Hello there
As many of you are aware, in November this year we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of the the First World War (The Great War).
Our county church, St Mary's Warwick, has a history of involvement with the military and is home to the Royal Warwickshire Regimental Chapel and so they have organised a memorial exhibition of handmade poppies to be displayed throughout October and November.
These will be created and donated by the local community and beyond.
The aim is to display over 11,000 poppies to represent the number of men lost from the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. Each poppy will be unique just like the men who gave their lives.
I contacted the organisers to see if I could help in any way. They asked if I could work with the Warwickshire Young Carers to help them create their own poppies for this project. A big thank you to The Art Society - Leamington Spa, who covered the cost of materials.
We decided that creating larger poppies made from individual petals would allow the children to work on their own individual piece but when they then came together as a whole flower, they could see how working as a team created something bigger. This could then be reflected back on how the soldiers had worked together during the conflict.
For the petals we created a wire form using reclaimed wire, covered this in masking tape, then applied gauze from the local scrap store which had been coated in red Powertex.
A large bag of potpourri, that had been found in a local recycling centre, provided seed heads. These coated in black Powertex became the poppy centres.
beautiful, what a wonderful and poignant display.
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