Youthful magic sparks in Flower Festival
Regional Arts WA
The garden fairies were out and about for the last Nannup Flower and Garden Festival – with a bit of help from some young arts coordinators.
Lillie-anne Hinchy weaves away for the Wicked Weaving project. Picture by Louise Stokes.
Drug Aware YCulture Regional recipients Sophia Gryglicki and Rhiannon Mcvicar had the idea to build the Wicked Weaving and Cool Crochet Workshop to bring a bit of magic to the Festival, by weaving and crocheting fairy wings with the help of WA artist Leah Vlatko.
Over two days the pair were able to use the Festival’s youth space to engage more than 100 young people – teaching the skills of crochet, weaving and wirecraft.
“The workshops on the Flower and Garden Festival weekend were a hit. We had so many people attend we used up all the wire!”
“The workshops were a great success… We had kids come to our workshop from Busselton and they really enjoyed themselves.
“It was fun to see all the kids wearing their wings down the street, especially because Costa [Georgiadis] was at the Community Garden and he was wearing his gnome outfit. Lots of kids had come to town dressed up so this gave everyone a chance to dress up.
Newly minted fairies don their wings from the workshop for the Nannup Flower and Garden festival. Picture by Louise Stokes.
Listing what their project had brought to the local community Sophia and Rhiannon said it was a great way to be part of the Flower and Garden Festival, added a lot to the atmosphere of the festival “with lots of kids walking around in their fairy wings” and let the young coordinators deal with some of their fears such as making new contacts and working to deadlines.
Participants said it was a great opportunity to get the family together and have some fun.
“We made fairy wings with the 3 kids and they loved it. Thank you! Great activity :)” – Kelly, Festival Attendee
The young coordinators are keen to tackle more arts projects in future, with wire sculpture workshops or possibly pottery on the cards for their next event.
“We really enjoyed doing the art and craft with other young people,” they said.
Looking to run your own youth arts workshop? Drug Aware YCulture Regional is open to regional people aged 12-26 for skills development across any artform.
