2020

Flower Meadow

WORKSHOP FACILITATOR PACK

“Remember a picture is worth 1000

words, but only if it reaches the

right audience.”

Women in Prison supports women affected by the criminal justice

system and campaigns to reduce the women’s prison population.

www.womeninprison.org.uk

At Women in Prison (WIP) we love Craftivism – the combination of activism

through gentle creative crafting. Arts and Crafts have the power to draw

people’s eye, to tell stories and showcase talent. Therefore WIP is leading on

a national craft project to create and display a huge meadow of flowers

each one handmade, using a variety of techniques, by women affected by

the criminal justice system in prison and in the community. The meadow will

be displayed across the country and be used to raise awareness of the 2020

Ambition, a campaign to reduce women’s imprisonment to 2,020 by 2020.

We need your help to give the opportunity to as many women affected by the

criminal justice system as possible – the more flowers the more impact the

meadow will have. This pack has been designed to help you facilitate a

workshop to create flowers and also gives details on getting involved with the

campaign. At the back are some handouts

for the workshop and ideas on different

types of crafting technique.

The idea for this project formed after the

response to two events hosted by WIP. The

first was an exhibition of a patchwork quilt

created in HMP Holloway. Each square told

such a powerful story about life in prison

including patches with footprints of babies in the Mother & Baby Unit. The quilt

was displayed in Parliament and had a huge impact on MPs and Peers.

The second event was on International Women’s Day 2017 which marked the

ten-year anniversary of Baroness Corston’s seminal report into women and the

criminal justice system. To celebrate and thank Baroness Corston for her

dedication to the campaign we presented her with a beautiful bouquet of

knitted flowers made by women in HMP Foston Hall, HMP Downview and the

Beth Centre, our London-based women’s centre.

The response was so positive to these crafted pieces and

the women who made them really enjoyed the project,

and so the idea for the Flower Meadow was born.

We hope you find this pack useful – get in touch with

other crafting techniques or feedback on how we can

improve this pack. But most of all we look forward

to receiving hundreds of beautiful flowers!

Step By Step Guide To Running a Workshop Before you get to the fun messy bit – the crafting – it would be great to have

a little discussion in the group about the background to the project, to let

participants know how their flower will be used and how the meadow forms

part of a bigger campaign.

Here are some discussion prompts:

THE BACKGROUND AND AMBITION TO THE MEADOW

If helpful in the Handouts section of this pack you will find the photographs of

the Patchwork Quilt and the bouquet for Baroness

Corston. There are also photos of the flowers that

have been created so far to give inspiration and

illustrate what this project will look like.

We plan to exhibit the meadow across the country at festivals, conferences,

maybe in Parliament and other public spaces. The meadow will be displayed

alongside all the logos of the charities and women’s centres who took part.

The aim of the exhibition is to raise awareness of the 2020 Ambition. For more

information on this campaign go to www.WIP2020.org.uk

In a nutshell the campaign seeks to reduce the women’s prison population to

2,020 by 2020 (about half the current population) by calling

for investment in women’s community support services and

housing.

We also hope that one of the benefits to this project will

be a sense of taking ‘collective action’ creating something

that then contributes to something bigger. We hope it can be tool to link up

the sector and a way for women affected by the criminal justice system to

show solidarity with others.

THE MESSAGE IN THE MISSION: Campaign Tactics

You could ask the group about what they think about the Flower Meadow as

a way of raising awareness of the campaign.

Why craft? Why flowers? What does the group think the meadow says about

women affected by the criminal justice system?

- For us we think it shows creativity and talent. It shows potential and is very

symbolic of growth and blossoming. Flowers have so many different

meanings to different people at different times – you could ask the group

if anyone has an example of a flower that has meaning to them. We also

think that many varieties of flowers and types of craft will represent

individuality and the different stories of those affected by the criminal

justice system. Also craft, art and creativity has therapeutic value and

should play an important role for women in prison and in the community,

it’s also an important tool for expressing yourself and telling your story.

In the handouts there are some

photographs of large-scale art

installations – exhibits which have

impact due to their sheer scale. These

can hopefully outline how this project

will only work as a campaigning tool if it

grabs attention and for that we need as

many flowers as possible.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

Finally we would love to hear the group’s ideas for where we could exhibit

the meadow, how we could display the flowers and also ideas on what to

call the meadow. At the moment it’s

called the 2020 Flower Meadow – are

there any better ideas or any clever play

on words for a slogan to go with it?

Any feedback or ideas that come from this

discussion please get in touch and let us

know (contact details below).

Crafting Time!!

Please use the handouts at the end of this pack for

ideas on different crafting techniques and find

photographs of examples for inspiration. As long as

it’s a flower you can create whatever you would

like. We think it works well when words are used too

i.e. stitched, drawn on or through collage. Some

women have included their poetry, but words are not necessary for all of the

flowers and we would like as much variety as possible.

At times we have found the workshop works well when everyone is using the

same crafting technique and materials, but not always, you will know how

your group works best.

PLEASE NOTE WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO RETURN THE FLOWERS. Part of the project

is that each participant gives their artwork to the project in order to create

something bigger. A good technique when running the workshop is for

women to create a flower for themselves and then say, two others to give to

the project. Women can send us more than one flower. At the end of the

project we may use the meadow as a fundraiser, we’ll be in touch with those

supporting the project if we decide to do this. This project is ongoing and has

no set deadline at present.

Contact us

Claire Cain

Policy & Campaigns Manager

e. claire.cain@womeninprison.org.uk

t. 0207 359 6674

Share with us your crafting workshop and photographs of your finished

flowers: @WIP_live #2020by2020

Send or drop off your flowers to:

c/o Claire Cain

2nd Floor, Elmfield House,

5 Stockwell Mews

London, SW9 9GX

Or write on the envelope: Freepost WOMEN IN PRISON (the last

bit in capitals, nothing else is needed on the envelope)

EXAMPLES OF LARGE SCALE INSTALLATION ART:

“From the beginning I was trying to

make something as direct as possible

with clay: the earth. The 210,000

body-surrogates occupy the space in

which they are installed” Antony

Gormley, Field for the British Isles

Pascale Martine Tayou, large scale

installation from plastic bags. Jeff Koons, Puppy

Making your flower from BEADS [and Hama Beads]:

Let your imagination take

off with this DIY yard art

project that turns copper

wire and beads into cool

fun flowers.

Making your flower from BOOK PAGES (or newspaper):

These vintage-inspired flowers

are quick to make and will

definitely add flair to the

meadow. If you don’t want to

use book pages you could

use newspapers – in prison

you could use Inside Times.

Alternatively you could use newspaper, tissue paper or crepe paper to create a collage or

scrunch up to create texture and stick onto a flower template. You could also use

newspaper to create a flower using papier mâché.

Making your flower from BUTTONS:

Start out by cutting a variety of flower shapes out of colourful craft foam,

paper, felt or cardstock. The buttons will serve as the centre of the flower so

the size of the buttons will determine the size of the flowers you cut. From there

you can develop various expansive ideas to create the meadow. Did you

know that you can make a beautiful flat paper flower with just five circles and

a button as shown above?

Making your flower from WIRE:

INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO MAKE A WIRE FLOWER:

Just twist and turn the wire to make big loops for shaping the flowers.

Insert sparkling glass beads into the ends of the wire loops incorporating

whimsy tones to the bloom.

You can make a bunch of these unique flowers.

Making your flower from SALT DOUGH:

Making your flower by QUILLING:

Quilling is created

with lots of strips of

paper.

Paper quilling is the

art of rolling thin

strips of paper and

then making those

rolls into shapes.

With just a few

basic quilling

techniques, you

can create unique,

3-D flowers.

Quilling is created

with lots of strips of

paper.

Paper quilling is

the art of rolling

thin strips of paper

and then making

those rolls into

shapes. With just a

few basic quilling

techniques, you

can create unique,

3-D flowers.

Making your flower using RIBBON:

Making your flower using MOSAIC:

I

You can use paper, beads, glass,

and tiles – a variety of materials

to do your flowers.

Making your flower using MATCHSTICKS:

Making your flower using CROCHET:

For those of you skilled enough to be able to crochet here is a flower

patterns.

This crochet pattern using common crochet abbreviations and basic crochet

stitches. These are the abbreviations to expect in the pattern:

beg = beginning

ch = chain

ch-3 = 3 chain stitches

dc = double crochet

sc = single crochet

sl st = slip stitch

st = stitch

Ch 6. Join with a sl st to form a ring.

Round 1: Work 12 sc sts in ring. Join the work to the beg of the round with a sl

st.

Round 2: [ch 3, work 2 dc sts in the sc st that touches the ch-3, ch 3, sl st in

same sc st, sl st in next st, sl st in next st.] Rep sequence in brackets 5 more

times for a total of 6 flower petals.

End off. Weave in Ends.

Making your flower using KNITTING:

Materials

DK weight yarn

3.5mm needles (straight or circular, doesn’t matter)

Sewing needle

Sewing thread (matching colour as yarn)

Beads, pearls, buttons or sequins of your preference

Optional (if you’re making it into a brooch):

small piece of felt

Safety pin or brooch pin

Abbreviations

CO – Cast on

k – knit

p – purl

sl1k – slip 1 knit wise

sl1p – slip 1 purl wise

k2tog – knit 2 stitches together

p2tog – purl 2 stitches together

YO – Yarn Over

BO – Bind off

Petal (make 6)

CO 8

Row 1: sl1k, k7

Row 2: sl1p, p7

Row 3: sl1k, *K1, YO* (repeat from * to * till end of row) (14 stitches)

Row 4: sl1p, P to end

Row 5: sl1k, K to end

Repeat rows 4 and 5 till the work is around 1.75 inches.

Start to reduce on a knit row as follows:

Reduce Row 1: sl1k, k2tog, k to last 3 stitches, k2tog, k1

Reduce Row 2: sl1p, p2tog, p to last 3 stitches, p2tog, p1

Repeat Reduce Row 1 & 2 till you have 3 stitches left on a knit row. BO all 3 stitches,

weave in ends.

Assembly

Thread your sewing needle with thread. Hold the base of the petal and sew it tight

for each petal so as to create the “crease” so the petals will curl. Sew all 6 petals

together.

Sew on your beads, pearls, sequins or a button to the centre of the flower.