Winter Garden Light - Workshop #2

Thank you to everybody that attended our first workshop last night (9th June) - we're off to a great start! Our second workshop will be next week and is for those that missed out on the first one and anybody that came to the first one and needs more help or would just like to continue working together. If you've mastered it you're very welcome to come along and help others.

Winter Garden Light is a project for the community by the community. The project will initially feed into two events; the Victory Matariki celebrations on 2nd July and a gathering at the Waimarama Community Gardens on the 4th July.

The project is about the power of community and the importance of bringing people together. It will also shine a light on just a few of the local community groups but in particular the Waimarama Community Gardens.

The project comprises a series of origami stars created from basic sonobes (modules), the building blocks of modular origami structures. When they are brought together, each star will communicate with other nearby stars and then through a series of LED lights they will come to life.

The workshop is led by Paul Lowry, a local expert in modular origami, a member of the Light Nelson Collective and Trustee of the Waimarama Community Gardens Trust. More workshops will be added depending on numbers. You will be taught the technique of folding the sonobes and using them to create the stars. No previous experience is necessary (either origami or electronics) but as numbers and components are very limited we do ask that if register that you commit to finishing a lantern (you can work individually but we recommend working as a group). You will require persistence and time (Paul can create one in about 2 hours but it is likely to be 2-3 times that if you haven't created one before, but you will have plenty of time before the events).

In July we will run workshops that will explain how to program the micro-controllers used in the lantern and how you can use it in your own projects in the future.

We suggest a minimum koha of $15 for each lantern to help cover the cost of materials (you will own the lantern, including the micro-controller, wiring and LEDs), but please donate what you can (obviously if you can donate more that would be great; it will help cover the cost for those that can't as well as any additional costs of the project). A small battery USB 'power bank' will be needed to power each lantern. If you don't have one we can provide one (either to purchased or loan). Please note that everybody working on this project is donating their time (and a lot of time has already gone into the project). We also couldn't do it without the support of Community Art Works, a local charity organisation who are hosting the workshops (a donation to CAW would therefore be very welcome).