We're really bad at shouting about ourselves! Since we acquired a laser cutter back in 2014 we've been busy:
- establishing a networked maker community in Birmingham, called Birmingham Originals,
- embedding ourselves in our Jewellery Quarter community as Quartermasters,
- running maker markets and peer-led professional development
- all whilst building a jewellery brand through our new self-taught laser cutting skills, check out our shiny things at Frilly Industries
Our global wanderer range of snow globe necklaces!
You may think this will have kept us pretty busy but we've still been doing good at We Are Frilly too!
Since our last update we have been:
- delivering creative evaluation training for Arts Connect in partnership with Morris Hargreaves McIntyre and Dr. Sue Challis
- working with Birmingham Playcare Network to delivery recycled scrap workshops for everyone from BMW, to devising programmes with healthy eating agendas for after-school clubs and developing an early years Arts Award pilot.
- most importantly we've been busy creating innovative peer-led research models to understand the creative and cultural journeys of children and young people across the West Midlands for Arts Connect in partnership with Morris Hargreaves McIntyre.
Peer researcher feedback from the Arts Connect commissioned Young Culutral Journeys Research
- we were commissioned by Staffordshire University's Creative Communities Unit to develop and design a consultation tool kit for the Stoke City of Culture bid
- delivering social media training to a Library consortium delviering a large scale Arts Council funded arts project
- finally we also made two 1/3 scale minis out of scrap with families, an 8ft pink gorilla, a collaborative gorilla picture and as many gorilla related things as we could, if you have no idea why then google the Birmingham Gorilla
Sometimes when you're this busy doing all of the things you forget to tell the world too!
Gorilla head outside the Municipal Bank; location of our first Bimringham Originals Winters Maker Market in 2016
Whilst we are just about to share the findings from our big research project we are embarking on new self initiated work that sees the world of We Are Frllly and Frilly Industries collide even further. We are now member of Steamhouse with plans of plastic domination. We'll be building some exciting plastic recycling machines that have long been on our project wish list. This will see us make new materials for our jewellery ranges and address STEAM learning in secondary schools. We're pretty excited about this new venture!
Steamhouse, Digbeth, Birmingham