Arts and crafts skills to blossom at QatArt summer workshops

Arts and crafts lovers and enthusiasts have something to look forward to during the summer months as QatArt Handmade Community prepared a series of workshops at the Katara Art Studios.

Even if many outdoor activities come to a grinding halt because of scorching temperatures, residents could still keep their creative minds going with origami and paper mache workshops to be conducted by the artists ‘Ooh’ and ‘Afsheen’.

“Some of our members are getting recognised by the management of Katara Art Studios and they have commissioned them to conduct regular workshops,” QatArt membership co-ordinator Leila Khaleeji told Gulf Times on the sidelines of QatArt’s 30th and last handmade market for the season held at Building 19 of Katara – the Cultural Village.Khaleeji said starting at 4pm today (April 8) at Katara Art Studios, Afsheen will conduct the ‘Origami Family Workshops’ where participants will learn how to create different types of animals through the ancient Japanese art of paper folding. On April 15, participants will learn how to create origami action toys.Colourful handmade items on display. Next month, Thai artist Sinchai Zonputh or ‘Ooh’ to his fellow QatArt colleagues, will conduct a workshop on paper mache. He is a painter and has mastered the craft of recycling discarded paper products.For the last market of the season, Khaleeji said many vendors offered special discounts as part of the ‘end-of-season sales’ and even awarded more than a dozen special giveaway items to visitors who purchased any of the products on offer. “Whoever buys a product is eligible to participate in a draw and they get a special prize,” she pointed out.Some of the products on sale include head and hair accessories, clay work with jewellery, colourful tutus, special cards, baby accessories such as crowns and room decorations, string art mostly of famous emblems and football team logos, postcards, watercolour paintings, kids toys, metal arts, and other handmade works.“I believe this is a successful culmination of the last handmade market before the onset of the summer months. At the same time, we are also making preparations for several activities during summer. At the moment we are in talks with Katara and waiting for their feedback,” said Khaleeji, who added that the next market resumes in October and will run until April 2018.She said QatArt had already sent a proposed concept and schedule for a variety of workshops, which would run from May, July, August, and September. “We are just awaiting feedback from Katara before everything would be finalised,” she said.