When participants take their work home
A creative tote-bag workshop turned into something more — beneficiaries painting and dyeing their own designs, then walking out with bags that became gifts, statements, and small businesses.
The workshop
A creative workshop at Be Positive looked, at first, like many we’ve run before: a long table covered in cotton tote bags, paint, dye, and a few demonstration designs taped to the wall. Participants sat around it, choosing colours, sketching shapes.
What they made
A camel painted in three colours. A turtle in deep blue and gold. A pair of yellow fish. The Arabic word حب — love — stitched and painted onto a plain cream bag. A heart. A galaxy in red and indigo.
Each design carried something of the maker.
What it became
By the end of the session, participants were holding their work up to the camera, laughing. Some took the bags home as gifts. Others kept them — to use as their own. A few have since talked about turning the practice into something more: small-scale craft work as a step toward economic empowerment.
For us, the workshop was a reminder that creative work, made by people too often told they can only consume, is itself a form of advocacy. It says: we make things. We have something to offer. Come and see.
This is a draft post inspired by the photographed workshop. Confirm participant consent for individual mentions and replace generic descriptions with real names and details where appropriate.
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