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: