Origami butterflies and mindful crafting in North Somerset
To coincide with this year’s World Mental Health Day, the Mindful Arts & Crafts group at North Somerset Wellbeing created beautiful origami butterflies to represent change, hope and positivity. Here Gemma Sparks, Wellbeing Service Tutor, a couple of volunteers and one of the participants talk through their experience.
North Somerset Wellbeing is our service for adults living in North Somerset (or registered with a GP in North Somerset) in need of mental health support and for their carers.
The team aims to help people develop skills to manage their own mental wellbeing and recovery journey by running group courses and activities using wellbeing college style techniques. We also follow psychoeducational principles which combine the elements of cognitive-behavior therapy, group therapy, and education.
Past workshops and activities include mosaic workshops, positive thought jars, scented fiddle bracelets and soap making.
“Our aim with our Mindful Arts & Crafts group is to teach people how to be mindful creatively,” explained Gemma. “If they’re feeling upset or distressed, these are the sorts of activities that they could go away and do in their own time. We thought creating these butterflies would be a nice, collaborative activity for people in Nailsea, Portishead and Weston super Mare who use our service. Over 25 people got involved, each contributing an origami butterfly, which we glued to a giant canvas that we’d painted. We’ve put this up in the office and we get lots of compliments on how lovely it looks.”
Volunteer Sally said: “I volunteer here because it helps people appreciate the joy of doing craft, which helps with their mental health. I was surprised that such simple direction produced such lovely effects with the butterfly canvas.”
Viv, another volunteer, added: “The wellbeing craft activities are a wonderful space to experience many different crafts. The benefits are personal: some enjoy having a go whilst others observe; some chat and others listen. Many leave the rooms looking brighter!”
Vicky who comes to the North Somerset sessions regularly said: “I really enjoyed making the butterfly art piece for Mental Health Awareness day. I have always really enjoyed joint art projects we can all contribute to and admire and reflect on our achievement. The butterflies are a beautiful representation of us taking flight as a group. With each other’s support and encouragement we can rise up from the problems and difficulties we face with our mental health battles and find our wings and fly.”
We love what everyone achieved at this workshop and can’t wait to see what comes next.
Interested in getting involved in one of our workshops? Take a look at North Somerset Wellbeing’s courses.
And f you’d like to get involved with volunteering at Second Step, we’d love to hear from you. Find out more.