For the second year running we are proud to be part of the full schedule of planning and organisation for this year’s Love Oswestry all-day Festival.
Designs in Mind has been commissioned to make over 200 lanterns! Therefore we have created an opportunity for you to have fun and get creative, helping with the preparations.
You could be part of this by booking into our Free Lantern Making Workshops, which are taking place on the Saturdays leading up to the Festival on the 25th of February, 2023.
Just imagine how creative you could get with your styled design, producing a wonderful lantern to be part of the twilight parade.
The workshops last for 2 hours and are available to adults as well as children from the ages of 6+ accompanied by an adult. We have two time slots 10 am and 1.30 pm. There will be full guidance on how to put the construction of your design together. You will be working with Willow branches, masking tape and tissue paper, all of which will be provided for you.
The best part is you’ll not only have a great time making it, you’ll feel that sense of helping out your Community while you participate in this local project. You’ll also get the lovely feeling of a sense of achievement and accomplishment, all while supporting our studio members to reach that 200-plus target of lanterns we’ve been asked to produce.
We’d appreciate your time, your skills and your creative input. We are holding free workshops on these Saturdays for the next two weeks
4th February and the 11th February
Bookings are made via this link.
http://designsinmind.co.uk/service-page/love-oswestry-lantern-building-workshop
Our Studio is based in the Heart of the town centre, you may have seen our recently completed stylish shop front in Cross Street opening its doors on 13th February 2023.
Perhaps you planning to explore the town on the Festival day. We’re sure you’ll enjoy what it has to offer. Plus if you attend a workshop you’ll have the added anticipation of looking forward to the end-of-the-day parade where you might decide to play “spot your lantern” as the local children roll out with them all lit up for twilight. They are oodles of fun to make and every one has its own unique and individually created style.
Each lantern will have a battery-fueled tealight candle inserted into the base. This is so they shine brightly through the tissue paper, that covers the Willow frame. We chose this option for safety reasons, whilst it will still provide that ambient glow perfect for twilight!
Our members have been beavering away in our studio designing ideas, bending the branches, masking taped into all sorts of various shapes, forms and sizes of lanterns.
We have a plethora of styles all created by our members and previous workshop attendees.
These include triangles, squares, oblongs and rounded shaped lanterns to name but a few. We even have some very large lanterns, such as a Whale-shaped design, large but not quite to scale or it would take over our studio! Another example is “Mr Bumble” the Bumble Bee-shaped lantern, made and named by our member Carl.
Carl, who is our resident joker said “When I began the larger lantern structure there was no real inspiration, it just happened” he laughed, “You can say, I kinda, bumbled into it!”
We’ve also a Sheep made by Stuart one of our Team Members, (pictured above) Stuart said “I chose to do a Sheep shape sculpture as I fancied a challenge, to be in keeping with the Love Oswestry Festival and the upcoming Sheep Trail”. Watch out for next week’s blog that will inform you all about the Sheep Trail, our involvement in it and how you can be part of it too.
The Love Oswestry Festival takes place on the 25th of February, 2023 all across Oswestry Town Centre. The day includes live music at various venues, street performers and guided tours. The festival comes to a close with the twilight lantern parade, where our members and hopefully your hand-crafted lanterns will be featured.
On the day of the Love Oswestry Festival, lanterns can be collected from our shop from 5 pm onwards to join in the twilight procession. We are number 17a Cross Street, SY11 2NF, right next door to the Barnardo’s Charity shop.
“Valentine’s week and through February half-term, Oswestry holds an eclectic mix of events closing with a family-friendly, twilight lantern parade through the streets of Oswestry”. Excerpt taken from Visit Oswestry
Read more about it here
https://www.visitoswestry.co.uk/love-oswestry-oswestry-valentine-event/
If lanterns aren’t your thing, we also have an abundance of paid workshops available for you this year. Maybe you’d like to learn a completely new creative skill with our very able Artist showing you how. Perhaps we have something available that you’ve been yearning to revisit, art forms you’ve tried previously and missed doing. We can help you rekindle your love of making and reforming your lost passions.
It’s really good for your well-being to create art, to get immersed in it is meditative and relaxing, plus it’s always a wonderful feeling to be part of your local Community. You’ll also be helping us to keep up. our support of Adults with Mental Health issues alive and thriving. We have a varied array of creative things for you to invest in.
Here is a list of Workshops running this 2023.
Lino C
Polymer Clay Earrings
4-week Printmaking
Visible Mending
Japanese Textiles
Screen printing taster
Block Printing
You can take a look at all workshops, or books in follow this link http://designsinmind.co.uk/book-online
If you like to ask more about our workshops email us at hello@designsinmind.co.uk