Here is only a very small excerpt of the full show from yesterday as we came along so late we 'only' managed to see, taking ages soaking up the atmosphere and marveling at details:
It is so heartening to see all ages so full of enthusiasm and care, and we got the perfect gifts and loads of best of the best cakes in the still open Viennesse Cafe!!!
It all started with a Cool Cat, called Minxy, discovered by Mary Sinton. Minxy inspired her a lot so she sat down to retell her adventures in poetry form. Then came another idea - how about if there were children who would like to tell her and other stories to each other making story boards and characters out of felt?
Well, lets cut a very long story short and let you see the 6 + 1 week of action at West Street Arts Centre with the Making Space team here by you clicking on the link to "Felt Storyboard Making for Cool Cats photoalbum here" and treat yourself to a wee slide show of how it all happened with 10 - 16 children in the cosy big room, with open fire and the helping hands of parents and friends.
The 2D felt-craft action was in 6 + 1 stages:
decide and design your back ground ground image (outdoor or indoor scene)
find the colours of wool you need and a background cloth and start laying out the coloured fibres on it
using a felting needle and a foam mat, stab away till all the fibres are ok settled, asdd and adjust details as you go along
apply the process of wet felting and then let fabric dry
meanwhile make paper templates of your characters and translate them to a pre-felted fabric, or go and needle felt straight away, add the personal details and dream up your stories...
cut strong card board just a tiny bit smaller than you felted back ground and use double sticky velcro tape pieces to adhere your back ground
play time and story time can begin!
And here hear a little bit of one of Minxy's adventures read by Mary herself:
