Community Crafters is all about increasing happiness and reducing levels of isolation and loneliness through community-based crafting activities that encourage people of all ages to get creative together, whether at home, in groups or at specially organised events.

The photographs below provides a colourful and happy snapshot of its successes to date. Find out more on our Community Crafters Facebook group, contact Katy Pascoe at the ICA office on 01305 823789 (opening hours – 10am to 2pm, Monday to Friday), message us via Facebook or contact us here.

LATEST PROJECT

PORTLAND QUIRKIES – SPRING AND SUMMER 2026

We are very excited to launch our latest Community Crafters project, ‘Portland Quirkies,’ for which we’re asking local creatives to help us to bring children’s imaginary creatures to life in any medium you desire!

BACKGROUND

Portland Quirkies is an intergenerational, community art and environment project that combines our Community Crafters, Nature and Young People’s workstreams.

Over the last few years, ICA has been working with Portland’s children and young people, including Portland Youth Council, to create and deliver a range of nature-themed resources, activities and campaigns. These aim to help them understand more about Portland’s natural environment and how they can help to protect it.

This work has included workshops for 130 of Portland’s children (St. George’s Primary School) and young people (Portland Youth Council), in which they learned about evolution and climate change. Workshop hosts helped participants explore how these things have shaped, and will continue to shape, our island’s animals, plants and habitats.

The young people then worked with the ICA team and local artist Charlie Pascoe to create and describe their own imaginary creature – a ‘Portland Quirky’ – that could adapt to climate change and survive on Portland hundreds of years from now. 

THE CREATIVE BIT

We’re now asking for your help to bring these creatures to life as a range of unique handmade items, created in any medium you choose – from sculpture, painting, animation and crochet to felting, sewing, 3D printing, poetry or any other form that allows you to recreate and build upon the children’s imaginations.

Finished items need to be completed by Friday 19 June, so that we can arrange for them to be showcased alongside the original designs as part of a large-scale exhibition and nature-themed weekend on 17-19 July.

Following the exhibition, the Quirkies will be gifted to the children who designed them. 

It’s easy to get involved – just follow the instructions in the project guidelines pinned in the ‘Featured Box’ at the top of our Portland Quirkies Facebook page. This will explain more about the process, including how you can choose and adopt your Quirky. 

Makers can also pop into the ICA office in Easton Shopping Centre to look through our hard copies of Quirky designs and descriptions.

For more information about Portland Quirkies, please contact: katypascoe@islandcommunityaction.org.uk.

Here’s jost one example of what has been created to date.

PAST PROJECTS

WOOLLY WONDERLAND: YARN BOMB FESTIVAL – SUMMER 2025

Organised by Island Community Action (ICA), the Woolly Wonderland Community Yarn Bomb Festival saw over 1,500 people from across Portland, Weymouth and beyond create thousands of wool-based items to decorate Easton Gardens, Portland. 

The event, which attracted over 1,000 people its first two days, showcased knitted, crocheted, felted, sewn, wrapped, and tied decorations and community art pieces, including mermaids, a giant lighthouse, umbrellas, hot air balloons, hedgehogs, seascapes and tassels. The pieces were used to brighten trees, fence panels, gates, and benches throughout the gardens and play area.

Individuals, families, and community groups from across the area worked for months creating their pieces, from young children like Flo, aged three, who created tassels with her childminder, to those who are housebound due to age and frailty, like Joan, aged 97, knitting at home in front of her TV.

Thanks to a range of funding, including £615 from Portland and Weymouth’s Town of Culture Launchpad Grants programme, every child attending school on Portland was able to join in making pompoms, bunting, or other display items. This funding also helped 21 children and young people, aged from 7 to 14 years, to learn how to crochet and/or knit during a 12-week club run after school, delivered by a fabulous, skilled team of ICA volunteers.

A range of local groups have also contributed, including ICA’s Community Crafters, Hooked Crochet Club (for those in their 20-40s) and Memorability Club (for those with dementia and their carers), 1^st Portland Scouts, St. John Ambulance Badgers, St. George’s Primary School, Atlantic Academy’s SEN Club, Hedgehog Friendly Portland, The Open Arms Youth Club, Salon 88, The Sanctuary’s Wellbeing Group, Sewcial, Royal Manor Craft Workshops, the Woolnuts, and local Women’s Institute groups. 

TEDDIES FOR DORSET COUNTY HOSPITAL’S KINGFISHER WARD – CHRISTMAS 2024

WOOLLY WATERS SPRING AND SUMMER – 2024

This amazing Community Crafters public art installation was created by 54 crochet and knitting legends and a team of supporting ladies who collaboratively volunteered nearly 100 hours, over five weeks, to sew all the crafted items onto the fishing net backdrop.

The incredible response to our request for home-crafted sea creatures, pebbles, shells and seaweed blew us away. In total around 400 items were created and donated by local residents. The oldest contributor was 89yrs and the youngest 14yrs.

Thanks to all our fabulous volunteers, the team at Hall and Woodhouse Brewery who sponsored our Crafters project for 2024 and to Portland Town Council for supporting this project.

If you’d like to be more involved in looking after our blue planet, we’d recommend Weymouth & Portland Marine Litter Project CIC as a great place to start.

EASTER HUNT – 2024

1,366 individual items were distributed to over 500 children during ICA’s Easter Hunt, all thanks to the amazing generosity of our wonderful community, who donated their time, efforts, and gifts.

Special thanks to the fabulous young people from Portland Youth Council, who helped set up, take down, and distribute the Easter goodies; the equally fabulous ICA volunteers; and all those who made and/or donated prizes, from our talented Community Crafters, who made and donated 200 small knitted egg decorations (each containing a small egg), 78 large Easter toys (each with one or more smaller eggs), 200 individual cakes, 30 hot chocolates and 60 small Easter chocolates).

Separate fundraising by ICA enabled us to donate a further 80 large eggs, 250 small eggs and 90 mixed Easter treats and the National Lottery Community Fund funded 100 sunflower growing kits.

Here are a few shots of the event, including our Lucky Ducky star prize hamper winner.

CHRISTMAS COSIES – 2023

Autumn and winter saw our Community Crafters making Christmas Cosies (filled with chocolates) to raise funds for our Helping Hands initiative, which provides support services for our Island’s older and vulnerable residents.

OCTOPI AND BUTTERFLIES – 2023

During the summer our amazing Community Crafters created a range of amazing knitted and crochet items.

A kaleidoscope of butterfly brooches – Displayed in our window as part of b-side‘s Fringe Festival in September (before being sold off to raise funds for our Helping Hands initiative).

A consortium of Octopi – Showcased within Portland Marina‘s Plastic Shores display during their Portland Week celebrations 21-27 August (before being ‘gifted’ to the Island’s new babies).

And there’s more – We’ve even got people making hand puppets for a local primary school and a knitted digestive system for a blind student studying towards GCSEs.

Here are some of the wonderful items created…

CROWNS FOR THE CORONATION – 2023

We asked the community to create special crowns for Coronation and look what we got.

The winners for the fiercely contested categories were (in descending order, right to left):

• Under 10s: 1st – Dorothy, 2nd – Vinnie and 3rd – Eirlys
• 11-17yrs: 1st – Jack and 2nd – Elijah
• Adult: Tegan.

Thanks to our amazing sponsors:

• Under 10s and 11-17s – boatfolk at Portland Marina
• 18+ – Polly’s Petals.

WINTER WILD ‘N’ WOOLLY – 2022

ICA’s Christmas kicked off in style with the launch of its latest Community Crafters installation – Winter Wild ‘n’ Woolly.

Just over 40 local residents created the 800+ items included in the installation – from knitted tree squares and baubles to snowflakes, Santas and stockings. The finished effect is a fun and fabulous, festive display, guaranteed to warm your heart.

It’s a fantastic achievement by all involved – thank you!

If you would like to see the work face-to-face, just pop along to The Easton Shopping Centre next time you’re in the area.

If you’d like to be involved in our next project (which we’re planning will be even bigger and better), just drop your contact details into the office so we can tell you all about it.

SUMMER WILD ‘N’ WOOLLY – 2022

ICA’s summer project, created from hundreds of hand crafted plants and animals, aims to highlight nature’s beauty and encourage more people to care for and protect their local environment and biodiversity.

A of total 58 people contributed to the creation, the oldest being Joan Westman, aged 95yrs, and youngest Ruby Hope, aged just 8yrs.

Wild ‘n’ Woolly is also supporting a range of other local and international events, including:

• The Mason’s Marks, Dorset project being completed by Seb Brooke, Eden Portland
• The 2022 COP 15 Biodiversity Conference in Montreal Canada (December).

Here are just a few shots of the beautiful flora and fauna created.

SHOW US YOUR BAUBLES – CHRISTMAS 2021

100’s of Christmas Baubles created and hidden across Portland for others to find, including 10 very special baubles for which there was a prize.

Massive thanks to everyone that made and hid a bauble – you really helped a create a little bit of Christmas magic.

DECORATE YOUR DOORSTEPS – SUMMER 2021

Celebrating the easing of COVID-19 restrictions.

Project Manager Katy Pascoe explains, “We wanted to showcase our Island’s fantastic community spirit by covering Portland in colour in the lead up to the end of social contact restrictions. It was a time for celebration and gratitude, so we were looking for people to decorate their doorsteps with bunting, garlands and wreaths, or with anything else they fancied. The important thing was to come together and have a go!

 “We also asked residents to donate their creations to ICA, so we could offer them to local organisations and communal spaces after the project was finished. Now we have a fantastic community resource that can be loaned out to help brighten up local events and celebrations.”

EASTER EGGSTRAVAGANZA – EASTER 2021

ICA Project Manager, Katy Pascoe, said, “We were blown away by the response to the project. Yet again Portland has shown true community spirit, with residents coming together to share their time and skills to brighten up someone else’s day.

“What we particularly loved about this project was not only its ability to bring different generations together, but also the fact that it helped reduce levels of loneliness and boredom for many of those who participated. In fact our oldest knitter was 94.”

Jayne Cox, who kick-started the idea added, “I’ve been a member of a few knitting and crochet groups for a couple of years now and after falling ill last July I found knitting really helped strengthen my hands again. I also know, as an active member of the community, that helping others is a great incentive to get up, get moving and keep yourself active. I guess it felt like a natural progression to see if there was a way I could use knitting to help others on Portland.  I knew it was something the older generation enjoyed, but they haven’t always got family to knit for. So, I chatted to ICA about my idea and the project was created.”