Woven Dragon
Clear Water Bay School
Our mission was to find a way to repurpose old school uniforms and create a sustainable, thoughtful, and resourceful dragon entirely from recycled materials, without using any new resources.
织梦龙 (Zhi Meng Long) - Weaving Dreams Dragon
This dragon is crafted from woven materials, symbolising the phrase "Weaving Dreams," which evokes the dreams of childhood filled with poetry and beautiful expectations.
This project was part of an artist-in-residence initiative, where we spent two weeks at Clear Water Bay International School collaborating with Year 4, 5, and 6 students, as well as staff and parents. While we spent several months planning and designing in advance, a significant focus was on preparing by cutting old cotton striped shirts into strips and dyeing them in a variety of colours. We also visited REDRESS to collect additional clothing, seeking fabrics and colours that could enhance our design.
As part of the brief, we also had to consider how to store the dragon easily. To meet this requirement, we developed a design concept similar to Russian dolls, allowing all the parts to stack neatly inside each other for compact and convenient storage.
During the residency, we set up multiple weaving stations where students could contribute to weaving into the large black mesh panels. Some panels were attached to white frames for standing weavers, while others were large circles laid on the tables for sitting weavers.
The dragon is composed of 11 sections, each shaped like a drum with a woven panel encircling the circumference and a circular woven panel on one side, and another side which is left open. Straps made from old sports uniforms allow it to be worn on the back or front, enabling a student to carry it with ease.
The dragon’s head is constructed from various sizes of embroidery hoops, using the same black mesh as the body sections. Details on the head were sculpted from recycled cardboard and strung with warp strings to create a woven panel. The beard is made from strips of sports uniform, and the head is mounted onto wooden broom handles, allowing it to be carried by two students simultaneously.
We aimed to incorporate colours representing all the different dragon houses: red (Dilong), blue (Jiaolong), yellow (Yinglong), and green (Shenlong). The result is exceptional, and we are incredibly proud of the hard work and dedication shown by the students. This dragon will be a treasured part of the school for years to come.
