Our Framing Marks Gate series kicks off with Tenayah Frederick, 10 year old Marks Gate resident and Loom Band expert! I met Tenayah at the tea party that I hosted at the Haven in May as one of my pop-up events and she was a little force of creativity to be reckoned with!

Loom bands are multi-coloured elastic bands that children loop together with their fingers or on a board to make bracelets, rings, necklaces and anklets, and this creative craze is currently sweeping across schools and playgrounds in the country as I type. At the Haven Tea Party Tenayah taught her mother and I how to make our own loom band bracelets over the course of 20 minutes. I left the tea party admiring my new piece of jewellery and Tenayah’s enthusiastic, clear and detailed instructions. I’m now a loom band convert!

I caught up with Tenayah recently to write this feature and she excitedly told me about her recent entrepreneurial efforts in promoting her loom bands, besides running small workshops within the events that I’ve organised, Tenayah also set up shop at the recent community event ‘Marks Gate Day’ with a stall selling her own loom band designs and made a total profit of £65, not bad for a first effort I’d say!

During our recent catch up, I’m also told about all of the different patterns that you can make; ‘starburst ladder’, ‘candy twist loom’, ‘triple single’ and our little creative’s very own ‘Tenayah’s two tone twist’ which I’m hoping she’ll be sharing in next week’s guest workshop as part of Tea Time Tuesday. If you’d like to attend Tenayah is holding a ‘Loom band’ workshop from 11am – 1pm on Tuesday 29^th July at the Marks Gate Community Centre, more info here: Loom Band workshop

Tenayah has a vision for her loom band designs, she would like to set up a website selling her creations and also sharing practical tips and advice.

We’ll end this article with Tenayah’s top tip for those new to loom band making:

‘Start simply with just a couple of colours in a single loop design’.