Cheltenham Racecourse

Workshops: Forest

Wychwood Festival workshops—crafts

For those of you that are good with your hands or wanting to rescue a creative soul then look no further than Forest! An amazing selection of creative workshops offering you the chance to learn contemporary creative craft. Make your own festival hat, discover the art from recycling, build your own time machine and more.

With over 15 workshops to choose from there is bound to be something to inspire all ages. So come and join us if you want to have some fun using your imagination.

Willow Workshop

Willow Workshop

Come and get hands-on and make your own Willow Birdfeeders, Snails or even Dragonflies. Children (over 8) and adults can get to grips with natural and flexible Somerset Willow to weave their own creations. Workshops take between 20 to 40 minutes and are drop-in.

Willow Basketmakers have 20 years experience teaching willow workshops to adults and children. They have developed a range of easy beginners workshops that enable people to produce lovely results. You do not need any experience with willow to make something to take home.

Time Travelling Toby and the Apollo Moon Landing Workshop

Time Travelling Toby and the Apollo Moon Landing Workshop

In this action packed workshop journey back to 1969 and find yourself helping the Americans beat the Russians to the moon in an exciting adventure. Join childrens' author, Graham Jones for a reading from his latest book Time Travelling Toby and the Apollo Moon Landing, an exciting visual presentation and a building session where you will build your very own time machine.

This is an event not to be missed and whilst the books are targeted at 4-8 year olds the event is suitable for all ages. Graham is presently touring with his popular action packed workshops which are based around the historical events in his books.

Woolly Warriors

Woolly Warriors

Learn how to knit, crochet or make a Pom-Pom. All ages welcome from 0-99 years. From novices to experts, all are welcome to share and be involved in the art of knitting. We also make the legendary Pom-Poms which prove popular for all (they are quite addictive to make!) We provide an informal and friendly atmosphere to sit and knit.

The Woolly Warriors have a mission: to make the world a little shinier through the power of wool!

Mini Professors

Mini Professors—Science Demonstration and Hands-On Experiments

Throughout the day Mini Professors Cheltenham will provide exciting scientific demonstrations and there will be many opportunities for hands-on experiments and investigations—come and join the fun that science creates! Their motto is ‘science is all around us’ and provide structured, engaging and fun science lessons for 2-5 year olds in Cheltenham.

We invite you and your children to join us for some science fun. Come and explore electricity, watch an explosive chemical reaction and enjoy the wonderful scientific world of bubbles!

Stitchwood

Stitchwood

Want to learn to cross-stitch or pick it back up? We'll teach you this simple and rewarding skill which allows even the non-creative person to create. Something for all ages and levels will be available.

Stitchdotcom.com design contemporary cross-stitch kits and are keen to bring this traditional craft bang up to date and help the ‘pixelation generation’ discover how rewarding it can be to create something, even if you don't consider yourself to be creative.

Enamelling at Wychwood Festival

Enamelling

Design and make your own piece of jewellery using glass enamels kiln fired on copper. Then turn it into your choice of pendant, brooch, set of earrings or keyring. There will be a nominal charge to cover the cost of materials. Helen is a local artist who makes jewellery and runs workshops for community groups.

Samba Head Dresses

Samba Head Dresses

Lead by Corinne Hockley, create head dresses inspired by the Samba costumes of South America—lots of feathers and sparkle!

Giant Colouring In

Giant Colouring In

Join Helen Maynard Watts to take part in a huge colouring in project!

4 - 12 year olds
Join in with colouring an army of monsters, the scarier the better!
12 – 80 year olds
Use your best colouring in to complete a festival themed mural.
Wychwood Festival Painting workshops

Painting

Simply grab a brush and paint as the mood takes you, inspired by our resident artist.

Age Cymru Craft Workshop

Age Cymru Craft Workshop

This session offers you the opportunity to get creative and make a sensory textile ‘Hand in Pocket’ for someone with late stage dementia or experience creative activities you can do together. Age Cymru working with CARIAD and Dementia & Imagination will present a ‘Funshop’ that will involve practical craft making either in textiles or clay.

The workshop will be run by a team of creative practitioners and researchers working with older people and in particular people with dementia. They have expertise in a range of creative practices, including textiles and making with clay. Their vision is to inspire fun in the creative process whilst promoting an awareness of dementia in society.

Solar System Crafts with Salaric Arts

The solar system has been a source of wonder since humans first looked to the sky why not make your own cardboard planets, pompom comets and loo roll hubbles, adaptable for all skill levels.

Salaric Art and Craft have been providing workshops and tutorials in all things creative for over a decade, working with all skill levels and abilities. Sarah and Alaric, the core founders of Salaric, have backgrounds in both the sciences and the arts and have worked at merging old, ancient and traditional techniques with modern materials. As members of Cheltenham and Bristol Hackspaces and Community Workshops they pride themselves on sharing skills and know-how.

Steam Punk Crafts

Steam Punk has it’s roots in the alternative history and art noir/crime literary movement but soon leached into the real world with music and fashions—learn to make your own steam punk accessories using an array of materials including wire work, cogs, hats and more! Catering for all skill levels.

Giant Dragon with Spare Room Arts

Spare Room Arts present Giant Dragon workshops.

An interactive, creative workshop for the whole family to be involved in. The dragon will grow over the course of the weekend ready to come alive for the parade on Sunday! We will be decorating scales, painting his giant head and covering him in an awful lots of glitter and glue!

Space Shakers/Star Headdresses

In honour of Tim Peakes mission to the Moon we will make Space Shakers. Keep for the Festival Parade on Sunday and enjoy. We love to find fun easy things to make at Festivals. Come and visit us and show off your crafting skills. Bring the family and relax anyone can play and is welcome.

Astro Rockets

Blast off into space with these Astro Rockets. Fun and easy to make.

Screen Printed Shopper Bags and Posters

Come along and design and make your own stencil to screen print onto a fabric shopper bag. Using a scalpel or scissors you will cut your own stencil and then screen print it on to the shopper bag (a £1 charge covers the cost of the bag). Bags will then be dried and you can take your new bag away to use at the festival!

How cool is that!?

Batik

Try your hand at working in batik (a technique of wax-resist dyeing applied to cloth) to create a lovely design on fabric. You will be working on a piece of fabric to first of all draw your design out before applying the hot wax and then finally the fabric dye to create your design. When you've done all of that you will then iron out the wax to reveal your completed design!

Come along and have a go!

Family Board Games Demonstrations

With a Variety of family board and card games suitable for ages 5+, Esdevium games has been bringing people together for over 30 years with their games. Games are a great way of creating quality social environments, experiences and memories for the family and engaging with the isolated. Good board games should be a quality inclusive experience and everybody should be doing it!

Go

Go is over 3,000 years old. It was brought to the UK nearly 100 years ago from Japan. Go has very simple rules and concepts, but a complex strategy. You start with an empty board, alternately placing pieces which don't move (called stones) on it, trying to surround empty areas, whilst capturing your opponent's stones by surrounding them and taking them off the board. However, as with a lot of simple concepts, it can take a little while to grasp them and a long time to master them.

Masks

Harriet West will be running a creative session where you can create fabulous masks with recycled scrap materials; super hero, mythical creature, fairy ball? You decide!

Lanterns

Light up your camp by making sparking lanterns with a range of recycled media.

Card Making

Make use of some down time at the festival to design some cards for upcoming occasions.