Ineffectual Retardant : Hop, Skip, Jump!

I was approached by Ultimate Holding Company to help with their current commission based in Tunbridge Wells "Hop Skip Jump"
Putlands Leisure centre in Tunbridge Wells will be the home of a new temporary sculptural installation made from recycled trainers, donated by the community. The sculpture will take the form of a chandelier-like hop plant, in reference to Kent's hop growing heritage.
Personal bests will be collected from the community via twitter, e-mail and postcard and these are to be displayed on LED message boards incorporated in the chandelier....

and that's where I come in.

I was asked provide a community engagement project to encourage the users of Putlands Leisure center and the local area. The brief was to create a kit based on the theme "Elevate Your Sole" with which the user could make a pair of wings that would lace onto their trainer.
Having brought me on board after seeing my cross stitch kits, the team thought it would be a nice idea to have sewing kit which would result in a kind of quilted fabric wing to lace onto the shoe. However, after putting together a prototype I expressed my concerns about the complexity of this kind of kit when used by children.
The kit needed to be as simple as possible to complete, with little or no cutting out.
After much stressing over how to make the design work, I settled on the idea of using craft foam and took it to the team who thought this was a good compromise. It also meant I could have the wing shapes laser cut so SAVED MY HANDS.
I was informed that we had ended up with 100+ sets of wings (we had estimated 80 pairs) and so, after designing the packaging and directions, I was tasked with putting the packs together.

LONG TIME TASK. - cut out paper insert, cut and fold instructions, add these and wings to pack, add sachet of glue, place sequins in a small bag before adding to pack, add selection of foam pieces, seal. REPEAT X 108

I am pretty pleased with how they've turned out though, I will bring news of the workshops when they have happened.