A flock of paper swifts hangs gently above the school hall, suspended from two handwoven hazel hoops. With every passing breeze, the birds slowly begin to circle.
Each swift is unique. Some carry careful patterns, others bright colours or handwritten messages of welcome. Together they form a growing flock, lovingly crafted by the children of Kingussie Primary School.
But here’s the thing. I didn’t facilitate the workshops that created this flock.
For me, that’s what makes this story so special.
Earlier this year, I was invited to lead a papercraft workshop at the Outdoor and Woodland Learning Annual Networking Event 2026, sharing some of the simple craft activities and mobile designs I’ve been developing through Wild Wings of Hope. More importantly, I wanted to explore how these ideas might travel beyond the workshops I lead myself—giving educators, artists and community groups the confidence to adapt them for their own communities.
One of those participants was Rachel Avery from Roots and Shoots Highland.
Inspired by the workshop, Rachel took the idea back to Kingussie, where she’s part of the volunteer group Badenoch Swifts.
The group had already been working to support local swift populations, commissioning the Badenoch Men’s Shed to build thirty nest boxes for homes across the area, including two installed at Kingussie Primary School.
As the swifts returned this spring, Rachel and fellow volunteer Sarah visited the school to share the remarkable story of these birds. The children discovered that swifts spend almost their entire lives in the air, migrating thousands of miles between Africa and the UK each year, and that an adult swift weighs little more than a crème egg.
Following the assembly, every child created their own paper swift. Some carefully decorated their birds. Others wrote messages of welcome for the swifts returning to Kingussie after their remarkable journey.
Together, hundreds of individual creations became a paper flock. The finished mobiles were first displayed in the school hall before moving to the Iona Gallery, where they formed part of a community exhibition during Swift Awareness Week.
The swift mobile was so simple and yet amazingly effective. It felt like the perfect way to give every child the opportunity to contribute to something much bigger.
What excites me most isn’t simply seeing another beautiful mobile. It’s seeing an idea take on a life of its own.
Too often, participatory art depends entirely on the original artist. When the workshops end, so does the project.
From the beginning, Wild Wings of Hope has aimed to do something a little different.
Alongside creating my own artworks and exhibitions, I’ve been developing simple, accessible activities that others can confidently lead within their own schools, organisations and communities.
Like the swifts themselves, I hope these ideas continue to travel—carried by people, adapted to new places and enriched by every community they reach. Perhaps that’s the most rewarding part of this story.
A workshop with outdoor educators became a school project in the Cairngorms.
A local conservation initiative became a community artwork.
A hall full of children became a flock of handmade swifts.
When photographs of the finished mobile were shared online during Swift Awareness Week, they were liked more than 1,200 times. Soon afterwards, people involved in swift conservation projects across the UK began asking how they could create similar installations in their own towns.
Watching those ripples spread has been extremely rewarding, and proof that sometimes the most meaningful artworks aren’t the ones we create ourselves — they’re the ones that inspire others to keep creating.
Wild Wings of Hope Comes to the Edinburgh International Book Festival
Celebrate the remarkable migration of swifts through papercraft, storytelling and live music at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
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