FUN WITH CLAY: Left, artist Jilly Johnston led the session
FUN WITH CLAY: Left, artist Jilly Johnston led the session

BEDSITS for beetles, apartments for ants and flats for flies – houses for bugs came in all shapes and sizes during children's activities at The Bowes Museum.
Led by artist Jilly Johnston, youngsters were given pieces of clay and asked to come up with suitable accommodation for creepy-crawlies – one of which even included a dance floor.
Ms Johnston was presenting the latest in the museum’s Picnics and Art in the Park sessions, which have been held weekly throughout the school summer holidays.
It was a return visit to the museum for the Newton Aycliffe-based artist, who led a drawing session for Picnics and Art in the Park earlier in the holidays.
“I have done a lot of community things during lockdown and tried to make them as accessible as possible for people who were stuck inside,” she said
This has included publishing two children’s books she initially wrote for her three-year-old daughter, Millie.
The first, Can We Go Outside To Play? Not Today, aimed to explain to a young audience what was happening and why the lockdown was introduced, while the second, I Miss You, Brown Bear, deals with young children who have been separated from or missing loved ones.