2025 workshops
25th and 26th October 2025
Dear friend,
The workshops are now fully booked but there will be more in the future. Please read the following on how to sign up for these and also details about the dolls and information on how to build a circle yourself. Any questions contact us.
About the workshop
In the workshop we each make an unfinished doll’s head and place it in a box with a message from the perspective of a doll’s naive and innocent being. You will be asked to donate this work for future exhibitions.
No previous skill is required, you will be guided through the process step by step by experienced doll maker Sevim. We will provide the materials for free as our contribution to this protest.
Our dolls will be at the centre of our Oct/Nov 2025 exhibition surrounded by works from fellow artists and craft makers who have generously donated these to raise funds for UNRWA (the United Nations Works and Relief Agency for Palestine).
Please invite family, friends, friends of friends and acquaintances to come to the exhibition and buy the art work donated by our artists which will be on sale. 10% of the funds raised will be going to supporting the venue.
Please contact us by email at contact@antiwarcraftingcircle.org if you would like to take part in one of the workshops in the future!
The House of Annetta is at 25 Princelet Street E1 6QH. Nearest tube stations are Liverpool Street, Aldgate East, Shoreditch High Street and Whitechapel.
About the dolls….
‘They don’t want to open their eyes’ by Sevim Metin
Recently, while crafting a series of doll figures, I looked at them all in a box and it dawned upon me ‘they don’t want to open their eyes to this cruel world’.
Out of this deeply felt expression of shared grief between me and my dear friends, we turned this into an action.
Dolls have healing qualities for children and doll making is also transformative and healing for the maker. The use of hands in any craft-making experience opens up a space within where intergenerational wisdom flows through us bringing balance between mind, heart and spirit. From my doll making experience I saw that the dolls that we make carry something from the maker, and during the process of making we observe the transformation of all the raw materials into a human shape, we witness the threshold of becoming. The child then is able to interact and play with this transitional being which then becomes a reflection of their emotions and an embodiment of their environment.
These dolls are made of raw sheep’s wool and are intentionally left unfinished. Wool since it has a memory, holds the shape it is given by the maker. I would like to think that it also carries the intention of us coming together for peace.
What is happening in Palestine is a moral issue of our time. It is a yet another terrible turning point in history; what we do about this genocide taking place in front of our eyes against innocent people, and children- and where we stand, matters, it matters a lot.
These small, quiet figures are not representations of Palestinian children or any particular child – they were made to be dolls. Yet through their expression a calling is hidden – a calling to protect the child and our human qualities. Like any doll they have a connection with a universal child. In this protest they become vessels of a shared language—speaking to our most basic human longing for the right for life, equality, dignity, peace, and protection.
At a time like this the question arises, what is being Human? what is our human responsibility in these dark times, in the mist of genocide and spread of war? We may feel the burden of our thoughts and action not making any difference to the life of Palestinians; this is where most of us feel tormented. We don’t even know how many children, mothers, sisters and brothers in Gaza will survive the genocide and how many countries the war spreads to, but there is no other way than to keep going, keep going in any way that we can.
In the words of Saint Francis of Assisi:
“All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.”
building a circle
Some friends have already expressed their wish to take this protest to their own circle by making more dolls. If you are one of them, please let us know before or after the exhibition so that we can support your circle and be connected.
You can also borrow dolls made in the first circle (N16) to add to your dolls and organise an event or exhibition in your area. We already have a connection in York.
Our friend Talya in Jerusalem will be using some dolls sent to her to create a video with her circle which we hope to exhibit and share with you at our exhibition.
If you feel this is something you would like to try please get in touch. The skills used in doll making are also useful for a myriad of mending tasks in the house and for your family. Worthy skills for today and tomorrow.
Everyone is equal in our circle. People can join temporarily or be involved as much or as little as they wish and for as long as they want to. Our aim is no war, no hate, no cruelty, no divide and conquer and we dedicate this platform to all those suffering oppression anywhere on the planet.