ME- HERE - NOW in Kimberley



ME – HERE - NOW

PARTY Workshop at the Platfontein 28.2. – 1.3.2018




Teacher: Anu Kylmänen
Co-operatior: Susanna Vuorjoki, Julia Dammann
Documentation: Susanna Vuorjoki, Anu Kylmänen
Translater: Matumbo Mohambo, Sarie Nlunawgo

Oh my! We had so nervous taxidriver.  We didn´t understand what he spoke and we must go to the Robot (traffic lights) take the Julia whit us. Taxi was so full; we had the huge plastic bags full of wool and other materials. 

We arrived well in advance to prepare the workspace ready but we must wait that we had space ready. Then we bud variety of fruit, biscuits, crackers, juice, chips, lemonade and water in the table. Then we had prayer moment. Everybody stand circle near by the table and old woman start. What a feeling! I didn’t understand nothing what she says bud it was so beautiful and relaxing moment.
We had one table and everyone had a lot of space for artistic work. First, we opened the workshop with introductions of the leaders and participants as well as PARTY project. Everyone wrote their own names in a piece a tape and stacked it to their clothes. Julia went through the consent form step-by-step elaborating what each part means and Sarie translate, so that everyone could understand what they were given permission for. All the students decided to sign PARTY consent forms which we then collected.


Working with wool Day 1


We demonstrated on spot. Both material and the felting technique was quite new for all students. South Africa sheep wool is very similar than our Finnish sheep wool. 

First, I gave an introduction to the wool in general and to what we need for felting. We started with wet felting as it is a faster technique to get something visible.  I showed for the whole group how the wet felting technique works in practice, after which I visited each student to make sure everyone had understood what I meant.

Once everyone was fully engaged in processing the wool by mechanical rolling, we moved on to the energizer. This time we chose singing – our task was to introduce Finnish song (Kalliolle kukkulalle) and our SA students some their own songs. Once everyone got their own felting piece ready we photographed every artist with their own work.

We closed the day by choosing the place in line expressing our feeling at the end of the day and discussing the content of the day. The feelings had changed and everyone had a good and confident feeling for the following day. We were really happy with the day's outcomes because all the techniques were new to the students, however, they were interested and excited about having learned new technique as well as the exercises during the day.  

Working with wool Day 2.


 We continued to work with the our felted works of yesterday by starting to felt with a needle the detail into that work. The technique was much slower and needed all concentration. We had several breaks during the day and then we singing and dancing, interesting discussions on people’s life in Platfontein were generated among the participants and tutors. 

Final  DAY 3.


Third day was dedicated to make what ever you want or need. Everyone wanted to do something great and big! We used almost all material and got many beautiful scarfs, carpets and blankets.  During the work we sang and were dancing.

We had guest from radio station. He want to make program of our felting workshop. Everybody say own feedback about workshop. 

We took photographed the all final works and artist. It was quite a sad moment to all participants as we were approaching the end of our workshop.  All the artists were well prepared and excited for the moment and it seemed that we had succeeded in creating a happy memory at this workshop.
Evaluation and feedback

We asked feedback from the workshop. In the end of the felting work period we asked the students for say feedback by following questions; “What is your opinion of the process of the workshop?  Your opinion of the material and technique? What is you feelings?  We got awesome feedback for example “excellent/great ”, “The wool and Technique are great”, “when you came back?”, We love this material, when we can do this again, I learn a lot new things… Also we learnt a lot of new things, one lady even gave us an introduction for weaving. Participants also proudly show us their own handicrafts they have done earlier by themselves.

Next steps

At the end of the day we discussed together on the workshop’s next steps and the exhibition of the works in Kalahari festival and Arktikum, Rovaniemi, Finland in August 2018. During and after the exhibition we will use social media to share the pictures from the exhibition to participants.  Furthermore, we discussed on sharing the materials and decided that WhatsApp and Facebook are the best way.




We want more this kind of workshops; I can believe how fun can it be when you learn something new!

Anu Kylmänen

University Teacher
Clothin Design  
Faculty of Art and Design
University of Lapland


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