Forget Me Knots - 2 Feb 10

Below is Viv’s update for this week. 9 ladies attended this session:

We made bugs and decorated the flowers made last week. The lady who took home the flower loom had made lots of flowers. It was interesting to see the development of the flowers as she became more familiar with the flower loom. She had made flowers using mixed colours & textures and different types of petals, single, double, looped, fringed etc. Six of the ladies joined in today including one who had just watched last week. It was again cold in the room and we were working with our coats on. Again, those who did not make flowers enjoyed watching & joining in the conversations about the work. The lady who made the extra flowers this week took materials to continue making bugs at home.

Forget Me Knots - 26 Jan 2010

Below are reflections from Viv on another workshop with the Forget me Knots. For this workshop she had 9 ladies:

I introduced the flower looms. Five of the nine ladies made flowers.  The others had problems with eyesight & arthritis in their hands. It was again very cold in the room and we were all suffering from cold hands & working with our coats on. We had fun though and even those who did not make flowers enjoyed watching & joining in the conversations around what we were doing. Those who took part picked up the flower making technique easily and enjoyed making single and double flowers (on the new plastic looms). One lady took a loom and wool to continue making flowers at home.

23 Jan 2010 - Dads and kids

Dorothy conducted a workshop with the Dads and kids group at the Fieldway Centre. There were 10 participants (4 fathers and 5 children) plus one of the centre workers. Dorothy asked the group what they most liked about the activity and received the following feedback:

• In various ways, the boys all said that they liked making the bugs best!
  
• David, father of the youngest boy aged 3, enjoyed making some very inventive bugs.                    
  
• Daniel, the centre worker said that it was great not be working with glitter and glue for a change and liked working with the pipe cleaners.                                                  

She also asked the group - What do you think about the final piece?                                                                       

• The boys pointed out that their meadow had better bugs than the Mums meadow!
  
• The two eldest boys spontaneously thanked us for the workshop and Harry really enjoyed taking some group photos on our camera with Terry’s help.
  
• The Dads said that they thought that it had been a good morning. It was different to have a woman around especially at lunch time.
  

Dorothy’s own observations about the workshop included the following:

• The age range of the boys was unexpected!  Daniel aged 3,   Ediz aged 4,  Harry aged 7,  Kyle   Ashley aged 8 .  Kyle aged 9.     There were no girls afterall.   
  
• The two youngest confirmed my last observations about the response of young children to this project: They were curious about touching the dry and then wet fleece tops. With an adult to help, they did get involved in adding the water and soaping the felt and making the daisies.  They were not at all interested in making bugs.  But the 4 year old came back and made a daisies independently on his own after lunch and got involved in felting the whole piece.
  
• Kyle and Ashely, Daniel the centre worker and Dad David got really involved in making some inventive bugs, and wanted to take materials home to make more.  Harry, aged 7, was involved socially with everything on but didn’t have the concentration /interest needed to make  anything of his own.  Three Dad’s stood by but did not participate.  
  

Feedback to Dorothy for the future included the boys asking if we were coming again, and Kyle remembered the Shared Heritage session last summer

 

Forget Me Knots at the Riverside Centre - 19 Jan 2010

Viv conducted her workshop with the Forget-Me-Knots at the Riverside and had 10 ladies participating, all over 60. These are Viv’s reflections on the session:

These ladies worked at their own pace. I was hoping to get the panel felted & get them started on making flowers. Having felted the piece, we had coffee, after which the group thought that it was bit late to start on something new.

I took a small piece of video of the group rolling the felt & singing & got a few photos  (see attached). The room was still cold, so the ladies are all wearing their coats. It makes it look as if they had just arrived!

Ecology Centre - 12 Jan 2010

Viv led a workshop with staff at the Ecology Centre to look at developing a workshop leaders workpack which they could then use with their users. Below is Viv's evaluation of how things went: 

Mary had attended a felt making workshop with me last March so was confident in feltmaking. Bonnie & Louise both had no problem with the activity & at the end of the session felt confident to host a Tana Bana workshop. (Bonnie is a part-time primary teacher & may also use her training at school).

All three found making the flowers easy and were inventive in their use of materials in designing and making bugs – they made butterflies, drangonflies, ladybirds & beetles. Louise used her pompom as a fantastic dandelion clock. The team have a good range of sample pieces as a basis for their workshops.

Workshop dates have not yet been fixed. I reiterated that we need feedback by the end of March. Bonnie hopes that the young mums group will take up the offer. Bonnie thought that they may also use the activity for a staff awayday team building activity in February.

All three were enthusiastic about the project & looking forward to sharing their new skills.