Sometimes a lot of destruction has to happen before the
making can. Often this is overt and loud with hammers and other percussive
implements used to break furniture and other items donated to The Shop of
Possibilities. At times we’ve instigated an “ask before you smash” policy.
Wanting some items to have a little more of a second life within play, before
being reduced from objects into materials.
During one quiet and very wet session in The Shop, the
destructive journey from object to material happened at a slower and more
considered pace. Over the course of an hour, donated cardboard packaging was
torn up into little pieces by Uche and Desree and combined with rain water
breaching guttering above The Shop to make a sludgy liquid or paste. Both
children delighted in submerging their hands into the substance, describing it
as slime and even diarrhoea. Eventually after all of the cardboard packaging
had been transformed, Uche began to build a wall with the new material using it
as concrete before tidy up time.
-Jack James, Children & Families' Coordinator
