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2025 workshops
25th October and 26th October 2025
Dear friend,
Here you can find out about this year’s workshops.
The N16 London circle invites family and friends, and friends of friends to join us making the beautiful doll’s heads ready for our exhibition 30th October – 2nd November 2025 at the House of Annetta gallery.
There are still some places left so please read the following; how to join the workshop; details about the dolls and information on how to build a circle yourself. Any questions contact us.
The workshops will run on Saturday 25th October and Sunday 26th October 2025
from 10am until 4pm at the House of Annetta.
In the workshop we will each make an unfinished doll’s head and place it in a box with a message from the perspective of a doll’s naive being. You will be asked to donate this work for the exhibition at the end of the following week.
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 for the making of these dolls as our contribution to this protest.
We ask that you bring food to share and if you are able pay £3 towards the rent of this special venue ‘House of Annetta’. which is dedicated to bringing spatial justice.
Our dolls will be at the centre of the 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 friends and buy the work which will be on sale. 10% of the funds raised will be going to supporting the venue. We are aiming to exhibit around 50 dolls.
Please contact us by email at contact@antiwarcraftingcircle.org if you would like to take part in one of the workshops available – specifying clearly which date you are able to attend.
Please let us know by Thursday 24th July which date you are able to attend.
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’.
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 Israel 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 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.