Following 8 weeks of Story and Play sessions for under 5s at the Old School in Warrington, we have created a Parenting Playbook to support Parents and Carers with establishing play at home.
Thanks to funding from Cheshire Community Foundation, you can download your own copy to support play with the little ones in your life.
Combine all the dry ingredients and mix well
Add the food colouring to the water and then add the vegetable oil and water and food colouring to a large pan and mix together.
Add the dry ingredients and mix well
Cook over a low to medium heat until the dough starts to form and becomes dry.
Once all the dough has formed a ball, remove from heat and let cool.
Once cooled, knead the dough for 5 minutes to soften. If the dough is still sticky, put back in pan and heat for a few more minutes.
Wrap in clingfilm and store in air tight container and keep in fridge for 1 week.
Dilute the White Vinegar – 2 parts water to 1 part White Vinegar
In a Zip lock freezer bag, add a cup of rice, a tablespoon of diluted white vinegar and a few drops of food colouring.
Seal the bag shut, ensuring all air is out of the bag and spread the food colouring across the rice
Once throuroughly mixed, empty the bag onto a baking tray and leave to dry for a couple of hours.
Store in an air tight container for up to a year.
Want to download a free copy of our Parenting Playbook – A guide to support play at home? Follow this link
For Families who speak English as a Second Language who have been driven to Warrington by circumstance
At our Story Makers group we aim to support families who have arrived in Warrington through diverse circumstances by offering accessible, arts-based activities that encourage expression, community connection and celebrate our cultures, with support for ESOL learners.
Children, parents and grandparents are all welcome to come together to share stories, play and learn English.
Everyone’s story matters. Everyone is welcome.
Day & Time: Tuesdays 4.00-5.30, from 13th January 2026
Location: The Old School, Warrington, WA1 3AJ
Email: hello@storystitchers.co.uk to book your place or find out more
We have secured funding to run this group until June 2026. At the end of the project we may produce some kind of creative outcome like an exhibition or a book. This will be decided by the group in a process of co production.
No. You can join even if you only speak a little English. We help each other. We use pictures, words, and art to communicate.
Your family. All art materials are provided
It is free. These sessions are funded by The National Lottery Community Fund.
Tuesdays, 4 – 5.30pm, upstairs at The Old School, Warrington, WA1 3AJ
Flick Barry is a CELTA qualified ESOL teacher and has been a community artist for 20 years. She is experienced at storytelling work with all ages, including working with ESOL students and refugee families. She is British born and throughout her life is lucky to have worked and travelled around the world. Flick is supported by friendly staff and volunteers to ensure that your experience is a positive one.
Please send an email to hello@storystitchers.co.uk to sign up or find out more.
Please feel free to download and share our poster with anyone who you think might be interested in coming.
Fee: £50 per 90-minute session (+ 30 minutes setup/pack down)
Location: The Old School, Warrington
Discipline: Open to all art forms (Storytelling, visual arts, music, movement, writing, performance, etc.)
Commitment: Regular sessions over the project period (November to June)- afternoons, evening and weekends (schedule TBC)
Requirements: Public Liability Insurance, DBS Check, and two references
Deadline for applications: 5th November
Workshop Interview: 11th November, 1.30-4.30
We are looking for an Apprentice to support a creative community space in Warrington, engaging three community groups:
Building on the success of a pilot project with ND families, this new initiative funded by Lotteries Community Fund, will expand our Story Stitchers approach to foster confidence, creativity and connection through regular arts-based sessions.
Our listening-led, storytelling and co-creation method helps participants express themselves, share stories and build a sense of identity, belonging and wellbeing in a safe, inclusive environment. You can read more about what this looks like in practice here.
As an Apprentice Facilitator, you will work alongside an experienced lead artist to:
This is an opportunity for an emerging artist interested in developing community facilitation skills and working with diverse groups. You will gain hands-on experience in socially engaged practice and learn how to deliver inclusive, participant-led creative sessions.
We welcome applications from emerging artists working in any creative discipline who:
We are particularly keen to hear from artists who have cultural understanding relevant to the communities we are engaging with.
Date: 11th November
Time: 1.30-4.30
Location: The Old School, Warrington
We will host a workshop interview in the afternoon. In this workshop we will share more about the project and invite you to lead a 15 minute activity relevant to your creative discipline. Applicants will need to be available for the duration of the workshop and expected to join in the session.
Please email your application to hello@storystitchers.co.uk by 9am, 5th November including the following:
We look forward to hearing from you.
Like stories, beginnings are important. We are often asked
“How do we start a project? What approaches do we have? What attitudes do we foster?”
So this is how we unpack the beginning of things, how we establish relationships and cultivate joy and wonder.
If we support folk to discover joy and curiosity, they are more likely to connect with meaningful creative activity. The word glimmer entered our vocabulary from the trauma informed community. For those who don’t know, a glimmer is considered to be the opposite of a trigger. While a trigger may cause trauma, stress or anxiety to surface, a glimmer is considered to be micro moments that induce happiness. Once we become aware of those glimmers, we can start to build upon them and make more time in our life to do the things that generate those glimmers.
However, some of our participants are not ready for glimmer hunting. They are so bogged down in the stresses of life that even a glimmer is beyond them. So we will look for a Spark. If a glimmer is a micro moment, a Spark is a nano second. A flashing twinkle that may fizzle out before the participant has even recognised that jot of joy in their body. As facilitators, it is our job to seek the Spark in our participants and build upon it.
This is a very watchful practice. These Sparks might be a widening of the eyes, a satisfied sigh, a flicker of a smile or a leaning into the work. It cannot be achieved if we are too busy teaching a refined artistic skill or aiming for an explicit finished piece of work. In this stage this is how we establish a relationship, we want to connect to the human before we connect to the artist. This early stage of creative collaboration is built around accessibility and appropriateness for the participant. We call this Scrapbook Storytelling.
This could be a prompt sheet to encourage words or drawing their favourite things or telling us about their favourite character from a film, TV or book or collaging an object that they use everyday. From this moment we can really start to tailor the creative offer to match the common interests of the group. This is where the glimmers emerge and the participants begin to recognise the joy they are discovering in their creative practice. With our encouragement, we as a group start to seek the joy out.
This is done authentically. We, as artists, are also seeking joy. Instead of commenting on whether someone’s outcome is ‘Good ‘ or not, we give feedback on the approach: “I can see how you have made those dots using the pencil” or “You look happy. Is it the colours that you have used that are making you so happy?”
Once there is a collective feeling of joy seeking amongst the group, we are ready to access the next level of an artistic practice – Wondering. Wondering is our way of describing a creative curiosity that is born out of an artistic practice and exploration of an idea. It is not just about the participant wondering, it is also about the facilitator providing high quality artistic stimulus to provoke wonder. It often begins with a Wonder Box. A Wonder Box is a vessel filled with objects to provoke conversation. The box should reflect the conversations and interests that have been discovered in the previous sessions, curated to provoke a more in depth decision. This may evolve into something more specific like the inside of a carriage clock that houses clues to a secret character or a piece of audio that invites inspiration.
The Wondering stage is also there to encourage and cultivate creative skills. In this stage of the process the facilitator should begin sharing techniques to enhance the participant’s creative practice. In the previous stage, we may have used materials that are available at home – lots of recycled card, scrap paper, colouring pencils and pens. In the Wondering stage we will begin to elevate the materials on offer, Aqua markers instead of felt tips, Fineliners over pencils and introducing clay or acrylic paint pens. There is also some creative risk taking that comes with this practice. So we will scaffold this to reduce risk. If making a mark is too overwhelming for fear of getting it wrong, we will incorporate time and materials to practice.
As we work through the group’s Wondering era, the artist starts to see what the outcome could be. This is gently fed back to the group and feedback gathered about whether this idea is exciting to them as a collective.
We are thrilled to share news that we have received funding from Cheshire Community Foundation to pilot an 8 week project for families with children under five that puts imaginative play at its heart. Families will be invited to come along to our friendly sessions where we share stories, craft, sing and play. These sessions will take place at The Old School in Fairfield and Howley in Warrington.
The sessions will combine a more structured storytime session with a softer stay and play format and will be delivered by artists with experience as parents and working with Early Years families and settings. Every session will include open-ended play that sparks creativity, and storytelling that builds confidence and curiosity. We will provide a safe, welcoming space for all families.
There will be the opportunity for parents to play and craft themselves in a bite-sized way to give space for creative reflection. A no pressure activity that can be completed with a child on your knee.
At the end of the 8 week sessions we will take all that we have learnt and create a Parenting Playbook, this would be designed to embed play into the home. We will have digital copies and a limited number of printed copies that we will distribute locally through food banks and pantries.
If you would like to bring your family along or learn more about the sessions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Your voice reminds me That I do not know all things. Thank you for that gift.
The biggest gift we can give someone is recognition. We can thank them for their hard work, commend them for their talents, celebrate their victories. We can tell them that we can see their suffering, their challenges and their obstacles. Recognition can be eye contact, a hand on the arm, a laugh. It can be a pay rise, a gold medal or a qualification.
When I think of the stories I have heard or the books I have read, the tales that have truly resonated with me are the ones where I see something of myself. Mostly this recognition is there through a shared inner conflict but sometimes it is about circumstances. Some stories get under my skin and I carry them endlessly for days, weeks, months or even years. Other stories pass though my ears to my voice and I move onwards leaving that story behind.
When it comes to the books, I want to read a similar type. They tell tales of some far off, often imagined land or time, where characters contend with something other worldly. Everything about these books have been considered, scrutinised, maximised to telling the best story. These stories are everywhere, packaged for all ages and stages.
When I think of the stories that stay with me, they often came at a moment that I had no idea I was going to hear them. These stories are not ones I would pick up off a book shelf or are stories where I recognise myself. They are often tales of injustice. They catch at my heart, holding it still and squeezing it tight at the unfairness of a situation. These stories are told in ways that are unedited. The way they are told is not considered in the same way that the books above have been. They are told, because the person telling them wants recognition. Even though, I do not see myself in these stories, I see the person talking.
In the whispered worries of participants in community settings, underneath the ‘what if I am not good enough’, there is a thought that has come loose. Its untethered to what has gone before. Its raw an it speaks amongst the scrunched up paper in the bin. It says ‘No one wants to hear my story.’
I love books and could spend hour after hour reading. However I often wonder are we representing everyone or are we only representing some? If you feel like you don’t belong in a book, you probably think you don’t belong in a story. If you feel like you don’t have the circumstances to write a book, you probably feel like you don’t have anything interesting to say.
Not only does the story disappear from you lips but it disappears from the ears of the listener. Its gone to some far off corner of lost property and we all loose an opportunity to share an experience or a connection. Reflecting on the last few years, we have lost so much. So many chance encounters and moments shared with others. So many voices that have been behind closed doors.
So let’s open more doors. Let’s gather together. Let’s share our stories. Let’s Listen to each other and in doing so let’s raise each other higher.
The recent passing of Thicht Naht Hanh has been felt across the world by so many, including those who knew him as ‘Teacher’. Those who leave such a legacy also open a door to many with their passing. I have to admit to only recently looking more into his teachings and this week at Story Stitchers we have begun that journey by listening. Listening to podcasts and audiobooks, reading and sharing.
We believe that true, unconditional and active listening are in many ways as vital to our very survival and happiness as the air we breathe.
When you make the effort to listen and hear the other side of the story, your understanding increases and your hurt diminishes. – Thicht Naht Hanh
First impressions
As a child I was always taught the value of a smile, a firm handshake, looking people in the eye etc.
Recent years have challenged the importance, relevance and appropriateness of some of these ‘good first impression’ staples. The pandemic has made the handshake an endangered species and masks have converted the smile into sparkly eyes and waves.
The biggest thing I have taken from these shifts is that while still valuable, maybe first impressions shouldn’t carry the weight they sometimes do. Someone might be late because they are the most generous person in the room, not because they are unreliable or don’t care. Someone might have scruffy shoes because they spend their time thinking how to be better at their job, or how to be a better person, rather than worrying about their shoes. Maybe eye contact is a battle that this person just can’t take on, but they are actually very comfortable in themselves and therefore a huge asset to any team or room. If we take time to listen to them and the information they give us, then we have already moved past so many obstacles.
Listening to your own curiosity
Sometimes the person we find the hardest to listen to is ourselves, for example: the impact or effect of our presence, or when our presence isn’t there. The world can be a busy place where we may feel judged or under constant pressure to be useful. We need to be on time, we need to provide, we need to be organised, motivated and driven. We need to help out the team, be there for our partner and family, keep in touch with friends, do our bit for our community, country or planet. Then we hopefully reach somewhere near the end of our task list, we eat and stop, just in time to go to bed before it all carries on tomorrow. There are many who talk about the need to stop, switch off, take time and escape. With our work we find that we also need the space to listen and be listened to. This can be going along to a class or workshop and having some new people in your life asking you about you and then you listen to others and are genuinely curious to know more about them. Or maybe it’s at work with colleagues who are sharing an idea or information that takes you by surprise or reminds you there is plenty you don’t know about them. Listening is often talked about in situations of major conflict and violence or in politics. But there are so many of us who just don’t get to be around others in a space where everyone listens to each other. A chance to express ourselves, to share in similar or very different views. The chance to go back into the rest of our lives and take in more from it. To listen. To actively listen. It may begin with those closest to us and then we find we are curious about other fascinating and wonderful people that we come into contact with during our lives. As we learn more about them, we learn more about ourselves.
And the great thing about listening is that we can do it straight away, right now. It is also a tool that never runs out and has infinite uses and benefits.
Thank you for listening.
Tom
Story Stitchers
A big, big thank you! Over the last 6 months you have helped us build Stitch from an idea in our heads to something that we can all share in. From creative challenges, to audio tales and our first Story Circle, you have made this possible through generous donations via Ko-fi and participating in our work.
We continue to grow our story store and continue to add to our catalogue of stories. We have added the Tell Me A Story of...collection to our website. You can see this here
We have put together a mixture of events, creative challenges and workshops over the next few months. If you would like to sign up, please fill in the form at the bottom of this page.
Join Flick on a three part course exploring the story structure, character and setting through this practical course to kick start your writing. 8 spaces available
In this playful workshop, Flick will help you explore the potential of your voice to add colour and animation to your storytelling. 8 spaces available.
Explore the stories of the wild, from your own home! Come and join Tom as he guides you and your family through a nature based folktale. Bugs become beasts, bushes grow into jungles and puddles can be sailed for miles. You will then create your own characters, events and environments from the story. For families with children aged 4-8. Spaces for 6 families
Come gather round our virtual fire as we trade tales.
Want to share your story? We have space for up to 6 people to tell a 5 minute tale. Email us to book your slot.
Want to listen? Sit back and relax. Just let us know you want to come and join us.
Come and test your improvisation skills as we look at how Storytellers play and adapt to different styles, spaces and audiences. 8 spaces available.
We are really pleased to have launched our next creative challenge:
We will be curating an online gallery of all your amazing responses. If you would like to join in, please fill in the form below for the Brief Sheet.
Hey,
We are Tom and Flick. We are storytellers, writers and community artists with over a decade of experience in working creatively with schools, families, young people and older adults. We usually work in museums, art galleries, heritage sites and arts centres. Then Covid 19 hit and the UK went into lockdown, and all our usual storytelling venues shut up shop.
So we ate some chocolate, and we had a little panic and we scratched our heads and we may have cried and we told some stories and some people told us their stories and that is where we discovered Stitch. It had been there the whole time.
So we went about setting creative challenges and silly videos and creative writing prompts and we told people tales about two idiot story scientists and dandelions and woodlice and people told us stories about space and friendship and journeys and kindness and together we started creating a story store.
Together we took the stories we heard and we stitched them into a Patchwork, an Easter Sunday, and an Intergalactic Space Mission. And the best part is. We are not done. Because we all need to tell and hear stories. So the story store continues to expand, unravelling yarns and revealing thousands of opportunities for stories to be spun.
It looks fairly likely that we will not be able to walk back into our usual places to tell and listen for a while. We miss that so much. Amongst the debris of a crumbling arts sector, we are doing something so incredibly forward and un-british. We are asking you to buy us a coffee. We love coffee. By buying us a coffee you allow us to keep going. Keep helping people tell their stories and hear the stories of others.
Story Stitchers 