Tag Archive | Festival Oldham

Festival Oldham and two hundred & twenty five wish flags

WF05On Saturday 23rd May it was Festival Oldham time again and I delivered a drop-in workshop making Oldham Wish Flags. This involved 28 metres of fabric (I don’t joke) that I had to cut into 6×14 inch rectangles using pinking shears.  I even ironed them (and you know its a special occasion when I get the iron out!).

Oldham Arts Development asked me to make some example flags – I had great fun coming up with some wishes and then turning these into little bits of fabric artwork using paint pens, eva foam and some block printing.

We had a great day at the festival (we were part of of the ‘Rooted’ section) outside Gallery Oldham.  Tori, a member of the Dovestone Youth Rangers, and her friend Poppy came along to help Richard and myself and they did a marvellous job of prepping all the flags and hanging them on rope once completed.  We made over 100 flags in total to add to the ones I’d already completed.  They are all going to be displayed in the foyer of Gallery Oldham so come down and have a look – there’s some great wishes.  My personal favourites ‘I wish I was a fairy’ and ‘I wish I could teach basic IT to senior citizens of society’ – aaaahhhhh!

abirdabode Project takes off

abirdabode-01At the weekend myself and Richard Dawson started our new art bird box project ‘abirdabode’.  Over the next six months we will be running a series of workshops and creative activities for abirdabode; exploring urban and rural habitats, trying different art forms and making beautiful art bird boxes for our feathered friends in Oldham.  We will be working closely with Oldham Arts Development and the RSPB to develop the project.

The project launched with a drop-in session at Festival Oldham where we invited members of the public to decorate a bird for the outside of our large-scale bird box.  Despite the rain we had lots of visitors, all fascinated by the bird box and the mini-gallery inside showcasing the first art bird boxes and accompanied by local birdsong.

Find the abirdabode project here and keep an eye out for upcoming events.

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