A workshop to create wall hangings out of simple and cheap materials brings out the artist in each schoolchild at the Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival
Sharjah, May 1, 2025
There is nothing as fulfilling as decorating your room with a personalised art piece, discovered by a group of schoolboys attending the Crafting Wall Hanging workshop at the 16th edition of the Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival (SCRF 2025).
With the help and guidance of workshop facilitator Sarah Mezher, the Grade 5 boys of a Sharjah school set about creating handmade wall hangings with ice lolly sticks, yarn, paint and beads. They experimented with colours as they decorated or wrote a message on each stick; some wrote the names of their favourite football teams, footballers or anime stars while others came up with motivational messages like “Come on, you can do it” “Be Positive” and “Fly far”. They used essential materials like pencils and sketch pens to add unique details like patterns and fringes for a one-of-a-kind piece of art. Once they had finished creating their panels, Sarah helped them with gluing the sticks in a neat pile on a yarn using a glue gun.
“The kids were given five sticks each and asked to draw a design or write a quote. We help them stick it to the rope and they can take it home and hang it on their wall. This workshop teaches them to create a simple decorative piece using everyday and recyclable materials. It is a good activity as every kid has his own idea – while one child made a panel on his family tree, another did one on his best friends, a third on quotes he loved. So that makes it a unique craft,” Sarah said.
Taking place from April 23 to May 4 at Expo Centre Sharjah, the 16th edition of SCRF promises an immersive experience under the theme “Dive into Books”. Organised by the Sharjah Book Authority (SBA), this year’s agenda features 133 guests from 70 countries, and 122 Arab and international publishing houses from 22 nations.
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