National Festival of Making, Blackburn | 6-7 July 2024

QEST had a brilliant time at the National Festival of Making in Blackburn in 2024, with record-breaking crowds attending the event. Drop-in family-friendly craft workshops were held in the Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery amidst displays from Blackburn’s history as an industrial mill town.

The QEST team was proud to return to the event, this time joined by reverse glass gilder and sign writer Annahieta Seyed Alizadeh Oskooi, a 2023 QEST Garfield Weston Foundation Emerging Maker. Annahieta showed visitors how to make their own wooden bookmark using a stencil and gold coating, with more than 300 bookmarks made across the weekend in what was a popular workshop.

The annual festival is a unique celebration of making, from the kitchen table to the factory floor, offering a programme of work that combines Art, Manufacturing, Making and Communities for all to enjoy – for free.