Taking inspiration from the tale of Cinderella who turned from a plain girl into a beautiful princess at the waving of a wand, a group of young girls turned a simple sketch of a girl given to them to beautiful fairies and ballerinas at the “Nature Puppets” workshop during the 43rd edition of the Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) happening at Expo Centre Sharjah.
Workshop facilitator Sara Mezher spread before the girls, aged 9 and above, delicate dried flowers and leaves, glitter, picture tapes, crayons, pencils, scissors and glue. She gave them a briefing first: “Create a beautiful dress for the girl in the sketch or turn her into a fairy with products from nature. Pluck or cut the flowers and leaves before you carefully as they are very delicate and can break. Also spread the glue on the paper and then stick the flowers or glitter on them. And remember to share the kit with each other.”
The girls got to work – some began by giving the girl a fluffy skirt made of flowers while a leaf took the shape of a blouse; a few decided to give the girl fairy wings and spread glitter on her wings; another kid gave her creation a pink dress that seemed right for a ball; and another little girl added the sky with blue glitter and the sun with one half of a dried yellow flower. All of them remembered to add a tiny flower on the hair of the girl in the sketch. In the end there were two sets of creations – dancers and fairies – from two different sketches given to them.
Mezher commented: “This workshop brings out their creativity and teaches them to use natural products to create art. If they have green leaves and flowers at home, they can put it in a book and have it dried and use it to make a nice piece of art.”
SIBF 2024, which will run until November 17, is presenting a comprehensive programme of 600 workshops for various age groups, including 465 sessions for adults and children and 135 for early childhood, covering heritage, media, entrepreneurship, technology, environment, arts, life skills, and creative writing.