Work Experience at Pure Innovations

I had my last day at Pure Innovations, which is the day centre for adults with learning difficulties. I've enjoyed my time there, in terms of experience it's really boosted my confidence as I was there primarily to encourage dialogue between the service users and to guide creative development. Working in the sessions you had to use your initiative a lot for the sessions to run smoothly and you always had to approach tasks calmly and clearly.

I held about 8 card making sessions in total, 2 were floral sessions where I'd cut out floral shapes previous to the session and they had to assemble them into their own designs on paper that was put on to 5x7 cards or placed directly on the card, this was an induction to colour and shapes in floral form. Another session was working with geometric, where I approached the session the same as the last by doing alot of the preparation myself. We did 2 sessions of this. Alot of the service users are unable to use scissors so preparation was needed for the sessions.

It was quite difficult guiding everyone though for this type of sessions because there were about 8 service user to 2 staff member, me and Abbi, and everyone wanted guidance with applying glue. It could be really frustrating, not with the service users because it's not their fault, just because there weren't enough of us to guide them.

So to overcome this, I thought of another technique of card making. Each service user would have an A4 sheet so mark make with paint with, without the use of paintbrushes. This was a fun experiment in getting the service users to get responses through paint using different utensils.

There were some great results, so to get the designs onto card we cut them into small rectangles and placed them on 5x7 cards. They looked really good and when they were wrapped in cellophane the looked to a professional standard, I plan to sell them at art and craft fairs I might be part of with profits going towards session materials.

We also tried using sticky colourful labels to create patterns, which had really good results on their own or mixed with mark making.


This is an example of the work done in the sessions I held. This work is by Diana, a service user with moderate learning difficulties. We focused on pattern, colour and shape.

In the end I had to leave the centre to focus more on my Uni work, but would go back again after Uni if I felt it would have some relevance in helping me establish my business. I did talk to the senior managers about selling some of the work through my own website once it is set up which they were really interested in.

Overall this has been a positive experience, I have gained confidence, a stronger intuition, a guide into progressing others creative perceptions, contacts, an insight to selling others work, a link with a charity and a stronger focus.