Recently I was asked to run a sewing workshop for kids at Blacktown Arts in Sydney. They wanted the workshop to run in conjunction with their Makers Space with HOSSEI exhibition advertised as an invitation from multi-disciplinary artist, Hossei “to travel through a fantastical outer space inspired world.”
I love an opportunity to create new zenkis. Zenkis are the simplest friendliest and easiest to sew softies in the universe. They are made from just two pieces of felt and only require a simple running stitch around the torso. They’re perfect projects for kids and perfect for teaching a group as they minimise difficulties and maximise creative opportunities. As you can see, I am very proud of them, and rightly so. 🙂
The kids were from 7 years and up and the workshop ran for an hour and a half. The simplicity of the zenki design allows every kid to finish his or her project. No-one goes home with an unfinished softie. That’s important! Kids need to see that their efforts yield something tangible and complete as much as they need to spread their creative wings and to feel that a project is really and truly theirs.
With all this in mind, I gave each child a pear-shaped piece of felt to use as the basis of their galaxy softie. I showed them three examples that I had made (you can see them above) and told them that they could turn their felt in any direction they wanted. They created facial features, pinned the pear-shape onto a rectangle of different coloured felt, drew on body features, cut out and got busy sewing and stuffing. At the end of it all, we had a dozen new species of galaxy zenkis! What a wonderful universe we inhabit!
Here’s how some of the kids started out:
And here are some of their completed galaxy zenkis:
I had lots of fun. And so did the kids!
If you’d like me to run a sewing workshop at your next event, just send me an email. 🙂