Promotion for HandMade
HandMade
(2020)
Neco studio’s outreach and skill development project in the later half of 2020, named HandMade was an effort to engage with underrepresented artist primarily those identifying as neurodivergent, LGBT+ and disabled. The project involved the creation of safe and accessible spaces for artistic expression and skill sharing amongst the participants. After a lengthy lockdown, participants came together to engage and share skills such as handicrafts, bag making, painting, candle making and soap making to develop a special line of unique items that would be sold under the studio banner as a non-profit exercise. The artists were compensated on a 50:50 basis for each item sold.
Following 5 individual studio events, many stories shared and much creativity over the course of two months, a community of unique and talented individuals was built. Many of them continue to stay in touch with us and each other. As a studio, our participation as catalysts of this project was perhaps its greatest reward. Below you can find some items and testimony from the duration of this time.
Candle making
Diwali is the Indian festival of lights and as such we had a one off special day project aimed to teach candle making. The result was a mini-diva made in beeswax, scented and coloured with saffron.
Bag Making and painting
We created simple conference bags from jute and backing material available to us at the time and had many talented artists paint them - A display of colourful individuality.
Soap making
During our Covid action, we had created simple glycerine based soaps to distribute along side our fabric masks and now it was a great time to take it up a notch with three unique styles.
Small Crafts
An array of small craft products were always a cute way to bring people together. Some items such as small bags, hand bands and origami were ideal for gifting.
