Sojo @ Nottstopping Festival

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Sojo invites you to dive into the imaginations of children through her world of animation. Learn some animation secrets and maybe even have a go yourself!

Big love to the whole of Notts for diving head first into this festival of awesomeness.

I mentioned a few organisations and people who are important to me in this film.

If you want to find out more about Small Steps Big Changes and  Open Water Education Network, here are their facebook pages.
You can also check out what Jayne Williams is up to at New Perspectives Theatre Company here.

Check out said awesomeness here:  
https://nottstoppingfestival.com/whats-on/

Donate to show some real love for the key workers in our community:
http://www.gofundme/nottstopping

Big ups to the organisations making this possible:
Creative Quarter, Nottingham, Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies, It’s In Nottingham, Notts TV, Hockley Hustle, Inspire Arts and Culture

and Ben Welch for being some sort of festival ninja!

Sojo at Awen

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Set up by Charlotte Church, Awen is a democratic school in Cardiff. When I heard her talking about her plans on the Adam Buxton Podcast I knew I had to get involved, either with my animation cap on or as an illustrator or to help the kids to develop fund raising campaigns.

Here’s a bit about my experience so far. Sorry about the choppy, grainy footage. It was a rushed job squashing this together before Christmas got in the way.

Stop Motion Animation Workshop

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Join Sophie Johnson-Hill, creator of Sojo Animation
for a 2 Day Stop Motion Animation Workshop designed to leave your child with the knowledge and skill set to continue their stop motion journeys back at home.

£66
Includes both days,
their clay/wire model to take home,
plus a downloadable link
of their handy work.

10am – 1pm 7 yrs +

2pm – 5pm 11 yrs +

Location: The Crescent, 4 Cavendish Crescent North, The Park, Nottingham NG7 1AY

Please note that there is only space for 8 children per age group and we rarely run workshops outside of schools, so please book early to avoid disappointment.

Sojo Animation at Barbican OpenFest: Art 50

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I feel very excited to announce that “I Am From” an animation I created, commissioned by Sky Arts and funded by Art 50, is showing at the Barbican as part of the OpenFest: Art 50

“I Am From” is an animated version of a poem written by 15 year old Annie, who lives in Londonderry, and gives a little insight into her experience of the world. I was able to have a Skype chat with Annie and her teacher before I started the animation process and (in true Sojo style) I was able to ask for some kids drawings to pop into the film. Annie’s little sister, Beth, did a fantastic job and, hey presto, we have a lovely little collaborative film.


This project was created to explore the notion of British identity in the wake of Brexit.

‘The Grumpy Hamster’ Story telling and craft workshop @ Ranby House

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Sojo reading ‘The Grumpy Hamster’ at Ranby House

What a brilliant morning of Sojo workshops for little ones at Ranby House in Worksop!

We read ‘The Grumpy Hamster’, tried a spot of yoga, stuffed ourselves with imaginary strawberries and helped out a baby polar by listening to him talk about his feelings and then made our own grumpy hamsters to take home.

I asked all the kids to think about what has made their hamster feel cross today. One little boy said his hamster was feeling cross because his big brother hamster told him to get out of his room. Boy, do we know how horrible that feels!

I also asked who they have in their lives that makes them feel better when they feel cross or sad. One little girl calmly replied “Jesus.” It turns out her father is a priest, so it all makes perfect sense.

All of the kids were a delight and the atmosphere at Ranby House was fabulous. Lovely sofas for big people and soft carpet for me and my little buddies, plus a great area for us to get super messy while we chatted away and made our grumpy hamsters. It was lovely to chat to some of the lovely Ranby House staff too.

Many of the hamsters morphed into hedgehogs. Hedgehogs are more fun to make!

The Grumpy Hamster

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It seems ludicrous that I haven’t blogged about this yet but…

I’ve written a children’s book!
thegrumpyhamster28frontcover29

‘The Grumpy Hamster’ is my first ever published story book as both author and illustrator.

I wrote this as a little personal experiment on spontaneous storytelling. It was completely improvised. I used my iPhone voice recorder and spoke it line by line, whilst getting my niece to repeat each line as I dreamt it up so that I would have the audio for an animation ready to go.

I knew, once we’d finished recording, we’d found ourselves a real gem! A simple and hilarious story, focusing on what we can do when we are fed up with feeling angry.

So I made a book!

Published in 2018 by the freshest children’s publishing company in the UK, Sojo & Mouse, which as the name suggests, I co-founded.

Sojo in LeftLion Magazine

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I do love LeftLion Magazine so very much! Each issue is bursting with everything that needs shouting about in Nottingham.  They champion awesomeness and help artists like me reach new eyes and ears.  I was so very chuffed to be invited in to LL HQ, along with some of Nottingham’s finest illustrators to discuss a new, mammoth collaborative project!  Let me tell about it…

The Goose is Loose

sojo-animation-the-goose-is-loose.jpg

See the whole cartoon

For each issue of LL magazine a new version of ‘The Goose is Loose’ would be taken on by a different illustrator (or illustrator/writer team).

Our brief was this…

You know that goose on the goose fair round about? Well he’s gone missing. Now make a cartoon about it. Make sure the first frame is two people in a pub discussing the fact that he’s missing.

My Sojo version was mostly made on my iPhone 6, with a cracked screen, using an app called Adobe Sketch. It hit the streets of Nottingham in the September issue, which of course is the big run up to Goose Fair.

And now that the Goose is actually back, I thought it was the perfect time to share a little Sojo post all about it.

I hope you all enjoy it.

Today’s Sojo Animation Workshop @Beeston Library

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no headed monster

Hello everybody!

Today was a real beaut of a day because I was lucky enough to meet some brilliant kids who attended my Sojo animation workshop at Beeston Library.  What a gorgeous environment to work from! I felt very lucky 🙂

Thank you to all of the parents who were very accommodating in coping with a suddenly much longer session.  I know these things are tricky!

Thank you for all of your hard work.

Please let me know what you think.  I felt very proud of of all of you for such brilliant ideas, art and voice overs.

Kids Tell the Best Stories!

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kids tell the best stories flyer.jpgI’m on a new mission.  I’m collecting stories.  Spontaneous stories told by children.

I am animating a few of them too!  Plus, once the animated series is out I will publish a beautiful book through Sojo Publishing Mouse, so you guys can read the stories every night!

Here is story number 1, written by a 3 year old called Morris.

“The Baby, the Sound and the Bird”