Friendship bracelet bar
Carla has made a friendship bracelet bar at the front of our shop which is one of the best inventions ever. Kids fight for a place at it.
And now, thanks to Heidi, Sofia and Alicia (tourists passing through El Paredon) we have learnt how to make 4 different styles of friendship bracelets that our young artists are mastering (and are already looking professional!)
The wrap bracelet
The olas (waves) bracelet
The plano (flat) bracelet
And, the most complicated, the flecha (arrow) bracelet
The kids are already much better at it than we are and are starting to teach each other, which is superb. They are addicted, asking for pita (thread) to take home every night to make more.
In the last 2 weeks, we’ve had our first four volunteers working with us in the workshop. Thanks to Mike, Sofia, Aisha and Cedic for stopping kids nailing into their hands, for your patience and laughter. Anyone else who wants to come and develop our artistic programme, teach our makers new techniques or work with us on our business or sales side, is very welcome. We will be launching our volunteer scheme shortly, so get in touch if you’re interested! Learn to surf in the mornings, work with us in the afternoons and watch the moon on the canal or sit by a fire in the evenings!
Last weekend we recruited some young salespeople from our team and went around the hotels in El Paredon selling our work.
We sold 30 items and made over 400Q!
This gave everyone a big boost.
We learnt a lot from this weekend – mainly to train the kids in selling the products, not take so many people and not to sell when it is the European Cup final!
The Mayor caught us on our way back and he seemed pleased with what we’ve achieved so far. This is him with our young artists:
The energy and enthusiasm of the kids, and a few adults too, drives us forward when we start questioning things. At the moment we are just doing it, going with it, and seeing what emerges, without worrying too much about the future. All we know is that there is a hunger for this project and it is fulfilling a real need. And that is a good recipe…