Andy Vagg & Richard Bladel have returned from successful workshops on Flinders Island, where they worked with 17 community members aged between 9 and 72 to create 14 beautiful art works that will grace the inner Happiness Pod.

People brought their old clothes & memories along and sewed, cut, arranged and pinned together such diverse wonders as “Summer Loving” and “Hacked up Furry Animals.”

Lots of stories, laughs and cups of tea were shared.

Watch out for Andy in Cygnet, Dover, Oatlands and of course, Glenorchy!

Andy shows some of the panels to Happiness team members.

The Fabric of Life workshops kicked off yesterday at The Rose Garden Room at Whitemark with Artists Andy Vagg & Richard Bladel working with enthusiastic community members from Flinders Island. It was a thrill for Andy & Richard to work with some seriously skilled textile artists from Flinders and we all learned a lot from each other.

The Happiness Pod cinema dome will be decorated on the inside by The Fabric of Life: an amazing multi-coloured patchwork of community made collages created from items of recycled clothing and clothing that people bring along and offer to make these amazing artworks. Each item of clothing has a personal story attached, and the stories are embedded into each panel.

The workshops begin with some play and experimentation with a huge variety of what most people think of as rubbish, and the workshops explore the telling of stories through the use of objects and materials. It’s a lot of fun.

Andy will be running workshops in the other 5 communities that are involved in The Happiness Project: Dover, Cygnet, Glenorchy, Oatlands and Levendale. Watch this space for more news…

Pics from top left: Andy collects workshop materials at the Whitemark Tip; Andy washes each piece of rubbish for use in workshops by hand; Jana, Maria, Andy & Judy at the workshop; Ben and his story.