Knitters are creating pandas for sustainable project Unitypanda

Apr. 30 by Emma Dando (0)

A lifelong fascination with pandas has inspired WestMidlands artist Jonnet Middleton to create a community based project centred on knitting.

People of all ages and abilities are being asked to take part in knitting a set of 100 pandas as part of the Unitypanda project.

The main aim of the project is to bring people together to socialise and participate in learning new skills.

Each panda is made up of 22 parts, each requiring a different level of skill from the knitter. The varied levels means there is always a part that everyone can get involved in, no matter what their ability.

Currently only 18 pandas have been fully completed, however 75 pandas have been started and are undergoing completion.

When the 100 pandas are complete they will be ‘going on tour’ from September until January 2011 as part of the ‘Material Actions’ exhibition organised by Textile Forum South West.

Each panda will be numbered from 1-100 with tags around their necks saying the names of all the contributors who took the time to make it.

Ultimately the pandas will be sent to China in a 1940s biplane after receiving a going away ceremony. It will recreate the ceremony that welcomed the real Unity Pandas which China donated to London Zoo in 1946.

The whole event captured the hearts of the nation and various forms of memorabilia were created including the panda pattern that the Unitypanda project is using today. Local school children will be joining in the celebrations and dancing along to 1940s Glenn Miller music.

How Unitypanda began

Jonnet said:

’My fascination with pandas started when I was about six months old when I was given a cuddly panda.’

Last year Jonnet joined the knitting group Stitches and Hos in Birmingham, as she wanted to not only learn how to knit but wanted to meet new people and socialise. She decided she wanted to knit the 1940s panda pattern which she had previously bought off of eBay.

’I had such fun; it was just a really beautiful moment when I started knitting and thought wow, today I managed to knit half of his head. That’s really where the birth of the Unitypanda project started, when I realised perhaps other people would like to do it do.’

Jonnet and the project

In many of Jonnets’ art projects she likes to focus quite strongly on the environmental aspect of things. She likes to work with new technologies whilst thinking about environmental issues and how sustainable something is.

The process of the Unitypanda project is more important to Jonnet than the actual outcome.

This project is about giving people the skills and the confidence to be able to go and create new things and the knock-on effect the process has on people.

Jonnet said:

’It’s the consequences and the legacy that make the project successful and worthwhile’

Jonnet wants people to think about the sustainability of the products and objects around them. She wants people to change from, ‘passively consuming products to actively producing them.’ She believes it’s a key environmental concern.

Upcoming events, 8^th May, 12^th June, July 10^th^,10-4, at the Pandashop, 22 City Arcade, Coventry.

For more information call the Pandaline on 07974 694 584 or follow @unitypanda on twitter.