Craftspace

Treasure Boxes was a year-long residency for very young children and their parents/carers from St Thomas Early Excellence Children’s Centre in Birmingham. Families worked with mixed media maker Ruth Spaak, potter Jon Williams and jeweller Rita Patel. Each maker created opportunities for parents and children to work together and introduced new materials, tools and processes.

Following the residency each maker was commissioned to create an object or objects for young children to explore. These objects along with 3 commissioned books form the Made for Play resource. This can be used as a catalyst for creative work with very young children and also to support training for staff and parents/carers.

The resource which was created during this project, 'Made For Play', can be used as a catalyst for creative work with very young children and also to support training for staff and parents/carers. We are currently exploring models for both of these groups and are keen to hear from anyone who could see an opportunity to use this resource in their workplace.