Discover a Cocoon Workshop Under a Beech Tree
26 Jun 2017
Bath textile artist Alison Harper, is returning to the Forest of Imagination this year and will be running a Cocoon Workshop and Cocoonery situated underneath a beautiful and enormous Beech Tree in Bushey Norwood.
Forest visitors will have the pleasure of visiting Alison in her Cocconery to make their very own Cocoons and discover what creatures sleep in and create Cocoons.
The lower leaves of the Beech Tree and branches have been nibbled by the cattle that graze in the pasture to produce a natural ceiling that will protect Forest visitors from the strong sun and from the rain. Alison: “This is a quiet place, the only sound being that of gentle snoring, as the cocoon creatures dream of their future lives and turn over in their snug homes.”
Underneath this tree ceiling there is a calm, dark, shadowy place; a perfect place for creatures in their cocoons to strengthen and grow.
Alison will be inviting workshop participants to make and tend their cocoons, in which tiny creatures begin their lives.
Alison Harper: “We are all lucky enough to have human homes to go to and we must remember that all creatures need homes too so we have to protect the places that they live in.”
Cocoon makers will be led through the wooden passage-way, from the light and sun of the meadow into the quietness of the Cocoonery, where cocoon making can begin in earnest, these can either added to other cocoons under the tree or taken away to be tended and looked after.
Participants in this workshop are invited to consider and then create their own cocoon. This ‘cocooning’ process encourages us as humans, secure in our ‘homes’, to engage with and to care about and protect the safe places which other life forms and creatures need in order to grow and thrive.
Alison produces her work from ‘found materials’ and can be found working with crisp packets, of which she can make 5-6metres of ‘yarn’ from one packet, paper coffee cups and paper carrier bags amongst other materials.
She adds: “I work with very ordinary materials and try to show through re-inventing them that these materials should not be treated as ‘waste’ at all but are in fact very valuable!
“Bringing creativity and playfulness in to the city it is a welcome relief from the commercialism that seems to have become the mainstay of Bath’s economy and with the nature of ‘the High Street’ changing I think there should be a ‘Forest’ every week!
“The Forest will give me a chance to discuss my work with my audience, I had some great conversations last year, always good to put the world to rights! Ideas can be easier to put across using craft and making as a method of engagement.”
This year’s Forest of Imagination will connect people to nature in a variety of wild and imaginative ways. Forest is open from June 30th until July 2nd from 10am to 6pm each day, Forest of Imagination is free to all.
For directions to Forest check here.