A photo of my degree show work is in the Leeds College of Art & Design 08/09 prospectus. Alongside work that had been made at previous workshops, I exhibited an interactive projection of this Re-Toyed Trash blog and had a workshop bench and materials for visitors to make their own toys with. In the prospectus image my coursemate Bav Shah is making a toy at the workshop bench during his invigilation of our Art & Design degree show.

I’ll be at Lovebox festival this weekend in Victoria Park, London doing workshops in the Folksy tent.  I can’t contain my excitement, yeep!

During June and July I visited the Crafty Folk in Knottingley to run a series of workshops with the lovely ladies there.  The Crafty Folk make sellable crafty objects to sell at fetes and fairs and give the profits to local charities.  I think some of these amazing furry toys might be given to loved ones though.

The recent workshops on Easter Saturday at theartmarket included a Re-Toyed Trash Easter special and Toby Juliff’s collaborative painting. We saw some finger puppets being made, some toothy bunnies, a rather special fish and kids enjoying getting messy with paint. We had fun and we hope everyone enjoyed their Easter weekend too.

Lucy Bailey – reconstructed soft toys

Originally uploaded by here shop and gallery

Lucy Bailey’s reconstructed soft toys on display at Here shop and Gallery. Lucy has picked apart the seems of wild animal soft toys to create new hybrids. Check out the panda parrot.

spacevirus1

Originally uploaded by gammaraybots

Tom Torry’s Gammaraybots collection. He uses found objects to create these rather amazing little robots.

Nicolar Bell and I held a workshop for the last day of Artgos on Saturday 15th December at theartmarket.

Artgos was a collaboration between Artsparkle and theartmarket and sold work by big name artists alongside fresh talent working with multiples.

With templates, visitors could make their own soft multiples, or choose to customise our patterns to make something a bit different. We used recycled and donated fabrics in our workshop.

I realised I hadn’t used my Myspace account in a long time, so I decided to log on, catch up with some friends and update the page. Go here, and add us! I think it looks a lot better now.

Next steps: I’ve kept some of the creations from previous workshops to take them out for a photoshoot soon. This is to prepare for a book that I want to make about project. My plan is to get them photographed and sent back to their makers before Christmas, I feel like I’ve had them for far too long already.

I’m also planning to have another workshop in December. More details to follow.