Back to Dorcas

Today Katie and I returned to Lozells Methodist Church for the second workshop with the Ladies from the Dorcas group. At the last session the ladies said that they enjoyed doing crafts, and making things and Vila said that she had always wanted to try putting photos onto fabric, so we brought along the scanner, printer, and materials bought from the local Sari shops, and Katie brought along her iron, so that we could create shopping bags with the ladies, adorned with scanned in pictures of their hands. We filled in the 'give me your hand' postcards last time, and the ladies wrote down their wishes for the area, so this time we wrote on the postcards about the ways we use our hands.
At first their was a bit of reluctance to scan hands in, as the technology looked a bit complicated, and the description of the stages we would need to go through to produce the bags sounded long-winded and Nessa joked 'Are you trying to steal my identity?' when we mentioned scanning hands into the computer, but then everyone got involved and we did it in stages. Nessa wanted to go first:
First Nessa chose the fabric that she wanted for her background, then we got Nessa to put her hands in the scanner and keep really still, once everyones hands were scanned in we filled in the postcards, each of the ladies decided what they wanted to write on their bags and then we added the texts to the images. Then we printed out the posters onto transfer paper.
Next thing was to iron the images on to the tote bags - and this is where we hit a snag.
We ironed and ironed, and ironed, but nothing seemed to happen. The green iron motif on the back of the paper was supposed to turn orange when ready, but it never did. The first bag to be ironed was Esther's, and the ironing of that particular bag took 30 minutes. Eventually Katie and Esther managed to peel off the paper backing, but a small area of the black print was left behind on the paper.We had brought a bag of buttons with us, so Esther used the button as a decoration to cover up the blip. We spent the next hour ironing the rest of the ladies images onto bags, chatting and generally having a great time.
The slight reserve when confronted by the equipment at the beginning of the morning had gone by the end, and Margaret and Vila asked if we also do computer classes, as they are really keen to expand their skills. We had a really great time with the ladies and Margaret, Vila, Esther, Nessa, Tina and Mary left quite pleased with the shoppers they had made.
Thanks for having us Dorcas group!

Origami at the Bangladeshi Youth Forum

There was a really great atmosphere at BYF, all the groups were interested in taking part in our activities, that included making origami frogs and flowers, taking photographic portraits and signing their names is sign language. We got people using and thinking about their hands by getting them making things. As well as photographing the other activities that they get up to at BYF.


We managed to get to talk to the groups about their hopes for their own futures and for the future of Lozells and the areas they live in. They came up with some really honest and thought provoking responses.



Getting to meet the guys at BYF has given us a chance to learn more about the community at Lozells and East Handsworth. The more times we visit the area and the more time we spend there the more comfortable we get. We have learnt that although we were told that the communities don’t mix, these young people mix between areas all the time. Proving that there is a lot of misconception in the area.

Bangladeshi Youth Forum

The first of our 'Give me your hand' posters from last night - photograph taken by Shale.
Last night we went along to the Bangladeshi Youth Forum. We were really pleased to go along as Shale (Youth worker and member of Aspire and Succeed) had organised a bit of a do - with dj workshops and delicious food laid on, and some members of a youth group from Aston visiting. Originally we had mentioned we might do some origami with the lads, but then changed our minds as we weren't sure how popular that might be. We decided to focus on sign-language and getting the members of the club taking portraits of each other.

MULAID

When we arrived Shale said they were looking forward to the origami, and luckily I had brought along some packs of origami paper just in case, so we decided to go for it and do it all! The evening lasted for two hours, but felt more like 10 minutes; we were having such a sick time. (word taught to us by the lads last night - sick meaning good.)
The set-up worked really well with me working with the lads to take portraits of each other; here are a selection of the portraits that they took:Then while they were waiting to have their photos printed off, they would do some origami with Katie. It was really great to have a chance to talk to the lads about the area, and how they feel about it. Everyone we talk to tells us that there is good and bad in all places, which is of course true. We had a fantastic evening and have arranged to spend a day with the BYF when they are away on a residential week over the Easter Holidays. We will do some more photographic work with them, and have more time to chat; the fact that it is to be a residential trip out of the area could be a good chance to get some distance. We are really looking forward to working with the BYF again, as they were all really lovely, polite and welcoming young men.