A Moss Art Workshop, run by Plant Designs in Farringdon, has been selected by ticketing and event platform Eventbrite as a finalist in its Most Curious & Colourful Events competition, beating off strong entries from hundreds of organisers throughout the UK.

A picture containing person, indoor, dish, pan

Description automatically generatedThe winning event, to be announced in November, will receive a £2,500 cash prize and £2,500 of Eventbrite fee credits to help it grow and bring even more people together

The Moss Art Workshop was commended for bringing people together to socialise and get creative in their own unique way, as well as offering those people that aren’t green-fingered the opportunity to make their own work of art and bring nature into their home.

Throughout and following the pandemic, organisers have worked tirelessly to keep people connected through events and Eventbrite’s Most Curious and Colourful Events competition was created to celebrate the wide diversity of events that can be found on Eventbrite, and especially those that could be described as unusual, unique, alternative – and maybe a little bit ‘out there’.

Eventbrite hosted over a million events in the UK last year, so selecting only 12 finalists was no mean feat. Other events that made the top 12 include workshops in Japanese paper marbling, underwater photo shoots, puppet making, spoon carving, nettle foraging and scarecrow making.

The event organiser, Plant Designs, say the Moss Art Workshop has been its most popular to date so it will be adding more events into the calendar. Plant experts help attendees to create a unique piece of home décor using preserved moss species, which come in a variety of colours and textures, bringing art and greenery into their home. Materials are provided to make the moss frame, as well as expert advice and refreshments.

Nina Khaira, who runs the Moss Art Workshops on behalf of Plant Designs said: “Moss art has been popular because it’s so different, low maintenance and can add natural greenery to the home in a really distinctive way. The workshops have given people the opportunity to be creative – with a guiding hand – and people bring friends along, too, so they can socialise at the same time. It gives a real twist to plants and attendees get deep satisfaction from taking something away that they’ve created and is unique to them.”

Commenting on the workshops, one attendee, Evelyn Nevans said: “We had a great evening making moss art and can’t wait to hang our handmade art up at home. Everything about the event was super laid back and social, which made it so much more fun and even easier to learn how to create the moss panels. The other guests and the host and helpers were so friendly and it felt like a really nice and different way to unwind and have a couple of drinks with friends.”

Eventbrite’s Sebastian Boppert said: “Among the wide variety of experiences on Eventbrite, the Moss Art Workshops stood out for many reasons on top of being delightfully different. Attendees get to socialise, learn new skills and have the satisfaction of creating something that will be a talking point in their home for years to come. The workshops definitely deserve to be a finalist in the Most Curious & Colourful Events competition, and it’s a huge accolade to Nina and Plant Designs to stand out from the vast number of events of all shapes and sizes we host on our platform all over the UK.”