Felt Hanging for Great Western Park Didcot

Following on from the already established Public Art Projects that are being run at the Great Western Park, by Sculptor Michael Condron and Artist in Residence Rachel Barbaresi this is a project to make a felt hanging for the Great Western Park Community Centre, a new building which needs something to soften the echoing sound. The hanging will be designed to reflect the local sense of place and identity, the theme developed in the other artworks.

A number of workshops were held at the Community Centre where we discussed ideas for the design of the hanging and got to grips with the process of feltmaking. The felt panel shown on the poster, which we used to advertise the events, was made by City & Guilds students Studying at Gloucester College in Cheltenham.

The first group to get involved were the customers of the Community Cafe, which meets every Thursday morning between 10.00 and 12.00 in the Centre. Children had a chance to make felt "beads" and also design a small panel.

The ladies from the GWP WI who meet on the third Thursday of each month, made panels during their evening meeting. The theme around many of these pieces, centred around the house and home.

Following these sessions we held open workshops where anyone could come and get involved. After looking at a variety of materials found on the development such as pieces of brick, wood and metal, some plastic turf, nails and screws through the microscope. From these we drew what we saw and took these drawings as inspiration for creating two individual panels, one to be taken home and the other added to the hanging.