Words on Paper

The second writing workshop took place on Thursday afternoon at the Studio.  We split up into pairs, an adult working with each child, and once again, the focus was on story writing.  We used two types of prompts, written and pictorial to weave stories:  during the first half of the session, we worked off written prompts such as 'You wake to find a dinosaur in the garden...' and 'Tell the story of a bat who couldn't fly', and after tea break Rachael passed out photographs from the book Street Photography Now, from which a variety of scenarios and stories could be constructed.  The results were wide ranging and wonderful -- from the Three-Headed Reptile that Stelios decided to 'deal with in the morning' to the bat who was cured by eating a 'special food of French pastry' to the scientist developing a non-burstable ball and the old lady who collapsed thanks to her allergy to cheese...

At the end of the session, anyone working on a summer project was invited to share their work, and Zenon read the prologue to his story, Demon Wars.

Everyone had a great time and is looking forward to next Thursday... and the apricot cake was a treat!

Writers' Workshop Kicks Off

Joey guards his story from the camera's prying eye 

Nothing happens without Costis. 

Making stories

Reading 'Consequences'...

Thursday afternoon at the studio saw the first gathering of theWriters' Workshop, Words on Paper, led by local writer Rachael Pettus.  A small group ranging in age from seven (Joey) to 53 (Rachael's sister Ruth) gathered in the studio, talked a little about the essentials of story making, then began work -- and play.  The younger ones, who had had little formal learning in English, had some difficulty with spelling, but a nearby adult always helped out.

The first exercise was a round of the old party game Consequences, in which each player writes a man's name at the top of a page, folds the paper over, and hands the page to the player on the right -- who then writes the name of a woman, covers it in turn, and hands the paper on... until a story is created involving where the couple met, what they wore, what they said to each other, and what happened 'consequently'.  the game is a rigid form of story-telling, made fascinating and funny by the details provided by each player's imagination.

After a quick refreshment break, we moved on to another form of story creation, the composite story.  Unfortunately we didn't have time for a full round:  each player wrote a beginning on their page before passing it to the right, added a 'middle' to the paper that came to them, before passing that one on and  completing the new page that came from the player to the left.  This allowed a much freer form of writing as each writer built on the paragraphs written by the writer before.

Despite running out of time, we passed around lots of good ideas and Rachael left with the suggestion that participants take some of the images generated by the stories that we had begun, and develop them for next week.

Bird Feeders From Milk Cartons

Saturday February 13th saw the second in a series of six recycling workshop for children under the auspices of the Art and Wild Nature Foundation at Turtle and Moon. It was a peaceful workshop: most of the Paphos action that day was focused in town where the annual Carnival Parade was pounding the streets, but the six children and two adults who met at the studio were happy with the unaccustomed quiet.



We had gathered to turn milk cartons into bird feeders. Lise showed the children the example, and got out the acrylic paints, and as soon as everyone had chosen their colours, they got to work. When the paint was dry, Lise cut holes in the cartons with a craft knife, punched dowels through to act as perches, and attached wire hangers. The children decorated their feeders with coloured decorations, filled them with sunflower seeds, and hung them on the nearby trees.