SERIAL CULTURE ISSUE NINE

SEPTEMBER 2022

Exploring the lives and art of young people in Halton

MARKETFEST / PRIDE / ANIMAL TEACH / GLOWETRY THE WORLD REIMAGINED / BUTTERFLY HOUSE

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ISSUE NINE

Meet the team

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COVER ART

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OWEN - FIVE INDIE GAMES

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ART BY LEE

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GLOWETRY

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BEN DRAYCOTT

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HALTON PRIDE

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ANIMAL TEACH

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LIVERPOOL PRIDE

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ART BY LEE

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QUEER LIT

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MARKETFEST

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SCORES FROM THE SCREEN

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HUNTER

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THE WORLD REIMAGINED

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LARRISSA BURTON

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BUTTERFLY HOUSE

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GET INVOLVED

Editorial Advisory Team Editorial Team Facilitator - Meg DeMar Designer - Greg Oldfield The Studio Project Manager - Louise Nulty

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COVER ART

ELI Name: Eli/BunniiRot Where are you based?: Mainly in widnes How long have you been creating art? For as long as I can remember i’ve been creating, but i started taking it seriously when i was about 10 or so.

How did you first get into it? I originally started out (badly) drawing anime characters, and I really enjoyed it. So from there, I decided that I wanted to do something more, so I started to learn the basics and some techniques and went from there.

What training do you have? I don’t really have any formal training.

Everything I know, I either taught myself or somehow figured out by just doing what works for me.

What media/software do you use? If i’m doing a traditional piece, i tend to use a mixed media sketchbook, and a 0.3 mechanical pencil. And with digital art, I use Procreate on a 2018 Ipad, and my fingers.

What is the inspiration for these pieces? I take a lot of inspiration from pop culture, video games, mythology, books and alternative fashion, though I’d say, my main inspiration is songs. Sometimes a lyric will just pop into my head and I immediately have a concept for a piece.

What are the aims for your art? Honestly for me, its just to have fun, and one day start an art based career Where can people find you on Social Media? @_bunniirot_ on instagram @BunniiRott on Refsheet.net And hopefully on etsy soon under BunniiRot

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This time, I’ll be looking at five indie games that you should check out.

7 BILLION HUMANS

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by Owen Johnson

“A Quirky but innovative sequel to Tomorrow Corporation’s Human Resource Machine, 7 Billion Humans has even more brain busting challenges than its predecessor had!

Filled with over 60 assignments and a total of 4 cutscenes, you’ll be taught everything you need to know about Multithreading Programming”

You can buy 7 Billion Humans on Steam, GOG.com, The Epic Games Store, Humble Bundle, Nintendo eShop, App Store, Google Play, and Tomorrow Corporation’s Website

4 The Game is about Captain Thomas Welmu, a Spacefleet science officer, lost on the other side of the galaxy. Dark forces are en route to Earth to destroy our planet – and you are carrying the only thing that can stop them.

Some great humour to it and a positive reaction by the critics with it being received with Very and Mostly Positive Reviews on Steam You can buy The Captain on Steam, GOG.com, Sysiac Games’s Website, and the Epic Games Store

THE CAPTAIN

A Space Adventure Game created by Swedish indie studio, Sysiac Games and published by Little Inferno’s Creators; Tomorrow Corporation

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GLADIATOR GUILD MANAGER

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A turn based battle game from Entertainment Forge that is now in Early Access since October 2021 and has been updated on a regular basis since then. Strategic battle sim in which you buy and train all kinds of gladiators.

Expand your guild, build unique teams, plan out fight tactics, and see how far you can take them through the championships. Form allegiances through quests and events while exploring and influencing this epic fantasy world.

You can buy Gladiator Guild Manager on Steam and on the Humble Bundle Store and you can get the free prologue demo if you want to try it out, which you can download it from Steam

This game is quite fun to learn Assembly Language in Programming and is a must buy from the programming nerds! From the creators of Little Inferno, World of Goo, and 7 Billion Humans Program little office workers to solve puzzles. Be a good employee! The machines are coming… for your job.

Human Resource Machine is a puzzle game for nerds. In each level, your boss gives you a job. Automate it by programming your little office worker. If you succeed, you’ll be promoted up to the next level for another year of work in the vast office building.

Congratulations!

Don’t worry if you’ve never programmed before – programming is just puzzle solving.

If you strip away all the 1’s and 0’s and scary squiggly brackets, programming is actually really simple, logical, beautiful, and something that anyone can understand and have fun with! Are you already an expert?

There will be extra challenges for you.

And remember Human Workers….

Management are watching….

Human Resource Machine

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NIGHT IN THE WOODS

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A great game for an indie studio filled with dark themes, personal lives, and anthropomorphic animals.

College dropout Mae Borowski returns home to the crumbling former mining town of Possum Springs seeking to resume her aimless former life and reconnect with the friends she left behind. But things aren’t the same. Home seems different now and her friends have grown and changed.

Leaves are falling and the wind is growing colder. Strange things are happening as the light fades.

And there’s something in the woods.

You can buy Night in the Woods on Steam, Nintendo eShop, App Store, Xbox Store, Epic Games Store, PlayStation Store, Humble Bundle, and GOG.com Well, that’s 5 games that I’ve recommended to you. I may consider writing up a second one if I have the time, but have fun playing these wonderful great games! -Owen

ARTBYLEE

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Here is a very powerful poem that we wanted to share, from one of the young people involved in The Studio’s Amplify project. Ben shared this poem at the Lovely Word Open Mic, held at The Studio.

Face to face With the beast lurks Screams they scratch And they god damn hurt This man that stares at me As I'm trapped in a cage This man is laughing Am I insane Now I've been sectioned By man in a suit Says that I'm unstable How cute As I hit the walls Charge at bolted doors Scream and shouting let me out And the doctors ignores Trapped in a room With people staring at me I can see them smiling As they watch me bleed And I was forced To let my demons in So next time I see you You'll be the ones screaming -Ben Draycott

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ANIMAL TEACH

We had the pleasure of interviewing Naomi Ennis, the person behind Animal Teach an exciting, educational workshop provider based in Runcorn. We managed to grab her for a quick chat between all the workshops she was doing and ask he about her animal journey.

Serial Culture: Where did your love of animals start?

names,then the snails become a squirrel. My love of animals then went to feeding the squirrels in the garden and then dropping my mum off for work and seeing the Heron on the fields in the same place. So yeah, from a very young age, I just found them incredibly fascinating. That's probably where it started. The animal keeper inside.

Naomi: I remember being about six years old, when my mum asked me to stop feeding the snails in the garden. I wasn't allowed any animals, so I used to take out lettuce to the garden and collect snails and they had

Serial Culture: Have you ever seen any foxes out in public? If so do you ever feed them?

Naomi: I have. So I went to London quite a while ago, and there was a fox sat next to a taxi, which was really weird. So that was odd. But I do get them every now and again in front of my house. At a similar time, 3am or 4am, which I'm normally awake because one of the kids will be so yeah, that's quite nice to see.

I don't feed (foxes) at the minute. I don't put any food out on the front. I'm not sure the neighbours would agree.

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Serial Culture: You have enough animals to feed as it is.

Naomi: Yeah, I have a lot of animals. So I'm probably on 35+ plus different species.

Serial Culture: What is your dream animal to add to your collection?

Naomi: I would love a Komodo dragon. But that's not viable. I find it so hard to have any favourite animal and I will say it's a chameleon.

Like it's on my logo and and everything. I find them weird and wonderful and unique and that's how I often describe myself because I'm not a typical person by any means. But yeah, Komodo dragon. Oh my goodness, marine iguanas; it is just all the animals that you can keep in the house. So I probably need to open a zoo.

Serial Culture: What was the first real animal that you kept and didn't just feed in the garden?

Naomi: I was 16 when I started doing animal care at college. I had a placement at a pet shop and quite often animals were not wanted and so of course I give me Mum and Dad a sob story of a bearded dragon with a missing foot and metabolic bone disease. It needed a nice home and I was somebody's home that it needed. They said if I pay towards electric ‘okay’, so I did.

It had gorgeous orange bands on the face and lived with me for about four or five years. I was told it would last a night. Then one (animal) became thirty, my

mum and dad used to ask me what I was carrying upstairs. So yeah, I had the bearded dragon, Yemen chameleon Berber skinks, Leopard gecko, Crested gecko, and one which is still with me. Gecks the Crested gecko.

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Serial Culture: You seem to have had a lot of Geckos!

Naomi: Geckos are really, really nice. They come in lots of different colours. There's many different species from around the world.

There's always something striking about each different species.

Cresty’s are also known as the eyelash geckos. (They’ve) got these beautiful crests and eyelashes on the eyes, for leopard gecko it’s got to be their eyes. They have a beautiful body, you can get them in different colours for their eyes.

Gargoyles are beautiful for their coloration. So very mottled very leathery and they camouflage so so well. Yeah, so there's just something fascinating about each of them.

Serial Culture: I guess a good one to ask really is how has the temperature (heatwave) affected them?

Naomi: Yes! Everything I've got has its own thermostat, so everything is tailored towards species specific needs and seasonality. However, the current heat wave which I've hated with a passion has meant that I've turned every light to UV source and heat source off. They come from very warm areas but equally when you put them into a micro habitat that really condenses down their environment, so everything got switched off, waters were

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increased and then I’ve been monitoring them closely. Yeah, so it's it's not been pleasant.

Serial Culture: Why did you start animal teach?

Naomi: A few different reasons. So I have studied animals since college.

All of my qualifications are based in it, I was a zookeeper at Knowsley Safari and I was teaching at Myerscough college, and then Covid hit, which made me reevaluate a lot of things being based at home. At that point, I had my eldest, and then my youngest came along, and we had a few little health issues with her, so I looked at everything as a whole picture. Me as a mum with two young children wasn't the work life balance that I could envision for the family. I said to John (husband), I'm gonna quit my job and I'm going to set up a business and he just looked, he's like, what are you're gonna do with that?I was like, we are going to have a zoo. He's very used to me being quite spontaneous, but in my head, I could see that. Everything I'd worked and studied for I did not want to lose, I put so much effort into looking after animals and caring for them, that I didn't want to lose that. My brain loves animals and that's what it's geared towards.

So I wanted a business that works with animals and I also love teaching people.

So Animal Teach. I can still be me and not worry about getting home and marking lots of work or following up things. It was all based on me and my timescales but equally I can still be a mom. Oh, it's so rewarding. Yeah, so the biggest thing was the family and not losing sight of who I was as a person.

Serial Culture: What animals did you look after at Knowsley?

Naomi: So I worked with everything from cockroaches to elephants.

I was a walker and keeper, my speciality at that time covered the elephants section, mammals and reptiles. In the same day, I could be working with elephants, giraffes, tapirs, meerkats, capybara. Red River hogs, moose. But my biggest speciality was the bug house. I was like, these animals are so cool, but can I go back to the cockroaches and the crocodile.

If you would like to find out more about Naomi and all her unusual animal friends you can find her at https://www.animalteach.co.uk/

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ARTBYLEE

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All That’s Left In The World

by Erik J. Brown This post-apocalyptic dystopian features a beautiful queer romance as two of the last people left alive find each other and make their way through a world that has been torn apart right before their eyes.

Follow the lovable protagonists, Jamie and Andrew, on their journey through this strange new world.

By Oskar My Rating Age Rating - 13+

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We went along to Widnes Market for Marketfest; a day of music, stalls, circus tricks and more, held by the Market and The Studio. Host Nana Funk kept everybody entertained with her silly songs, and there was music from seasoned artists to newbies, like the young people who have been taking part in Amplify; a youth music project held at The Studio. We had two very important questions to put to all the young music lovers who stopped by to say hi on the day…

WHAT ARE YOUR TOP THREE TRACKS OF ALL TIME? 1. Stacy’s Mom- Fountains of Wayne 2. Addicted - Jorja Smith 3. If You’re Over Me - Years & Years

1. Honey - Halsey 2. Love me or Leave Me - Little Mix 3. Picking up the Pieces - Paloma Faith

1. Take me to Church - Hozier 2. Hey Soul Sister - Train 3. Starboy - The Weeknd

1. Nothing Else Matters-Metallica 2. When the Sun Goes Down-Arctic Monkey 3. Stop Crying Your Heart Out-Oasis

1. Cane Shuga-Glass Animals 2. Devil-Shinedown 3. Engravings- Ethan Bortnick

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1. Wall of Glass - Liam Gallagher 2. In the End - Linkin Park 3. Got the Life - Korn

1. So What - Loona 2. No Time to Die - Billie Eilish 3. Likey - Twice

1. Mercy - Shawn Mendes 2. Hello My Love - Westlife 3. Hall of Fame - The Script

WHY DO YOU LOVE MUSIC? ●

It offers a retreat from the world and all its problems and dark times.

It also makes me happy :)

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Because music makes me happy

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I love music because of the vibe it gives you

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Because it makes me and others express ourselves and feelings

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I love music because i love learning and listening to new notes everyday

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I love music because it is a good way to relax or express your feelings.

My favourite artist is Eminem.

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I feel more alive when I listen to music

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Because it’s loud and makes me happy

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I enjoy listening to it no matter my mood

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I like listening to it because it makes me no longer bored

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'Stranger Things' Soundtrack Analysis If we were talking about the music from Stranger Things, what would you think of? Probably something along the lines of 'Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)' by Kate Bush or 'Should I Stay or Should I Go' by The Clash - and understandably so. However, there is much more to the epic soundtrack than just 80s classics.

The instrumental soundtrack (by Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein of the electronic band 'Survive') is characterised by the extensive use of synthesisers and electronic beats which are reminiscent of the 80s works of John Carpenter, Vangelis, and Tangerine Dream. These help to give the soundtrack the nostalgic feel that enhances the show's 80s vibe. Additionally, the theme for the Upside Down includes microtones (fine-tuned notes that are between the keys of a piano) to make the music sound unsettling, as they can sound 'off-key' and are uncommon in Western music, so may sound unfamiliar to the audience. These micro-tones are possible due to the use of an analogue step sequencer.

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In the September of 2017, Dixon and Stein won the Emmy Award of 'Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music' for their work on the Stranger Things theme. This memorable piece consists of a main sequence, a bass line, and a 'heartbeat' sound, played on vintage synthesisers such as a Roland SH-2.

Lastly, if there weren't enough reasons to love this soundtrack already, just take a look at the track names the 'Stranger Things 4 (Original Score From The Netflix Series)' album. It includes 80 tracks in total with quirky names such as 'Hiiiiiiiii', 'ELVIS CLONED BY ALIENS' and '[delicate, intense music playing...]'.

My Top 3 From The Soundtrack: 1) Soldiers 2) The Upside Down 3) In the closet (at Rink O Mania)

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Hunter

By Kirby Brown (TW derealisation) I have been sat at this bus stop for 2 hours now. I’m not going anywhere, I just like to watch the little people sitting down, getting up again, getting on buses. These people will never see me again, and I find that comforting. Some people think I’m creepy, but I don’t care, because I am so much bigger than them.

15th January 2006 Today, there were 17 people at the bus stop in total, 5am till 4pm. The most interesting person there was a pregnant woman who started crying, really, really loudly. I don’t know why... I wanted to ask but I was worried that she would think I was offering support. I was honestly disturbed by this, the appeal of all these ‘little people’ is that they are just that: little, you don’t have to worry about their personal lives because they’re all objectively unimportant, but every now and then a crying woman or a shouting man or whoever will change that; they’ll stray from the pattern. I also saw some guy shooting her a dirty look. That’s one thing I don’t understand about people, all their expectations. They don’t see that they’re all the same, they just see the woman’s tears before them and their comfy little apartment in their head. It makes me cringe to see them doing things like this ... but I can’t stop them because if they stopped then I wouldn’t want to watch them, they wouldn’t be any fun. The bus stop would be rendered useless and I would have to go back to my apartment.

My apartment with the mould behind the sink.

16th January 2006 Today there were 29 people at the bus stop, because I stayed a bit later than usual to make up for the time lost in the morning. I was running errands for the landlady, Mallory. Her husband died a few years ago and now she’s an artist, a landlady and apparently some younger lady’s sugar mommy. I don’t believe in landladies or lords but she’s not like the others; always talking about music festivals, and her life in the 70s, and her paintings and (occasionally, if you’re lucky) the spiritual benefits of acid. She needed for me to drop off money at this old hippie-looking guy’s house. I never asked what the money was for, I assumed it was for drugs or something but I didn’t dare ask. You never ask about a cool person’s business, if you see the underbelly, the dark alley behind the pristine chalky white houses, it’s not something you can come back from… although, I guess, for Mallory they’d be more of a dirty mustard colour, rather than white, the kind of colour you find under wallpaper when the previous tenant was a heavy smoker.

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When I was on the way there some lady tried to hit on me. She looked about Mallory’s age but she wasn’t as cool, she was wearing an ugly tracksuit and she had these really long fake lashes on that she kept fluttering at me. She’s the kind of person who only has the alleyways, there’s no buildings, nothing to cover it up.

17th January 2006 I didn’t count the people at the stop today, I forgot. I like things like this, because if there was no one there to receive that information, then did it even exist in the first place? It’s like that thing about a tree falling in the woods with no one there to hear it. I wasn’t all too bothered about the little people today, because I found another thing I’m interested in. ‘Come Here Get Away From Me’ by Ezra Furman. It’s a great song, but the song itself wasn’t what interested me, it was a lyric. It talked about being in a car, parked in a field with your friend who is asleep while a man on a motorcycle circles around, and when the sun comes up you tell your friend about the man, you aren’t too sure if he was ever really there. I love this lyric. I love it in a way that I can’t express through any medium I know of, not through art or through writing or talking. It describes my helplessness and my frustration with such accuracy, that it shines like a little lantern in my faded-storefront-grey life. The only way I can hope to express the same energy is through continuing to exist.

Later that night, after I’d heard the song I was wondering more about why that lyric struck such a chord with me. I must’ve carried on thinking about it well into being half asleep, because when I woke up I found this scribbled down on a notepad by my bed: I watch the little people living their lives and I am painfully aware of my constant unsureness of where my life is going and if any of it is even real. I waste my time distressing over issues in my life; the mould behind the sink, being mistaken for a girl by the man at the corner shop, getting the flu every year without fail... watching the man on the motorcycle circle around me. Then I invest in the little people once and I realise how many people just like them there are in the world and that my issues are relatively non-existent. It makes me feel stagnant, like porridge when you cook it too long and the top layer congeals.

I don’t know what it means. I honestly don’t think I’m supposed to.

18th January 2006 I saw the pregnant lady today. She was no longer pregnant. When I saw her she looked different, grey and not totally alive. I am not scared of death, I am not scared of physical pain... but mental anguish terrifies me, and I have never seen another person with that amount of psychological pain radiating from them. But at the same time, she looked calmer than me, like she was at the eye of the storm and I was the one with my roof being blown off. I wondered how long it would take for her to just blow away in her own storm.

I went home afterwards and I’m writing this on my kitchen floor while the couple next door shout at each other, they do this often and this time it’s about the wife accusing him of cheating when he’s still throwing a tantrum about her not wanting kids. I wonder if they are

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actually as little as I thought, they're so loud that I can’t help but give them the attention I’d give someone on my level. ‘My level’ Me genuinely believing that I’m on a different level to everyone else is probably an issue, but if the little people stay in their own world then I don’t have to worry about them noticing. That, of course comes at a cost: I can have no one else see how close-minded I am at the expense of constantly being suffocated in my own head, devoid of any real interaction, lying in my bed zooming into my own brain until I can’t look anymore. Until I’m disgusted. I tried to take a nap when the neighbours stopped shouting for a while, but I kept thinking about the pregnant lady. I don’t intend to sleep at all tonight.

19th January 2006 I didn’t go to the bus stop today, nor did I sleep. Staying up all night is weird, because you feel great until the afternoon hits you like a train and you don’t feel entirely awake or even alive. It’s like some sort of timeless, derealised hangover. I’ve been thinking about the night a lot lately, the day is dissected and arranged based on time and, to be fair, so is the nighttime… but when the sky doesn't change for 5 hours, and most people don’t even move in that time, it feels like its own world. But, it also scares me, because when we’re all asleep, all vulnerable, it makes me feel as if I’m just like everyone else, like I’m one of them. That scares me in a way that is more fascinating than anything that can happen during the day.

I didn’t think about the bus stop in the night, I couldn’t. Yes, it’s embarrassing that a stranger put me off doing what I love most, but it’s a good opportunity for me. If I am in a different environment then I can have a clearer view of past events that took place because I’m not at the place where they all occurred. To quote Mallory: “You only realise how gross lying in a puddle is when you stand up and realise it was a puddle of piss.”

I was originally just going to write about the bus stop and metaphors about piss, but I realised that I haven’t really written about what happened before my bus stop obsession. I feel bad for organising my experiences like this, but I only have so much ink left in my pen… I eventually decided on 3 memories. {Memory 1: the fight} 2 years and 15 days ago, I saw a fight across the street between 2 people. I did some research; mainly through awkwardly acquiring gossip and reading local news articles, and I know that their names were Robert Truham and Adam Taylor. I saw them fighting at exactly 11:00 at night, I remember that Robert threw the first punch, despite what people said. I eventually got bored and went home to bed, and when I woke up I found out that Robert had been killed as a result of that fight escalating. It was a really strange feeling... watching them fight was like watching a movie; it scares you but you know it isn’t real. I started going home earlier after that. {Memory 2: Mum} last April, Mum called. I usually return her calls because she’s a very nice woman, despite her emotional instability. I didn’t pick up the phone, but when I finally did I snapped at her because of how much she was calling, I apologised right after but I didn’t really forgive myself. Mum and Dad got divorced when I was 13 and she’s never had another boyfriend apart from that guy who tried to steal from her back in ‘99. Because of this, she always calls so that she can feel a little less lonely. She pretends that I’m not doing well on

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my own so that she can lie about not being dependent on her own son, and I think she’s started to believe it. She says that she worries about me, and I’m sure she does, but I know that isn’t why she calls. {Memory 3: Geneva} Back in 1994, when I was about 12, I met this girl named Geneva. She was probably the reason I realised who was a little person and who wasn’t. I remember one day we were doing a scavenger hunt on the last day of school, and we were put into groups of three. The third girl went to the bathroom and me and Geneva just sat there. We just sat there because we felt safe around one another, she radiated an energy of love and safety I’d never seen in anyone else, she was perfect. While we were waiting for the other girl to come back from the bathroom she turned to me “Hey. Have you ever ran away from home?” I shook my head “I’m gonna run away, you know,” She looked away “No, I didn’t know that…” She reached into her pocket and gave me a bracelet.

“Okay. Look, I don’t know you, but you seem nice. You can never tell anyone what happened here.” And then she just… ran off. She ran past the trees and jumped the fence, and that was it. It doesn’t sound as amazing in writing, but that's usually how these things go. The simplest things are the most memorable. We weren’t allowed to talk about it at school, the teachers needed to do what they did best; force what they wanted instead of using trust and respect.

We only got asked a few questions, we were kids after all. They never found her.

To read the rest of the story go to https://issuu.com/youthzine2021

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THE WORLD REIMAGINED SEES TRAILS OF OVER 100 LARGE GLOBE STRUCTURES IN SEVEN CITIES ACROSS THE UK FROM 13 AUGUST – 31 OCTOBER 2022 INCLUDING THE LIVERPOOL CITY REGION.

The sculptures have been created by artists to bring to life the reality and impact of the Transatlantic Trade and invite the public to engage with the dialogue and actions of making racial justice a reality.

The Serial Culture editorial team worked with their facilitator who also happens to be an artist, Meg DeMar to create one of the Learning Globes.

We met with Karen Gallagher and Maleka Egeonu-Ruby from The World Reimagined project, to explore our understanding of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and set us in motion for creating a globe design.

The final result is on display at St Maries Church in Widnes (Heritage HQ) until the end of October and will eventually return to The Studio Widnes.

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Artist Meg DeMar said: “The project was a fun collaboration with contributions from not only Serial Culture, but the Glow group, Studio Associates, artist Rachel Prime and even Olivia who had come in to do work experience, but just so happened to be a fab artist.

Our Globe is an insight in to Halton’s historical links with the Slave Trade, looking at the supply of soap to clean the cotton that slaves picked and an attempt of evading a Civil War blockade that went very wrong. We all discovered something new about Halton’s heritage and it was great to be involved in a countrywide project to be part of the difficult conversation around racial injustice in Britain. It was also a chance to be inspired by and celebrate the music, poetry and art that has come from it.”

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Trying air drying modelling clay LARRISSA BURTON This summer I wanted to try using new materials and mediums and I decided to put my 12.5 kg bag of air-drying modelling clay to good use.

Versatile and easy to use, I decided to make candlestick holders as I had recently bought some nice candles.

Candles have often been a staple within the home, the perfect gift to add a fragrant smell to your home, a simple tealight or more decorative piece can add warmth and light to a home creating a relaxing atmosphere.

Maybe this is why during and after the pandemic candle sales and products similar to candles such as diffusers and essential oils have jumped.

Spending more time at home has led the nation to value their

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homes and its interior more than ever which explains the rise in decorative pieces such as tealights, candlesticks and candelabras – used to display and hold your candles.

I decided to design and create my own candlestick holders since buying some new candles and wanting to be able to display them within my room. I wanted to create some pieces that were modern and unique, and would fit with the aesthetic of my room. I looked to magazines for modern and contemporary shapes, colours and patterns for inspiration to influence my design of the candleholders.

I decided to use round shapes and curvature within my pieces. Working with clay was new for me but the medium is fun to experiment with. I wanted to create handmade candle holders as I wanted something unique rather than shop bought and mass produced. I used air drying clay tools to help shape and mould the clay and add additional detail and textures but no special tools are really necessary instead you could use a cocktail stick or paint brush and these will work just as well.

Keeping it damp using water is important whilst shaping the clay with your hands. From experience I found that the clay can become very delicate once dried especially with smaller, thin pieces, they can break easily.

I would recommend trying larger pieces that will be more

durable and easier to work with. Make sure the clay is completely dry before attempting to paint, this could take a few days depending on size and temperature.

Once dried, I carefully sanded my candleholders down to create a smooth surface ready for the paint to be applied. I used a paint brush to gently remove any dust or residue. I used my acrylic paints as I wanted my candleholders to be colourful and fun.

I started off by creating a white base and working over in colour, I diluted the paint with water to create a thinner paint consistency, this was easier to apply.

It's also a good idea to apply a clear gloss varnish or pva glue to seal it, this creates a resistance to water and protects the porous clay piece.

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VPET July saw the grand re-opening of Victoria Park Butterfly House.

Whilst the house has been closed, their group of volunteers have been working hard behind the scenes creating a beautiful community garden and hosting a series of events using their community space, in the glasshouse attached to the butterfly house.

Oskar, Kirby and Ruby from the Serial Culture team, took a trip down to the Butterfly House to meet artist Sarah GallagherHayes, who has been hosting a series of bamboo modelling workshops and have a go of making something themselves.

They started with a small weaving bamboo piece and they progressed to a giant structure taking up a huge section of the community garden.

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“Building bamboo structures was completely new to me, but was extremely fun despite challenges in getting the hang of the technique at first.”-Oskar The zine team then got a sneak peek behind the scenes at the butterflies as they started to emerge, pupae wriggling around.

“Having the opportunity to witness the new butterflies was amazing - they were beautiful and seeing them so close up felt very special.”-Oskar

To find out the opening times of the Butterfly house, you can find them on Facebook VPET & Butterfly House.

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GET INVOLVED! A word from the editor Meg DeMar

Serial Culture is a place for your stories and your art!

We can feature your sketches, painting, photography, graphic designs; whatever your art form is, we want to see it! Share with us your poems, short stories or articles.

Been to a GIG, PLAY, SHOW, EXHIBITION, EVENT? Send us your review.

Need some assistance?

We can interview you about your life experiences.

We can feature organisations that have supported you as a young person.

We can shine a spotlight on your charitable and community activities such as raising funds and collecting for food banks.

Whatever your Culture is we can give you a platform. serialculturezine@gmail.com

WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING WHAT MAGIC YOU CREATE.

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Serial Culture Zine

Origin Story!

Serial Culture zine has been created to provide a pla�orm for the young people of Halton aged 11-25 to share their artwork, cultural ac�vity and lifestyle loves.

Through Halton Borough Council’s youth provision programme, young people responded to our survey and call out for contributors. A small team has developed the zine from scratch with a larger community of young contributors. The editorial team changes and grows as the zine reaches more people, we welcome those who want to stay for the whole project or just add an ar�cle every now and then or a one off.

If you want to add your cultural voice and artwork contact serialculturezine@gmail.com The views expressed are those of the contributors.

LOOSE has been crea�ng opportuni�es for the people of Halton to perform, record, share and develop crea�vely since 1997. In 2010 LOOSE opened The Studio in Lacey Street, Widnes. This community venue is home to a variety of funded community and youth focused art and culture based projects. It is also home to partner organisa�ons, community groups and college courses. To find out what we currently offer, or suggest a project or event yourself visit: www.thestudiowidnes.org.uk

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COVER ART ELI

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