(Top) Youngsters prepare masks and (above) beads and bracelets out of old magazines and newspapers. Pictures by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Nov. 2: Sikata, a 19-year-old student, rushed from college to try her hand at creating decorative flowers out of plastic bottles that was taught at a workshop in the city. Her friend Neelanjana was excited on learning the nuances of creating colourful masks out of waste paper. Many other youngsters in the city joined them at the craft workshop and were delighted to explore their creativity.

The craft workshop was held at a children’s library on Wednesday where volunteers from different countries belonging to the European Voluntary Service let the young participants discover their flair for creating novel articles out of waste.

“I had never tried my hand at preparing masks and always felt it must be a really complicated task. But I’m enjoying the process so much, I even surprised myself by coming up with innovative designs for the masks,” said Neelanjana, a student.

“It is usually thought that creating crafts is meant only for children. But there is no age limit to explore one’s creativity. Moreover, we will be teaching these methods of preparing colourful objects to children who visit the library,” said Roopali Mishra, another youngster at the workshop.

Cutting out old newspapers, creating different shapes out of them and adding glue and colour kept the youngsters busy at the Bakul Children’s Library, where the workshop was held.

“We taught them the method of making Origami, paper masks, decorative items out of plastic bottles and many other crafts. All of them are fast learners and were curious to learn more,” said Marion, a volunteer from France who was one of the craft resource persons at the workshop.

“Many kids come to the library for story-telling sessions or reading and other activities. Since most of the youngsters who participated in our craft workshop volunteer here, they can easily train the children who visit the library in future,” said another resource person, Mariann from Estonia.

“We mostly focused on creating useful or decorative products by recycling waste paper or other material in the workshop,” added her friend, Serena from Italy.

The young craft persons were also busy making beads and bracelets out of colourful paper and old magazines.

“The workshop was very enjoyable since we got to know how so many innovative products can be made out of scrap material. Though simple, the activity was a lot of fun and even relaxing,” said Satyajit Das, a young engineer who attended the workshop.