The Mabon Tree: Costume Making, Community and Celebration in Stroud
Something a little different has been growing between Emergence Commons and Lansdown Hall this September.
The Mabon Tree Costume Making project brings together costume, creativity, reuse and community making, giving people the chance to help create something that will become part of a much bigger event at Lansdown Hall.
Our first making session took place at Emergence Commons, 1 Kendrick Street, Stroud, on Tuesday 8 September, with people coming together to work on costumes and puppets, experiment with materials and contribute their ideas to the project.
And we are not finished yet.
We have now added another costume making date on Friday 18 September, giving more people the opportunity to get involved in the making process.
What is the Mabon Tree project?
Mabon marks the autumn equinox, traditionally associated with harvest, changing seasons, balance and the transition into autumn.
For this project, those ideas are being explored through making, costume, performance and community participation.
Rather than everything being created behind closed doors and presented as a finished piece, the making itself is part of the experience.
People can get involved, contribute, learn from each other and see how an idea develops from loose materials and individual pieces into something much larger.
That approach is also very close to what we are trying to build at Emergence Commons.
We want creativity to feel accessible. You do not have to already think of yourself as a designer, costume maker or artist to take part. Sometimes the best way to discover what you can do is simply to sit down with other people and start making.
An extra costume making session on Friday 18 September
Following the first workshop, we are adding an extra making session on Friday 18 September.
It is another opportunity to contribute to the Mabon Tree costumes and the wider project, whether you took part in the first session or are coming to it completely fresh.
The work is collaborative, so you do not need to arrive with a finished idea or specialist skills.
It is about experimenting, helping to construct the costumes and characters, working with the materials available and becoming part of the story that is being created.
Reuse is an important part of that process too.
At Emergence, we are interested in what happens when materials are given another purpose rather than automatically being treated as waste. Costume and performance are brilliant places to explore that because scraps, discarded textiles, old garments and unexpected materials can become completely transformed through imagination and making.
From the workshop to Lansdown Hall
The costume making feeds into the wider Mabon Tree event at Lansdown Hall, taking the work beyond the workshop table and into a shared community event.
That is one of the things we particularly love about this collaboration.
There is a difference between attending a creative workshop and making something that will actually go somewhere afterwards. Knowing that what you are creating is going to become part of a performance, installation or larger event gives the process another layer of meaning.
The people taking part are not just making an object to take home.
They are contributing to something collectively.
It is a way of showing how community arts can work when people are invited into the process rather than simply asked to observe the finished result.
Creativity, sustainability and community
For Emergence Commons, projects like this sit directly within the reason the space exists.
Upstairs from Emergence Restock, we are developing a creative space where textiles, repair, upcycling, art, design and community can meet.
A lot of conversations around sustainability understandably focus on what we need to stop doing.
Buying too much. Throwing things away. Producing too much waste.
But there is another side to it.
What can we make from what already exists?
What skills can we share?
What happens when people are given the space to experiment?
Can unwanted materials become costumes, artwork, banners, puppets or something we have not even thought of yet?
That is where circularity becomes much more interesting.
It stops being only about managing waste and starts becoming about imagination.
Sustainable Fashion Week
We are also really pleased that the project has been included by Sustainable Fashion Week in its magazine.
Sustainable Fashion Week has played an important role in widening the conversation around fashion and textiles beyond simply asking people to buy a more sustainable version of the same thing.
Repairing, reusing, swapping, altering, sharing skills and extending the life of clothing all need to be part of the picture.
Community projects matter within that conversation.
Circular fashion cannot only happen at industry level. It also happens when somebody learns how to repair something they would previously have thrown away, when an unwanted textile becomes a costume, when materials are shared rather than discarded, or when people learn a skill that changes the way they think about clothing.
That is why projects like the Mabon Tree are so relevant to us.
They make reuse visible, creative and enjoyable.
Come and be part of it
If you missed the first session, there is still an opportunity to get involved.
Extra Mabon Tree Costume Making Session
Alongside the costume making on 8 September, we also had a puppet-making workshop led by Kæridwyn Eftelya, a theatremaker, puppeteer and facilitator. It gave people another way to get involved creatively, exploring character, movement and storytelling through making. Having costume and puppetry happening together worked really well, bringing different ideas and skills into the space and adding another layer to the wider event.
Friday 18 September 2026
The project will then come to life as part of the wider event at Lansdown Hall in Stroud.
Whether you are interested in costume, textiles, sustainability, performance, puppetry or simply fancy making something alongside other people, you are welcome to be part of it.
You do not need to be an expert.
Come with ideas, come to learn, or just come and help us make.
Because sometimes the most interesting things happen when a pile of materials, a room full of people and a slightly ambitious idea all meet at the same time.
Emergence Commons1 Kendrick StreetStroudGL5 1AQ
Instagram: @emergence.restockWebsite: emergencerestock.co.uk
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