Trinket Wrapping
Age Groups: 10+
No. Staff per children necessary 1 Adult with required skill per 7 Children
Approximated time: Minimum 40 minutes: 10-20 minute brief, 10 minute example, 20-60 minute task.
Required Materials: String, large eyed needles/yarn needles, small found objects.
Overview:
This workshop explores craft as a key tool in building sentimentality and embedding objects with preciousness. After a brief exploration of different practices of rock/precious stone wrapping, we discuss the ethics of extracting and selling precious stones. We will then discuss the ethics of sentimentality surrounding purchased versus found objects, leading us towards the class's intention; using stone wrapping techniques for found objects.
The class will be taught a simple stone wrapping technique and will be invited to practice on one of the many trinkets supplied by the workshop facilitator. These precious trinkets will then be strung together into one communal web or necklace.
Finally, students will be encouraged to engage in the practice of scavenging, and intentionally building sentimentality.
Workshop Plan:
The workshop will begin by asking participants what it means to them when something is ‘precious’ or ‘sentimental’. They will be asked to visualise a precious object and write a few sentences of how this object makes them feel and why it's different from other objects. This feeling will be important to hold onto during the delivery of the workshop. We will then launch into a brief exploration of some different stone wrapping, knotting and weaving practiced including Arabic/Jewish tradition of macrame, which involved intricately tying knots, the Ancient Egyptian Tradition of wire wrapping precious stones, and the Japanese Mizuhiki – decorative tying in conjunction with Suiseki – rock appreciation.
We will then discuss modern imagery of stone wrapping and their connection to western spiritualism in conjunction with commodified aesthetic bohemianism. Preciousness here will be discussed in terms of monetary value, and methods of mining extraction. This practice of stone-spirituality will be critiqued, as its selling points are in environmental connection, though its methodology causes great harm to the environment.
Participants will be asked to think about buying something because it is labelled as precious, versus receiving a unique gift that is precious just to you, or otherwise embedded with personal sentimentality. They will be asked to think again of their sentimental object chosen at the beginning, and whether this was a gift, and if it would be less meaningful if everyone had a similar perception of it. We will explore sentimentality relating to personal experience and identity.
Scavenging practices will then be presented as a powerful alternative to buying commodified idols such as precious stones, with examples such as mudlarking. The class will be asked whether or not they collect trinkets: useless, non-precious objects, usually found on the ground. We will discuss human waste practices, and recontextualising rubbish as a plentiful resource that can gift us beautiful things such as trinkets, in comparison to mining for precious stones. We are taking from our own imposition onto earth systems, rather than destroying the earth further to acquire something. This is a far more environmentally conscious practice that allows us to create preciousness and sentimentality in something overwise perceived as garbage. Further, the joy of finding a trinket on the ground is sparked because it is like receiving a gift from the world.
The task will be pitched; using techniques of stone rapping as seen in commodified bohemian aesthetic to embed similar idealisation for our trinkets, gifts from the world that present themselves to us. There will be a brief explanation of the technique, and participants will practice on a trinket provided, or be encouraged to go and scavenge outside for something that appeals to them before returning and beginning the task.
These now-precious objects will be strung into a communal necklace/web, consolidating the class efforts into a mesh of love, care and sentimentality. Students will be encouraged to start scavenging for trinkets, and to think of detritus as precious. Our perception of objects can change them completely.
Intended Impact:
This workshop aims to engage participants with rubbish through love and care, and thus considering why something is and isn’t ‘rubbish’. It also hopes to get participants thinking of rubbish as an abundant resource that is accessible and free to use, far more convenient than purchasing resources, and extending the use life of objects before they are cast into further destructive imposition on our planet through landfills. Hopefully participants will think of emotional life, sentimentality specifically, as a powerful tool in ecology that can be enacted by everyone quite easily, giving them a sense of hope and agency. The skill of trinket wrapping and practice of scavenging will hopefully stay with them, and they will be encouraged to share their practice/knowledge.
Supporting Texts: The Geish Manifesto, Braiding Sweetgrass, Discussions with Princess Pathaojen, Conversations with AK and Yas regarding material idols and extractants.
No. Staff per children necessary 1 Adult with required skill per 7 Children
Approximated time: Minimum 40 minutes: 10-20 minute brief, 10 minute example, 20-60 minute task.
Required Materials: String, large eyed needles/yarn needles, small found objects.
Overview:
This workshop explores craft as a key tool in building sentimentality and embedding objects with preciousness. After a brief exploration of different practices of rock/precious stone wrapping, we discuss the ethics of extracting and selling precious stones. We will then discuss the ethics of sentimentality surrounding purchased versus found objects, leading us towards the class's intention; using stone wrapping techniques for found objects.
The class will be taught a simple stone wrapping technique and will be invited to practice on one of the many trinkets supplied by the workshop facilitator. These precious trinkets will then be strung together into one communal web or necklace.
Finally, students will be encouraged to engage in the practice of scavenging, and intentionally building sentimentality.
Workshop Plan:
The workshop will begin by asking participants what it means to them when something is ‘precious’ or ‘sentimental’. They will be asked to visualise a precious object and write a few sentences of how this object makes them feel and why it's different from other objects. This feeling will be important to hold onto during the delivery of the workshop. We will then launch into a brief exploration of some different stone wrapping, knotting and weaving practiced including Arabic/Jewish tradition of macrame, which involved intricately tying knots, the Ancient Egyptian Tradition of wire wrapping precious stones, and the Japanese Mizuhiki – decorative tying in conjunction with Suiseki – rock appreciation.
We will then discuss modern imagery of stone wrapping and their connection to western spiritualism in conjunction with commodified aesthetic bohemianism. Preciousness here will be discussed in terms of monetary value, and methods of mining extraction. This practice of stone-spirituality will be critiqued, as its selling points are in environmental connection, though its methodology causes great harm to the environment.
Participants will be asked to think about buying something because it is labelled as precious, versus receiving a unique gift that is precious just to you, or otherwise embedded with personal sentimentality. They will be asked to think again of their sentimental object chosen at the beginning, and whether this was a gift, and if it would be less meaningful if everyone had a similar perception of it. We will explore sentimentality relating to personal experience and identity.
Scavenging practices will then be presented as a powerful alternative to buying commodified idols such as precious stones, with examples such as mudlarking. The class will be asked whether or not they collect trinkets: useless, non-precious objects, usually found on the ground. We will discuss human waste practices, and recontextualising rubbish as a plentiful resource that can gift us beautiful things such as trinkets, in comparison to mining for precious stones. We are taking from our own imposition onto earth systems, rather than destroying the earth further to acquire something. This is a far more environmentally conscious practice that allows us to create preciousness and sentimentality in something overwise perceived as garbage. Further, the joy of finding a trinket on the ground is sparked because it is like receiving a gift from the world.
The task will be pitched; using techniques of stone rapping as seen in commodified bohemian aesthetic to embed similar idealisation for our trinkets, gifts from the world that present themselves to us. There will be a brief explanation of the technique, and participants will practice on a trinket provided, or be encouraged to go and scavenge outside for something that appeals to them before returning and beginning the task.
These now-precious objects will be strung into a communal necklace/web, consolidating the class efforts into a mesh of love, care and sentimentality. Students will be encouraged to start scavenging for trinkets, and to think of detritus as precious. Our perception of objects can change them completely.
Intended Impact:
This workshop aims to engage participants with rubbish through love and care, and thus considering why something is and isn’t ‘rubbish’. It also hopes to get participants thinking of rubbish as an abundant resource that is accessible and free to use, far more convenient than purchasing resources, and extending the use life of objects before they are cast into further destructive imposition on our planet through landfills. Hopefully participants will think of emotional life, sentimentality specifically, as a powerful tool in ecology that can be enacted by everyone quite easily, giving them a sense of hope and agency. The skill of trinket wrapping and practice of scavenging will hopefully stay with them, and they will be encouraged to share their practice/knowledge.
Supporting Texts: The Geish Manifesto, Braiding Sweetgrass, Discussions with Princess Pathaojen, Conversations with AK and Yas regarding material idols and extractants.