Workshops at The Wee Hub and Spartans!


We had a fantastic time working with amazing YMI Borders Tutors on a Traditional Scottish Hip Hop training day. The idea came when Sara Alakus who is newly in post as YMI Creative Learning Officer in the Borders got in touch to ask about Tinderbox helping organise a Hip Hop project in a Borders primary school.
Sara explained that she was really keen to get some Hip Hop into the work that they are doing in the borders but was aware that it wasn’t exactly the genre of choice for the current tutors on the team. When she mentioned that the team are quite strong on Trad music Jed remembered a project he had seen recently at the Highland YMI day in Inverness. Jack Hughes and …. had been running a project that took a fiddle tune and used it as a basis of a track for writing rap.
The basic idea of the project was to put a Hip Hop beat under a traditional Scottish tune, teach a class to play the harmony chords and have the class write rap or spoken word to perform over it.
Jed asked Sara if she could go back to the team and ask if there was a suitable Borders tune that has a decent story associated with it that we could use as a subject for writing rap or spoken word about.
The team came back with the perfect tune, Tam Lin. It’s an epic borders ballad and with a cracking tune.
For the training we spent the morning working with tutors on techniques for helping pupils write rap and planning the afternoon session. In the afternoon we went to deliver our project in Newtown Primary School.
The whole thing went to plan with the pupils getting totally into the story and writing some brilliant words. They joined in on percussion, tuned percussion, keyboards and Ukeleles. We finished the day with a full performance of the finished piece. Check out the video below.
Everyone had an absolute blast!
Our Saturday Games Club is currently in full swing with only two sessions to go (no session on June 3rd)! We’re excited to show what the club has been working on, but for now check out last term’s game and check out this blog about it from Lead Tutor Mel!
“Last term our Saturday Games Club met for five sessions from Feb to March, on Saturday mornings between 11am and 12.30pm, in the Tinderbox Lab space as part of The Wee Hub (Ocean Terminal). This term was full of electronics, fish, 3D printing and underwater worlds. We continued working on our digital game Ruins of the Deep, adding new characters, obstacles and game mechanics. We also began to explore adding new physical elements to this game, creating a scavenger hunt-style challenge that took you out of the game space, into the real world, and back into the game again.
To create this scavenger hunt challenge, we played a scavenger hunt, we explored electronics, including makey makeys (where we made some fruit into keyboards), and we learnt how to use a 3D printer. Each session was brimming with ideas, passion and creativity, as groups worked on digital game design, visual design, and physical game design, always fuelled by biscuits, oranges and glasses of squash.
Over the term we developed an adapted version of Ruins of the Deep, with a new level which invites you into an installation in the physical world. Our final session was a celebration where we played the game together, exploring the digital world designed and coded by the group, and exploring a physical installation too, to find hidden 3D printed coins and copper tape buttons.
You can play our game here…
And find out more/register for the current Games Clubs here!
Mel (Lead Tutor)”
One of the great things about having a weekly workshop in RHCYP is that we have the opportunity to work with young people throughout their stay. Rhys met Kieran when he was 16 years old and he had never written a song before. Kieran was in for a long stay, which ended up being around 6 months, on and off, and had his guitar with him for the duration. Through the weekly workshops and lessons, he quickly started to write songs and perform for the nurses who visited him. Fast forward to now, a year later, Kieran has continued to partake in Tinderbox workshops, has written an album’s worth of material, performed 2 of his songs live with the Tinderbox Orchestra and performed at 4 concerts.
“Meeting Rhys was a breath of fresh air. I had my guitar in the hospital and when Rhys came in with his, we immediately started jamming. Rhys taught me a few new songs and gave me some good advice about writing my own music. I played my guitar more than ever during my hospital stays, sometimes for more than 6 hours a day so my technique improved at a fast pace!” – Kieran
We would like to say a huge thank you to our hospitals team Rhys, Claire, Shea, and Jamie for the wonderful work they do with the children & young people there, and to Edinburgh Children’s Hospitals Charity for having us as part of their Arts Programme all year.
Tinderbox SPARKS is an alternative youth orchestra for young people aged S1- S6 who are Grade 1 and above on ANY instrument.
Last term, Tinderbox SPARKS teamed up with Dynamic Earth to improvise, compose and perform a piece of music for Dynamic Earth’s new Summer Show at the Planetarium!
It was a 6 week long project that ran on Monday nights throughout May and June and besides from being SO MUCH fun also gave us the chance to play together as a big band and create our own piece of music- something a lot of the group had never done before!
We kicked off the project with everyone coming together and having a tour of dynamic earth. WHICH WAS SO COOL(!) We went into the planetarium and were shown the Spring planetarium show along with the video that we would be writing our piece of music for. (Created by the amazing Ali from Dynamic Earth)
The theme of our composition was the Sun and pictures taken from a telescope that showed the sun in different states with different colourings.
It truly was an AMAZING 6 weeks and we can’t wait to be back at Dynamic Earth again for Tinderbox SPARKS round two of making more original music together!
Claire Doherty – Lead Tutor
In August 2022, we started a Music Project for 11–18-year-old Ukrainian
refugees at Milton Campus, Edinburgh college.
The project consisted of 9 guitar sessions over the period of one month. The project was focused on guitar, but also included 5 drum clinics and flexibility to teach more instruments.
The group of young people we got involved with are coming from a Ukrainian orphanage supported by the Scottish charity “Dnipro Kids Appeal”. The charity helped them to get to Scotland from their city “Dnipropetrovsk”, after the war in Ukraine started. We were aware that these young people have been in traumatic situations way before the war started, so we took extra care in our teaching and youth work approach.
The attendance was great with almost 20 kids interested in attending the lessons more or less regularly. The young people were split into groups of a maximum of 5 people according to their past experience. There were complete beginners and quite advanced players who have attended music courses in Ukraine. The lessons covered various concepts and the young people were welcome to request certain topics or songs to be learnt. The lessons were thought in Ukrainian; however, English terminology knowledge was encouraged, and the material provided was written in both Ukrainian and English to facilitate their later transition into school and to help them with English.
During the first week of the project, we assessed each participant’s abilities on guitar and settled on certain topics and goals for the term. Tinderbox also pupil each participant with a guitar to practice, both electric and acoustic depending on their preference. Although the project lasted one month, the guitars were available to them for two months to encourage practice and self-study afterwards. The young people were very involved in the lessons and had questions and the will to learn certain songs and techniques. The tutor Alina gave them guitar tablatures and scores for a few songs and each pupil was free to learn which one they preferred and then play it in the next lessons for the group, if they felt comfortable doing so. A run-down over the essentials on guitar was also offered to all the pupils, to make sure there were no gaps in knowledge before going forwards. A similar approach was taken by the drums tutor who assessed the pupils abilities with drumming techniques and decided on the content of his next cliniques. There were two to three people in their drums group more or less regularly.
The last week of the lessons was focused on clearing any gaps or doubts about what was covered during the term. The musical repertoire learnt over the term was also consolidated so that the pupils could perform it at their “Ukrainian Independence Day Celebration Exhibition”. A small private concert was organized by their community in the halls of Edinburgh College. This offered an amazing occasion to show off the knowledge and skills that they gained over the past month. On the last lesson, the tutor made sure to offer direction and support for the pupils’ self-study after the end of the project. The students expressed their enjoyment for the project and even wrote cards with a personalized thank you note.
Overall, the project was a success and offered the refugees a creative escape from their recent traumatic events. Their musicality was also developed and maintained thanks to the availability of guitars and drums to practice on. Moreover, some students had the opportunity to explore both electric and acoustic guitars and changed their mind about the complete “separation” of the classical and contemporary approach on the instrument. For example, some classical guitarists were not engaging with electric guitars or the use of plectrum in the first lesson considering it was something that did not relate to their musical experience. At the end of the lesson, after seeing some of their peers playing they requested to have an electric guitar even if they already had their own classic guitar. The tutor was pleased to see that the group of young people got more united, and everyone’s musical experience was enriched.
A few weeks after the project’s end, the tutor Alina was offered to play a concert for Ukrainian refugees in Stirling. The participants were encouraged to join in and take the opportunity to perform in front of a bigger and new audience. Three of the participants agreed to perform, this really benefited their confidence and musicality on their instruments. We are looking forward to being able to provide more music lessons for Ukrainian young people to support them in a moment of need and make sure that their passion for music is encouraged.
By Alina Levanova
Edinburgh Fringe – the biggest arts festival in the world! The city is filled with 10s of 1000s of different performers, and it is the perfect opportunity for performers to showcase themselves and perform to international audiences.
We thought about what our show would look like and how long a run we thought we could manage. In true Tinderbox style, we decided to GO FOR IT and decided on a 13 show run over the first three weeks of August with 10 different collaborators and a catalogue of brand new compositions. We were lucky enough that our friends at the Pianodrome were taking over the Old Royal High for the summer (including the fringe) and gave us the opportunity to take over the Grand Hall – a room once intended to be the debating chamber for the Scottish Parliament.
Our collaborators for the fringe were a huge mix of artists that we have worked with before, members of the collective who have their own music projects and some brand new collaborations too.
We had Chinese alternative folk-punk artist Song Yuzhe in the opening weekend. Followed Trad-inspired indie folk singer ‘Housekind’, Edinburgh based psychedelic rock band ‘Duke Duncan and the Hurricanes’, Electro-pop Artist PINLIGHT and Indie singer songwriter Brave Little Note. And in the final week, we finished things off alt- folk duo Jellyman’s Daughter, rap and poetry collective ‘ Culture Clan’ and improvisational trio (and also Pianodrome’s creative directors) S!nk.
We were also joined with drummers and puppeteers from Kathputli Colony an extraordinary community of traditional artists in Delhi that we met and collaborated with online through a project called The Samata Sessions which you can read more about here.
After lots of work from our marketing team (Somya and Leo – you wonderfully talented humans!) and selling the show to EVERYONE we knew- it was SHOWTIME.
I can really put into words adequately, the feeling I had on the opening day of our show. ‘WAS THIS A GOOD IDEA?’, ‘ARE PEOPLE GOING TO COME?’ ‘HAVE WE REHEARSED ENOUGH’? I wasn’t sure at all. However, I did know that I was surrounded by incredible musicians who had worked really hard to create an exciting and unique showcase of wonderful music. And even if we had a small audience or made a few mistakes- it wouldn’t REALLY matter because we were doing something exciting and new AND we were getting to do it together.
The doors were open and the audience started piling in, I kept waiting for the queue to die down but it didn’t and very quickly the room filled up. Our first show and an audience of 130 people came along to support us. The music started and the energy in the room was electric. The set flew by and what felt like a minute later was the end of our first show and the audience were on their feet to meet us with a standing ovation. I looked around the room in amazement as pure pride and joy waved over me. We had done it! The first show was a success.
From then on, our show was met with standing ovations and sold-out crowds. Friends, family, colleagues, young people from our youth projects and their families all came to support along with new audiences- people who had seen us busking during the day or people who had read about us or seen us play at a festival over the summer. It was exhausting and a huge amount of work but more importantly, it was inspiring, exciting and also gave us this unique opportunity to hang out together all month- socialising, making music and having FUN.
A friend of mine who came to see the show said ‘I just kept crying because I’ve never seen so many people on stage performing together who just look like they all love it and each other so much’ and that’s exactly what it was like. I think about it constantly- how lucky I am that I get to stand on stage and perform such amazing music with such a wonderful group of people.
It’s the last week of our Instrument Library crowdfunder – we’re at just under 75% of our target and need to raise another £1300k.
We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has helped support the project so far!
If you would like to help us reach our target and support the project, all donations are a huge help, and greatly appreciated!
We Make Music Instrument Libraries is a brand new initiative to get musical instruments into public libraries across Scotland, so people will be able to borrow them for free, just like taking out a book! The programme is launching with nine libraries in Fife, North Ayrshire and Edinburgh, with the intention that it spreads further across Scotland in future.
We want to fill these libraries with as many musical instruments and learning resources as we can. All money will go towards buying, repairing and servicing donated instruments and getting them into the libraries in good condition. We also want to buy music software and midi keyboards so people can start making music on library computers. Once the instruments are in the libraries, we want to offer music workshops and introductory lessons, develop online resources, and organise live music events in and around the libraries. The more money we raise and the more instruments people donate, the more music libraries we can open up around Scotland!
Pre-pandemic the Lab lived at Custom House, where we would run regular Open Studios, talks, workshops, and more for those interested in digital arts, creative technology, electronics, gaming, coding, interactive media and more.
The newly moved Lab is in an early stage of development, but we hope to continue to build it into an exciting & innovative space!
We are delighted to be opening up the Lab in a physical format again, and will be setting up & developing a range of programmes for people to get involved in:
Starting Monday 6th June 2022!
The Lab is part of the The Wee Hub community space (managed by The Living Memory Association).
We are located on the Ground Floor of the old Debenhams shop (blue car park side of Ocean Terminal).
Access the Lab through the Ground Floor Debenhams shop entrance.
If the shop shutters are down – ring the Lab buzzer for access and someone will come to let you in!
Tinderbox Lab
The Wee Hub, Ground Floor
Ocean Terminal
74 Ocean Dr
Leith, Edinburgh
EH6 6JJ
Celtic Connections is Glasgow’s annual folk, roots and world music festival that takes place every January- it was also Tinderbox Orchestra’s first gig of 2022! After the release of our Kathryn Joseph EP (Here is the link if you haven’t had the chance to listen yet: ), we were lucky enough to share the stage with Kathryn at Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall on the 29th January.
In the lead up to the gig, the orchestra rehearsed every Sunday and had a set of rehearsals the week of – which was quite tricky due to COVID restrictions. We were lucky enough that North Edinburgh Arts and The Pear Tree let us use their spaces.
We worked on our own hour-long set along with the three beautiful Kathryn Joseph pieces that we recorded for our EP- The Blood, The Weight and The Weary. In addition to our usual orchestra line-up we were also lucky enough to be joined by a small singing ensemble that was made up of tutors from our community projects.
On the day of the gig, bursting with excitement and nerves, we piled into cars and drove over to Glasgow early for our set up and sound check. A quick rehearsal, some dinner and a big group warm-up later, we were ready to go on and perform our set.
We started our set with Tinderbox classic ‘Bethany Lane’ and instantly felt an energy and warmth from the audience. The set flew by and before we knew it we were finishing in true celtic style with ‘Cas Na Caora’, a piece arranged by our cello player Graham Coe. It was then time for our collaboration with Kathryn- a project started in 2019 with the EP which we were only just able to perform together in front of an audience. The three pieces- orchestrated so wonderfully by Sam Irvine, Luci Holland and Jack Nissan captivated the audience, bringing tears to many (including Kathryn’s eyes). A huge congratulations to all the musicians and team who worked so tirelessly to make the collaboration so beautiful and successful. Celtic Connections with Kathryn Joseph in 2022 will forever be a highlight for Tinderbox Orchestra.
The Tinderbox Makerbox kits are exciting and creative ways to explore the basics of electronics and make something fun in the process!
Lead Artists Liam Dempsey and Dominika Jackowska worked with Consultant Artist Yann Seznec to design & development two new kits:
Motor Music Maker
Build an electronic instrument using motors and elastic bands!
Age range: 10+
Time to complete: 1 – 2 hours
Build-A-Buzzer Game
Experiment with electronic components like LEDs, resistors, and buzzers to make your own nosiy wire loop game!
Age range: 10+
Time to complete: 1 – 2 hours
We were also delighted to bring the first finished kits to run workshops with Craigroyston Community High School 1st and 2nd years too.
And we were also very pleased to join the very first North Edinburgh Community Festival on Sat 7th May too, with a Makerbox stall, where young people joined us to build kits and learn about electronics during the afternoon!
Some quotes from the workshops included:
Thank you to everyone who joined in!
As part of the Motor Music Maker we also needed a bespoke 3D printed part, and thankfully Mark Kobine and the Institute of Design Informatics and Creative Informatics were happy to help – supporting us to design this custom printed plastic mount & base to hold the motor in the right place.
A huge thank you to all of the team, partners and supporters who made the Makerbox Series 2 kits possible.
Watch this space for more Makerbox fun!
The Makerbox kits are part of our Tinderbox Lab programme, which explores digital arts, creative technology, gaming, interactive media and more. Get in touch with lab@tinderboxcollective.org to find out more.
Series Two:
Supported by The Institute for Design Informatics, Creative Informatics, & Creative Scotland
A gorgeous sunny, spring day at Bridgend Farmhouse. Tinderbox Orchestra kicking the day off with some classic tunes before Shooglenifty took the stage. LOTS AND LOTS OF DANCING. Can you imagine a better way to spend a Saturday afternoon in March?
As part of Shooglenifty’s community tour, we were asked if we wanted to join them at Bridgend Farmhouse in mid December 2021 but due to covid restrictions the gig was postponed until – what actually, was the perfect day for it- Saturday 26th March.
The whole day was filled with joy, incredible music and a real sense of community. Children, Adults and everyone in between were on their feet dancing for the entirety of Shooglenifty’s set and when the gig was over, we all packed up with a huge smile on our faces.
A huge thank you to Shooglenifty, Joe Peat (Sound Engineer), Bridgend Farmhouse and to the Tinderbox Team who helped make everything happen!
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Recordings from the live events during the festival
Note: We are editing these videos as quickly as we can and will add them here as soon as we can!
Games, the Pandemic & the Future
with Jane McGonigal
Fireside Conversation with Q&A
Gaming for Health, Education and Wellbeing
with Brian Baglow, Game Doctor, Yaldi Games, Civic Digits and Glitchers
Live Coding Music Patterns with TidalCycles
with Alex McLean
Games Composer Panel
with Jenny Nelson (Scala Radio), Nainita Desai (Telling Lies), Guy Jackson (Sea of Solitude), Tess Tyler (PLAYNE: The Meditation Game)
Game Design Panel
with Shay Thompson (BBC Sounds), Jon McKellan (No Code), Dan Pinchbeck (The Chinese Room), Malath Abbas (Biome Collective)
Virtual Reality (VR) Mini Talks
with Jung In Jung, Paul Blackham, Brian Allen (Bearharmmer Games), Thomas Kildren (Fletcher Studios), Andy Antoniou (Furry Tail Dragon)
Beyond Parasocial Interaction: Speed Dating for Ghosts
Presentation & Let’s Play with Gabriel Elvery
Zine-making & Interactive Art Workshop
with James Morwood
Artificial Images: An Introduction to Art and Machine Learning
with Derrick Schultz & Lia Coleman
Paths to Games Research
with William Kavanagh, Robin Sloan, Dr David Farrell, Dr Romana Ramzan
Postgraduate Research Panel
With Dr Matthew Barr, Lauren Watson, Francis Butterworth-Parr, William Kavanagh, Kirsty Dunlop, Monica Vazquez
Game Studies in the Wild: Practical Applications of Games Research
with Ruth EJ Booth, Gabriel Elvery, Charly Harbord, and Arthur Ehlinger
Intro to Bitsy Workshop
with Claire Morwood
Zoom Obscura Works in Progress
with Ilsa Pouwels, Michael Baldwin, Bea Wijshijer, Paul O’Neill, Martin Disley
Mixed Realities: Virtual and Physical Interaction
with Yann Seznec, Mona Bozdog, FoxDog Studios and Laura E Hall
Games & Empathy Mini Talks
with Marina Diez (3 of Cups Games), Alastair Low (Lowtek Games), Natalie Schmidt, Nida Ahmad
Intro to Pure Data & Interactive Sound Workshop
with Yann Seznec
Fostering an Engaged Community Virtually and Beyond (SGDA)
with Jamie Cross (SGDA), Susie Buchan (Arcadia Fest), Beverley McMillan (BAFTA Scotland) & Jed Milroy (Tinderbox Collective)
Live Music Show + PlayAway Party!
with Jed Milroy & Jo Jeffries, The False Economy, Jellyman’s Daughter, John “Slide20XX” Smith and The Gamba Geek
A series of pre-recorded conversations with people working outside of the games sector about games, creativity and the crossovers between real-world and online environments.
Note: Videos from these conversations are being edited and will be shared over the festival.
Games, Theatre & Hybrid Environments
A Conversation with Dougie Irvine from Visible Fictions
Games, Creative Ageing & Festivals
A Conversation with Dominic Campbell from Creative Ageing International
Gaming & Music in Secondary School
A Conversation with four music teachers across Scotland through Music Education Partnership Group.
Gaming and Youth Theatre
A Conversation with Shauna Macdonald from Edinburgh Youth Theatre
Games, Arts & Community
A Conversation with Kate Wimpress & Genevieve Kay-Gourley, from North Edinburgh Arts
Thank you for joining us for our first PlayAway!
If you attended the festival we’d love to know what you think – our feedback form is now closed, but please feel free to contact us at playaway@tinderboxcollective.org with feedback or questions directly.
Jane McGonigal Keynote: Fireside Conversation & Q&A
Mon 22 Feb, 18:00 GMT
Jane McGonigal, PhD, is the Director of Game Research + Development at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, California. She is the author of two New York Times bestselling books: Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World and SuperBetter: The Power of Living Gamefully. Her TED talks on how games can make a better world have more than 15 million views.
Games Design Panel
No Code, The Chinese Room and Biome Collective
Chaired by: Shay Thompson
Mon 22 Feb, 19:15 – 20:00 (GMT)
More info
Bitsy One-Day Game Jam!
Join us and making some games using Bitsy
Livestream with Zoë Sams
Tue 2nd Mar, 9:00 – 19:00 (GMT)
More info
More Game Design
Click here
Live Music Show & Party
Fri 5 Mar, 19:15 – 21:30 (GMT)
More info
Games Composer Panel
Nainita Desai, Guy Jackson, Tess Tyler
Chaired by: Jenny Nelson
Fri 5 Mar, 18:00 – 19:00 (GMT)
More info
More Games & Music
Click here
Zine-Making Workshop
with Biome Collective
Wed 24 Feb, 13:00 – 16:00 (GMT)
£10 / £5 (conc)
More info
Introduction to Bitsy:
Making Games with Small Tools
Workshop with Claire Morwood (Biome Collective)
Tue 2nd March, 09:30 – 12:30 (GMT)
Price £10 / £5 (conc)
More info
More Workshops
Click here
Gaming for Health, Education & Wellbeing
Game Doctor, Yaldi Games, Civic Digits, Glitchers
Chaired by: Brian Baglow
Tue 23rd Feb, 13:00 – 14:00 (GMT)
More info
Games & Empathy Mini-Talks
Marina Diez (3 of Cups Games),
Alastair Low (Lowtek Games), Natalie Schmidt
Thu 4th Mar, 13:00 – 14:00 (GMT)
More info
More Games & Wellbeing
Click here
Games Research with
University of Glasgow Games & Gaming Lab
Various Panel Talks
11:30 – 15:15 (GMT)
More info
UK Games Industry Internships,
Graduate Schemes and Traineeships
Games Jobs Live with Into Games
Thu 25th Feb, 16:00 – 18:00 (GMT)
More info
More Research & Careers
Click here
Mixed Realities: Virtual and Physical Interaction
Mona Bozdog, Foxdog Studios, Laura E Hall
Chaired by: Yann Seznec
Tue 23rd Feb, 18:00 – 19:00 (GMT)
More info
Virtual Reality (VR) Mini Talks
Jung In Jung & Paul Blackham, Brian Allen (Bearharmmer Games), Andy Antoniou, Thomas Kildren
Wed 3rd Mar, 13:00 – 13:45 (GMT)
More info
More Creative Tech
Click here
Click on the registration link for each event to book a place for that event.
Most panels, talks & events take place over Zoom, but some may be held elsewhere, like Twitch and YouTube.
Some workshops and events are hosted by other other groups and will have links to book separately.
Explore the Tinderbox PlayAway programme to find an event for you:
The festival is being run on a donations-based model. We want it to be free & accessible for anyone to attend, but we also want to pay our speakers and performers fairly. If you are able to make a donation this would be a big help.
All panel-discussions, talks and demos are free/by donation.
Some of the workshops are managed separately and have a fixed fee as places are limited.
More info and suggested donations here
Click to view our Press Release and email playaway@tinderboxcollective.org for more information
These will hopefully be made available for families and organisations based in Edinburgh around February/March 2022.
The exact content is still to be determined but the kits will ideally be appropriate for ages roughly 10 – 16.
We will also be offering workshop visits to teach the kits too – if your school or organisation would be interested in organising these please get in touch.
The Tinderbox Makerbox kits are exciting and creative ways to explore the basics of electronics and make something fun in the process!
Available to youth & community organisations to use & give to children & young people aged 18 or younger, completely free of charge, while our stocks last.
Click here to see more about this kit and view online instructions!
WARNINGS – kit contains:
CHOKING HAZARDS – Small, detachable and sharp parts.
COIN CELL BATTERY – Keep out of reach of young children. Swallowing may lead to serious injury or death.
UNLOCKABLE COIN CELL HOLDER – Be aware that battery is easy to insert and remove.
Not suitable for children under 3 years.
Keep parts clean and dry – do not get wet.
Use with adult supervision only.
Click here to see more about this kit and view online instructions!
WARNINGS – kit contains:
CHOKING HAZARDS – Small, detachable and sharp parts.
COIN CELL BATTERY – Keep out of reach of young children. Swallowing may lead to serious injury or death.
UNLOCKABLE COIN CELL HOLDER – Be aware that battery is easy to insert and remove.
Not suitable for children under 3 years.
Keep parts clean and dry – do not get wet.
Use with adult supervision only.
Click here to see more about this kit and view online instructions!
WARNINGS – kit contains:
CHOKING HAZARDS – Small, detachable and sharp parts.
COIN CELL BATTERY – Keep out of reach of young children. Swallowing may lead to serious injury or death.
UNLOCKABLE COIN CELL HOLDER – Be aware that battery is easy to insert and remove.
Not suitable for children under 3 years.
Keep parts clean and dry – do not get wet.
Use with adult supervision only.
The kits come with instructions explaining everything you need to know to build the crafty project.
You can also read our digital instructions online as you go too.
If you’re unsure about any of the instructions please contact us at lab@tinderboxcollective.org or admin@tinderboxcollective.org and we’ll be happy to help!
We also offer tutorial and support workshops where you can build the kit with the artists who designed them, and ask any questions that come up along the way.
Currently we are organising these as online sessions, held via a Tinderbox zoom account and led by a team of tutors and apprentices.
If you or the organisation you work for are interested in a workshop session or have questions about the kit, please email us at lab@tinderboxcollective.org or admin@tinderboxcollective.org to find out more.
This project is supported by:
These kits have been designed by our amazing team of apprentices at the Tinderbox Lab:
With special thanks to Helen Leigh and Yann Seznec for consulation and support of the kits.
It’s been the biggest ever term we’ve had of our Tuesday Hub at North Edinburgh Arts! Thanks to everyone who’s come along to share their enthusiasm and creativity this term and thanks to the brilliant team at NEA for all their support.
We’d usually have a term of 8 or 9 sessions but we were so keen to get back while restrictions allowed that we’ve run 15 sessions this term. Before term started our biggest worry was that we wouldn’t be able to get young people back out after being locked down for so long. After only 2 weeks our biggest worry was that we wouldn’t have room for everyone who wanted to come!
There have been so many highlights. One of the big ones was meeting young people who we had been working with at the online music school in real life for the first time.
Another one was welcoming Robert back to us who came all the way through from Glasgow to see us. It’s amazing to see his progress.
It was also great to have a visit from the Scottish Culture Minister, Jenny Gilruth.
We’re really looking forward to getting started in our new venue at Muirhouse Millenium Centre next term while North Edinburgh Arts undergoes a huge refurbishment and development.
In the meantime, thanks to everyone who has been involved this term and have a wonderful holiday!
We love Craigroyston Community High School! It’s such an important part of the success of our work in North Edinburgh that we have a strong partnership with our closest neighbourhood school and you couldn’t ask for a better partner.
This term we were overjoyed to get back to face to face work in the school with our S1 bands project.
Every S1 class formed as a band with pupils being given the choice of playing drum kit, guitar, keyboard or singing. We asked classes to choose what song they would like to work on and then spent the whole term working up the material.
We have seen so much talent and enthusiasm especially on the back of such difficult time with absolutely no singing and hardly any instrumental tuition for so long we weren’t sure what to expect, but the pupils did themselves proud.
Teachers reported that the project has really helped give a post-covid lift and helped re-engage some pupils who had stopped joining in with music.
Really looking forward to getting started with the S2s next year!
‘The oldest school in Edinburgh is moving across the road, we take it with us all the way, it’s not a heavy load’
This year’s songwriting project with Victoria Primary School was unusual to say the least.
When we started the project we were planning to have a Tinderbox tutor leading over Microsoft Teams to pupils on their iPads in the classroom. Sadly the school wifi wasn’t able to cope and we ended up falling back to our more familiar approach of having the tutor on the smart board in the classroom. Happily, by the end of the project, restrictions had started to lift and we were able to get into school to finish off the song, rehearse it and record it. At the last minute we spontaneously did a bit of filming to make a quick music video. Sometimes things just fall into place!
The pupils were incredibly thoughtful and creative in writing their song to commemorate the closure of current school site and the move across the road to the new building which is going to be happening very soon. Once again it shows how well the community of Newhaven keeps their heritage alive in the hearts and minds of the young people of Victoria Primary.
Tinderbox Collective worked with pupils at Victoria Primary School in Edinburgh to write and record a song to commemorate the moving of Victoria Primary school from it’s current site to a new site nearby. The school has stood on the current site for 176 years making it the oldest school in Edinburgh.
Thanks to:
The pupils at Victoria Primary School – Vocals and Songwriting
The Wee Museum – Photos and Images
Tinderbox Collective musicians –
Max Lamprecht – String Arrangement
Claire Docherty – Vocals
Erin McGonigle – Violin
Anna Fraser – Drums
Jed Milroy – Guitar
Liam Dempsey – Production
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