 7: Bank It and Plan the Teach Bronze Part C close · Part D scope

Enquiry: What can I do well enough to teach someone else — and how would I teach it?

Diagnostic: too big is a whole outcome; too small has no visible result; right is one skill, one result, about ten minutes.

What a trained adviser still needs to provide separately

A trained Arts Award adviser must audit the complete personal arts log against the current Bronze requirements before confirming any qualification claim. Recovery routes evidence the same Part as the live session and are not a lower route; attendance volume must never be used to withhold a claim.

Artsmark is whole-setting development, not an individual pupil award, and nothing in this unit should be described as Artsmark evidence unless the setting is actually on an Artsmark journey.

Add locally approved, credited Teesside reference images and verified practitioner and organisation sources before teaching. Artist and organisation choices are deliberately left open so they can be locally approved.