On December 21, 2014 Jeugdland / Maakland was transformed into a true Winter Wonderland. The whole outdoor area was available for kids to do all sort of ‘make’ activities. The WEAVE workshops were also part of the programme.
Wood as inspiration
Together with my son I visited this festive event in the East of Amsterdam. We started at the ticket-window, where picked up our welfare card. A full welfare card would be rewarded with a delicious treat. With that in mind we started our journey. In company of a six-year-old boy, we started - of course - at the go-card circuit. All the go-cards were handmade by children, out of old bicycles, wood an other reusable materials. Specially for this Winterfest all the cars were set up as a carrousel. It was not an easy task to move the go-card, but with the help of the other visitors we we were able to drive around the circuit. The first stamp on our welfare card was a fact!
Off to the next adventure! In the village, made of handmade wooden cabins, we started decorating a wooden Christmas tree. Green painted ice-cream sticks acted as the wooden frame of the big Christmas tree. My son and me helped constructing the tree and helped decorating it as well. We received the second stamp on our card.
From XXL-knitting spools to winter meals
In the building was a big textile festivity. All the kids were busy making Christmas decoration with the XXL-knitting spool from WEAVE. The kids could also make their own machines, just like we did at the ZigZag event in September 2014. All the handmade decoration ended up at home or in the wooden Christmas tree of Jeugdland.
Our last creative activity of the day was making a necklace of peanuts, as a winter meal for all the birds in town. With bended knitting needles we made little holes in the ‘jacket’ of the peanut, of course we added some small bells and beads to finish it off. It was a wonderful picture to see trees and bushes getting fuller and fuller with these special necklaces made by kids.
A little treat for the young maker
And before we knew it our welfare card was full with stamps! The reward? A delicious marshmallow between two cookies. Can you imagine that we look forward to the next seasonal event where kids discover their own creativity and making skills? In the coming months you can follow more textile related workshops at Maakland. These workshops are developed within the WEAVE project.
