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.