Partake workshop

I was invited by Partake to do a workshop at Wakefield College on 10th October for the Cathedral launch event. My workshop was a part of an open day for the college’s pupils to try out different act activities, also an initiative to help artists work in schools. Other workshops at the event included origami, animation, architecture with sweets and bracelet making.

Artist Nicolar Bell joined me for the workshop. Together we made templates for finger puppets, plush toys and cardboard robots so that the children had a range of characters to choose between. All of the children were able to take away their own creations when they were finished. Bunnies and octopuses proved to be very popular choices, as did the cardboard robots. It was interesting to bring the workshop to this new environment after a summer of workshops at different festivals. This time around, there was no straw to bring home in the luggage mixed in with the fabric.

Trinity3 exhibition photos

There’s just one day left to catch the ‘Trinity3′ exhibition at Holy Trinity Church, and that’s tomorrow: bank holiday Monday 27th August. Here’s some photos from the exhibition…

I had never seen the space in the church being utilised in this way before with a projector screen hanging between two pillars and a sound installation on the central walkway.

My Re-Toyed Trash installation had a mixture of creations from the workshops and a workshop bench for people to work on. I was pleased to find that a few people were bringing in their own materials to leave for other people to work with in the workshops. Kate left us some brilliant shimmery fabric that she said would not use. Thanks Kate.

I was also exhibiting ‘Leeds Degree Shows Adventure’, a photography project collaboration with Joe Mawson. This project documents my journey around the recent Leeds Fine Art degree shows. The photographs explore my own interaction with other graduate’s work. Playfully negotiating ideas around Authorship, an Artists’ Ego, Art Education and Artwork-as-backdrop it relates to my own position as a recent Artist Graduate.

Bav Shah’s knitted rubber work was also exhibited at ‘Trinity3′. This is his large piece that can be used as a sarong or a hammock, hanging in front of one of the stained glass windows.

Innocent Village Fete: Day 2

At the Innocent Village Fete: Sunday 5th August

More pictures as promised from the second day in the Folksy tent.

Orange-headed penguin with pink front….

Fluffy cat head with big bright blue eyes. Meow!

This cat has got two sides: one pink and one purple. Looking very dapper with a pretty tie.

Turtles were the most popular plush to be made. I think this boy is pleased with his.

The first bunny to be made at any of our workshops and looking very cute in a blue jacket.

We ran out of stuffing towards the end of the day and in true re-use style we substituted the stuffing with shredded fluffy scrap fabric. Here’s some turtles hanging out together on the straw.

I am particularly pleased that we managed to get the fluffy legs out of this dog when we turned it inside out. I was worried we might end up with a 2-legged dog, but after a bit of effort and poking through, the legs appeared and completed this lovely fluffy dog.

I would have personally named this one the ‘Incredible Mutant Sheep’. It took the couple hours to make and I’m impressed with their patience and persistence to finish it. It’s huge!

Isaac and his penguin.

Starfish with suckers and pretty pink bird

This was one of the last creatures made with some striking red lips. Many eyes helps a good looking plush girl (all the better for seeing you with)…

See more photos from the fete here. If you’re photo is not on the blog, but you want it to be send me a message and I’ll put it on.

Innocent Village Fete go: Day 1

At the Innocent Village Fete: Saturday 4th August

I arrived at Regent’s Park with my suitcase full of scrap fabrics and toy stuffing and was unacclimatised to the hot weather. It was a beautiful day and the fete attracted thousands of visitors to the park to enjoy smoothies, food and a variety of activities. I felt very pleased to be a part of the Folksy tent helping the kids (and adults) to create some unique creatures. A bonus for me was being handed regular cups of free tasty smoothies throughout the fete and meeting many very interesting people, including some local crafters.

We had so many visitors to our workshop that I was very pleased to have Shaun there to lend a helping hand with the kids. I don’ t think he was expecting to be helping to sew up little fish and turtle creatures this weekend (he specialises in skateboarding lessons).

Meet the creatures….

‘Shreegon’ is a mutant sheep dragon that began life as a dragon and adopted a set of fluffy wings, possibly to allow a soft journey to any who take a ride on his back.

Laura was lovely to chat to and I could tell that she’s a natural crafter. She’s also a musician based in London, find out more about her music and talents on her website here. Here she is with her cute yellow dog that she made at the fete.

Would you believe that this little lizard began as a badger and was magically transformed into this rough n ready for anything cowboy lizard? Oh yes.

I was so impressed by this mega beetle. Having six squishy legs, a zip for a mouth and a variety of patterns on it’s shell makes it a cut above any beetle I’ve ever seen.

Parents were in on the act and got involved by lending a helping hand to complete some of the creatures. For some parents discovered they had skills they never knew existed. This was the first turtle to be made at the fete and involves some great team work.

And here’s a cute owl made at the end of the day.

It was great to see lots of happy faces when the creatures took shape and came to life. I hope the owners of the creations are pleased with their work and have found a safe home for each of them.

See more photos from the fete here. If you were at the workshop and want your photo to be put on the blog or you want your name included, send me a message and I’ll put it on.

Sunday’s activities in the next blog post to follow shortly…

Kids Tent @ Moor Music festival

Armed with a big bag full of scrap fabrics, some stuffing and safe plastic needles, I went to the Moor Music festival last weekend. Sarah Spicer did a fantastic job of organising the kids tent and the activities this year. There were zones for different activities: Hoopla, Dressing up, Telephone, Face Painting, Random craft and my Re-Toyed Trash sewing workshop so the kids had too much to do to ever get bored. I also noticed some non-kids sneak in for a face painting.

The kids were decorating the tent with their creations throughout the festival and made hats, tea pots and other magical things to be used in their Mad Hatters Tea Party on the last evening.  Some images from the party will be in the next post.

I brought with me some examples of plush toys made at recent workshops. You might recognise some of these characters from previous blog posts. The tortoise and the octopus were very popular with the kids and some tried their best to take them home. However I offered that they could make their own toys instead.

Some of the kids had never sewn before and needed lots of help to get started, so we had lots of one-on-one sewing lessons. The ‘Monsters Inc.‘ furry fabric seemed to be very popular with lots of monsters being sewn together.

Robyn made a teddy bear called ‘Sully’, named after the Monsters Inc character. I was very impressed with her sewing capabilities and her patience because this teddy bear took a long time to complete. Here she is with her completed teddy.

This girl made a snake from a section of some old stripey socks. Notice the snake’s long tongue with hearts on it. This snake is called Alex.

Here’s a full-length photo of Alex.

This plush is a soft monster ball with eyes.

Ellie made two furry seals on the first day. This is the second one with two ears.

End of ‘On the Fence’ exhibition

I spent the last day of the exhibition checking out the other student’s work around the college. I was particularly impressed by the Printed Textiles/Surface pattern design show and some of the exhibits in the Visual Communications show were astounding. I came back a few times to check on our exhibition and kept finding more people sat at the workshop bench making some toys from the scrap fabrics. Like this…

The exhibition is now over, we’ve packed up and received our results. Let’s just say, I’m very pleased with them. Click here to view images of the rest of the exhibition.

I have been thinking, I need to organise a new exhibition for all of these new creatures and toys that have been made. Here are some of the makers with their toys…

Catherine with Dean the duck

Bav completed Mini Dude today by giving him a body and string vest

Fiona finished her Sheepy just in time

Workshop in the exhibition

It’s the last day of the exhibition at Leeds college of Art & Design today. Yesterday, we had an impromptu workshop in the studio with some new creatures being made.

Here’s Donna Walker’s completed Giraffe 2…

Bryony made a badge for her favourite module tutor, Bridget to give to her as a present.

Sophie and her penguin (I need to find out what name she gave this one)…

Here’s Kelly Pollard’s toy. I like how she’s stitched her initials on the creature.

Helen Williams created an outfit for Lil’s ‘Floppy Drunks Friend’ toy.

Bryony also made Kelly-Jelly fish

Here’s Bav’s creation. Nice use of a zip for a mouth.

And this cutie was made by Kate Harrison…

New posters for the recent workshop creations

I have just been putting together this montage of toys from the Ladyfest Leeds workshop:

And here’s one for the plush toy workshops at Situation Leeds 2006: