#1000snowflakes was an art installation for the town of Ossett made in 2013. We wanted to make something different to the usual christmas decorations that appear in towns across the country and felt that we could make our own that would be more beautiful and meaningful. So we invited Ossett’s knitters and crocheters to make a representation of their individuality by making woollen snowflakes and sending them to us.
#1000snowflakes was a project that consciously embraced the use of social media to get folks to engage with us and contribute knitted or crocheted snowflakes to our project. The use of the hashtag and an awareness raising campaign on twitter resulted in our project being presented at conferences in Russia and Sweden that looked at the effective use of social media.
But on home turf the joy was the making of something beautiful to adorn our town for Christmas.
Artists Cassandra Kilbride and Tony Wade from Faceless Arts created the finished piece. A central sculpture made from Aluminium Wire representing Jack Frost releasing a snowstorm onto Ossett.
photograph © Jessica Rowbottom