 Bottlecap tree design by Linda Mensch | TreeCycle 2017 was funded in part by the Orange County Arts Council's 10th Anniversary Community Partnership grant. Check out the TreeCycle 2017 recap by Lon Tytell of the Warwick Dispatch. |  |
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 Here are instructions for several fun and easy crafts to make at home using items from your recycling bin. When finished you can bring them into your classroom for collection no later than Friday April 28th. They will be included in the Tree Sculptures. Or better yet, bring them to the event on Saturday 29th or Sunday 30th and hang them on the trees yourself!   Pie Plate Ornament     The Plastic Bag Dragon will be making an appearance at Treecycle, but luckily, so will The Green Man! Come and help defeat the dragon with your own Dragon's Breath. Dragon's Breath instructions.   A lot of you have asked how the plans are coming along – how much closer we are to our stated mission: To enrich our community by providing a workspace and materials exchange where new and experienced makers can learn, collaborate, offer workshops, and spark new business opportunities.
 Wickham Works is a local non-profit organization committed to creating a Makerspace for the benefit of our community. To that end, we are hosting Meet Your Maker, a holiday gift market that highlights the talented makers in our midst and introduces them to the community.
The Meet Your Maker Holiday Market is the place to find a unique gift, a handcrafted item that will last a lifetime, or a chance to learn about a range of exciting, hands-on workshops offered in our area. In addition to our vendor booths and shop, there will be live maker demos, music, children’s craft activities, food and a raffle – something for all ages, so bring the family! Meet Your Maker takes place at Wickham Woodlands Manor, 255 State School Rd, Warwick, NY 10990. The Market Opens on Friday, November 25, 4-7 with a welcome reception, and on Saturday 26, Sunday 27, 10-5. Recently, out of the blue, I received a phone call from a sculptor up in Sullivan County who wanted to commission some glass pieces for a large outdoor fountain piece he was making. The piece will be installed at the Center For Discovery located near Hurleyville just north of Monticello. I decided to drive up and deliver the pieces because I had heard that the Center had opened a Maker Lab in downtown Hurleyville last Spring.
After handing the glass over to the sculptor, Richard Rulli, he gave me a tour of the center which has several of his pieces on display. One of the largest is pictured above. It is a very large eagle carved from black walnut. The carving was begun outside and as the work progressed, the structure was built around it! He also does steel and concrete pieces for outdoor installation. We also toured the Maker Lab which is quite impressive. It has many of the tools and spaces that we hope to acquire for Wickham Works. I highly recommend a visit if you are up in the area. I am planning to return later this month with a few others to continue the conversation with some of the supervisors about the maker movement and how we can work together. They are in a different situation than us in the sense that they were front loaded with funding and are seeking community involvement. We are beginning with activating a community interest first and then seeking funding. Both approaches have challenges but all agree that our location in relation to a larger population base (NYC, Bergen County, Rockland County) is an advantage for membership involvement. I have posted a few photos of the workshop above. It’s very exciting to see all the response to the idea of “making” and MakerSpaces. Even on a local level both the Warwick High School and the library have plans to develop limited models to attract interest and validate the Wickham Works mission. We have ambitious plans for building community and making practical spaces for a large, diverse audience to engage in authentic making activities. With the space and tools for self guided exploration, intergenerational mentorship and practical workshops we will build on what has been started to become a MakerSpace available to the entire Warwick community and beyond. Gary
 Idea board at April 2016 Treecycle The proposal for Wickham Works is for a MakerSpace and Material Exchange to be created
at Wickham Woodlands in the Town of Warwick, New York. This site (formerly the Mid-Orange Correctional Facility) was turned over to the Town by the State of New York after closing in 2013. The entire733 acre site is in the process of being developed for both commercial and recreational purposes. There are a few buildings remaining in the recreational portion that we are planning to re-purpose; most notably the 12,000 sq.ft. dairy barn and adjacent hen house. The Town has offered to lease these buildings on a no tax/no rent basis to Wickham Works. The renovation and operational costs of this endowment are up to us at this time. Over the last year there have been meetings with over 50 interested people attending from diverse demographic sections of our locality. From those meetings a group of 12 of us have come together as a core to shape and move the project forward. We have actively solicited input from individuals and civic groups in order to create a compelling vision that benefits the entire Warwick community and beyond. We are now in the process of obtaining our 501-3C non-profit status in order to begin raising the capitol needed for renovation and operational cost as detailed in our business plan. We are looking forward to formalizing an Economic Impact Statement that will specify the possible regional economic benefits of our project. The space available is larger then needed for our project. We are seeking partnerships with like- minded non-profits and social enterprises in order to reach a sustainable level of operation. Our aim is to nurture this place into a destination for innovative activity, cultural events, and socially responsible commerce. It is a community building effort that will have positive economic impact in addition to preserving these wonderful, iconic buildings that represent our common heritage of cultural support for family, friends and neighbors here in the Warwick Valley.  The roots of the Wickham Works Project run deep into the Warwick creative community. My incentive for moving to this area from Wisconsin in 1976 was the existence of a small community of seekers, led by Willem Nyland, who were attempting to infuse transformative ideas within themselves and represent them to the local community. Known as the Chardavogne Group, their activities on the community level had substantial and beneficial impact on the Town and Village of Warwick.
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