Exploring faith through creativity
Paper Sculpture
Music
Watercolour
Collage
Mandala
The word mandala is a Sanskrit term that means “circle” or “discoid object”. You can find more information by searching for ‘mandala’ on the internet.
Writing
9th January 2018
This text from John 10:11-18 inspired our morning.
New Year greetings were exchanged and we began our worship with singing, the reading from John 10 and prayers.
The Arts activities, which were focussed around shepherding and sheep, included a paper sculptured shepherd described as “David’s Challenge”. It needed plenty of concentration and agile fingers.
There was a music and contemplation session using a new instrument known as a “tongue drum”, played by Sue. It was later described as wonderful, great and calming.
At the watercolour activity there was some experimentation which turned into a sheep with stars in its eyes. There were drawings and paintings of hands “the protective hands of the shepherd round his flock”. Some amazing and colourful collage emerged of Jesus the shepherd.
There was also mindful colouring of mandala patterns and creative writing.
[Follow the links for examples and photographs.]
At our gathering after the prayer and before the delicious soup, a new member described his painting of hands “Behind my hand is the hand of God. He is behind everyone’s hand”. That was the perfect summing up for the morning.
Our next meeting is on February 13th. We hope you will come and join in the fun, engaging with others in a relaxed and peaceful atmosphere.
PS A few soup recipe books are still available, beautifully illustrated and a very reasonable £4 each.
For this month’s pictures, see the Gallery
For this month’s written word, see Creative Writing
To see and hear the music and contemplation session,
click here:- Percussion workshop
The festival is now closed.
It’s there in the Cathedral cloisters for all to see!
Everyone worked really hard at Kingdom Arts creating angels, origami stars and words from scripture in fabric telling the story of Jesus’ birth. We had to assemble it in situ last Friday (8th Dec) before the official opening. It took us nearly 2½ hours to do but we were very pleased with the result:-
Several members of the Team gathered with the Mayor for the switching on of the tree lights of over 80 trees as the choir sang carols and we drank mulled wine. What a wonderful way to celebrate the birth of Jesus in our midst this Christmas time.
There were, of course, other trees! DO GO AND SEE THEM. (Too late!)
Here are some photographs, but they are no substitute for the experience of walking round the cloisters and viewing the real thing.
A selection of the other trees:-
As the light fades, the scene changes, reminding us how important Light is in the darkness:-
12th December 2017
There were 27 intrepid enthusiasts who braved the wintry conditions to be part of our December celebration, our final session of the year.
We began with worship, reading John 8:12, singing hymns that reflected on light and learning a new hymn sung in parts, which was a most joyful sound followed by a time of thoughtful prayer.
There was thrilling news that our first Kingdom Arts Christmas tree, decorated by many handicrafts, was safely installed in the cloisters of Worcester Cathedral and can be visited until January 4th. (See the separate news report for more information and some pictures).
This month’s activities were designed around the theme of light.
A splendid collage was created, based on the famous 1854 William Holman Hunt painting “The Light of the World”. It is an original and beautiful interpretation.
There were stars created in cross stitch and highly technical 3D lanterns and more glorious bright gold or silver winged angels were crafted. The writing was based on the theme of light and emerged on blank jigsaw puzzles.
The morning ended with soup, spiced cauliflower or a new version of purple soup with cranberries for a taste of Christmas.
From all at Kingdom Arts we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year hoping to see you on Tuesday January 9th 2018
May God’s blessing be with you all.
See this month’s wonderful range of arts and crafts in the Gallery
It was a cold day.
Our booklet of soup recipes has already sold over 200 copies. If you would like a copy, you need to act quickly before they all sell out!
Collage
Stitching
Lanterns
A small flickering electronic nightlight placed inside the finished lanterns gave a very realistic effect – without the risk of fire!
Jigsaws
Spring is here
The rows are straight
The vines are pruned
All looks bare and lost
As we sometimes feel
But it is God’s given rest
His enriching soil surrounds us
Ready for that blessed new growth
We must twist and turn upward
Letting our leaves absorb His word
His love, His everlasting support
To grow His spiritual fruit
To share with friends, the world
May we ever grow
And quench our burning thirst
Helen
Father, may we glorify You through our obedience and trust in you.
Help us to follow your son wholeheartedly, abiding in His teachings and example.
Help us to cling onto your Word.
Direct our growth in the direction you choose
And remove everything that impedes our closeness to You.
Les
Display
Angels
Stars
Cards
Welcome to our first Kingdom Arts Soup Book.
The idea for a booklet came out of our monthly gatherings. Sharing a soup lunch together is an integral part of our morning. The booklet is available for £4 per copy, and all proceeds will go towards furthering the Kingdom Arts vision of Faith through Creativity.
Thank you to Karen and Sue for the beautiful illustrations, to Jan Kear for providing the recipes, to Mercedes Pearson for design and production and to the rest of the Kingdom Arts team for their encouragement and support for this venture.
Alex New.
14th November 2017
Continuing the theme of “I am”, we considered John 15 “I am the true vine.”
Activities linked to this were creative writing and making a booklet or card with interpretations of vines using printing, collage and other materials.
As an alternative there was much excitement in making decorations for the unique Christmas tree which will be part of the trees exhibition in the cloisters of Worcester Cathedral from December 8th.
There was true joy in abundance and much laughter constructing angels from lolly sticks, using a variety of fabric for the wings but the heads proved difficult to attach!
The fabulous 3D stars were carefully constructed and on completion the comment was “the tension was incredible.”
Candles were wrapped in paper and the entire tree will be a tribute to Christmas from the dedicated Kingdom Arts people.
We invite you to look at the photographs on our website.
Delicious soup was served, the spicy butternut squash in competition with carrot and orange. For those of you who would like to make some of these wonderful soups at home, you might like to purchase our new booklet containing 12 recipes for soups, £4 per copy.
Join us for our final session of 2017 on December 12th.
For this month’s pictures, see the Gallery
For this month’s written word, see Creative Writing
For a preview of the soup booklet, see Soup Booklet News
A group of beginners unleashed on a variety of drums of all shapes and sizes.
The video ‘Drums 2’ shows clearly it wasn’t just the drums that are all shapes and sizes. The rather splendid profile shown is my good self. Perhaps my wife’s criticisms of my fitness and diet are more justified than I thought! – Editor
Click on the links below to play the three very short videos.