RETRACE: A Shadore Collage Evening

Fresh back from our Shadore tour across France, Spain and Portugal (we came home with suitcases full of materials and zero regrets), we’re back in Bristol. For November, our monthly evening moves to King Street.

First, a confession: this isn’t a gig. There’s no stage, no set list, and nobody will ask you to clap along. There’s just paper, scissors, glue, and the shape your body (or your favourite object) makes in lamplight. Very moody. Very flattering. Everyone looks great as a shadow.

Every Shadore evening so far has been a full house of happy, glue-covered humans. Tickets go faster than the gold pens, and trust us, the gold pens go fast. After RESET and RESURFACE, RETRACE is the next chapter, so maybe don’t sleep on this one.

So what actually happens?
You’ll trace your own shadow onto craft paper, then spend the evening filling it in with torn magazine scraps, stickers, gold pen, or whatever your hands reach for. It’s arts and crafts for grown-ups, minus the teacher confiscating the glitter.

You don’t need any art experience, and you don’t need to be “good at drawing.” Your shadow has never once judged your stick figures. Just show up as you are, and you’ll leave with something only you could have made.

**Shad0Wring **
We call it Shad0Wring: the practice of loving what lives in the shadow instead of editing it out. Some people fill their outline with joy. Some fill it with grief. Some use both, torn from the same page. All of it belongs, including the bits you’d normally crop out of the photo.

What to expect
· A short framing talk (short, we promise)
· Prompt cards, introduced one at a time so it never feels like too much
· All materials provided, so you won’t have to raid your recycling bin
· A room of strangers quietly making things together, which is somehow the most relaxing thing in the world

✨ Bring: yourself. Maybe also a photo, a ticket stub, a page from a magazine, or a scrap of something that means something to you. Yes, even the receipt you’ve been keeping for sentimental reasons.

Leave with: your own shadow collage, made real. It’s fine if it’s finished and fine if it isn’t. Unfinished is a whole aesthetic.

Details King William Ale House, 20 King Street, Bristol Thursday 26th November Doors 7pm · Starts 7.15pm · Ends 9.30pm Minimum £5 to save your spot, £15 advised. Give what feels right for you.

Grab a drink, grab some scissors, and come Shad0Rer with us. @shadore.within

Please note: this is a collage art workshop, not a live music event. Come ready to make, not to watch. (You can still watch other people make things. We won’t stop you. But your hands will get jealous.)