A couple of things to update on this time.
First of all, our recruitment drive is well and truly kicking off - we're looking for young people (aged 16-25) who live in or around Langport and the surrounding area that are interested in gaining career skills and working to improve their local community. We're looking to increase the capacity of the core group of New Saints, so you would be required to attend fortnightly meetings (in the evening so they don't clash with school or work), and be able to give about 5hrs per fortnight of work towards the project. If this is you, (or your children, grandchildren, neighbour, etc. etc.), get in touch!
This is our poster for recruitment - spread, share, reblog, retweet please!
Second update: we had a great meeting earlier in the week with Somerset Art Works (SAW), who are our partner for the Hunky Punk Toy part of the project. The plan at the moment (though this is subject to change depending on the artist that we hire to lead it) is to create kits for everyone and anyone to make 'sock monster' versions of our Hunky Punks, as well as making a good few of our own. On top of this we hope to be running workshops in schools and for communities around Langport so that we can have a church full of Hunky Punk Toys for the launch event (full details of this are yet to be confirmed)
Whilst it is obvious that these sock monsters don't look too similar to our Hunky Punks (check out Walter for reference), there are (and can be) an awful lot of similarities. For example, all of our Hunky Punks are unique - we've got dragons, griffins, lions and other anonymous hellish creatures all looking different, either by design or by natural weathering, and each sock monster Hunky Punk that our project creates will be unique. When we're creating our kits for making your own toy, we can substitute ears for horns, and arms for wings, or you can make a cat-like one look even more lion-y! The possibilities are endless. Anyway, this is all at the planning stages, so I'm not allowed to get too excited as it all might change!
Third and final update: the build up for this one has been a long (long, long, long) time coming, but we finally have the first semblances of a New Saints website! At long last, that link on the right over there >>> will finally be live and send you to our brand spanking new website!
Here's a very tiny sneakpeek just for you lucky readers:
