First Day of a New Project - A Small Library of Big Ideas at Boston Library

This will be the third time The Eloquent Fold, aka Carole Miles and I have been working with Transported providing them with a variety of creative engagement opportunities for the lovely people of Lincolnshire.

A completed book with blanks pages ready to fill with ideas aplenty

Transported is a strategic, community-focused programme which aims to get more people in the area of Boston and South Holland Borough to enjoy and participate in arts activities.  It is overseen by a Management Group, a sub committee of Leisure in the Community, along with artsNK as its lead organisation.  It is funded by the Creative People and Places fund from Arts Council England.

In the first year we were involved with the consultancy offering short bites sizes making sessions, engaging with locals, trying to find out what they would like to do.

Last year we were part of the Open Book project in a variety of libraries around the borough, our spin was a Flock of Words and Crumbs from the Word Table.  Being in a library it is always permissible to play with words and we certainly did.  We listened to stories from the locals of Lincolnshire the why and how they came to be there.

This book called "BangTap" is a joint venture with George and his Mum

And this year we are back with our Small Library of Big Ideas to do some more creative workshops.  We started with Boston Library and were delighted to be greeted with a many eager faces.  We arrived a little late due to Sat Nav says, "No" routine, as it was desperately tried to navigate us to Mablethorpe.

Some of the Transported team

The lovely team from Transported were on standby to help us get unpacked as I quickly took the group on a guided tour of the glass cabinet and showed them what they would be making and what we were hoping to achieve with our small library of big ideas.

The process of making the book has many folds

We split the tables and divided the group up to enable some to make the book structures and some to start creating pages to fill their complete books.

...and the ideas flowed

We want the small library to be filled with handmade books crammed with lots of ideas, information and projects; the hows and where's of starting a group or a mini project, a tutorial, or who can teach you something you'd like to learn.

My group of book folding initiates this week looked on with trepidation at the book structure I presented them, but once each of them had completed their book there were looks of pure pride.

On the other table Carole glided and swooped around the table stirring up the energy and enthusiastically talking about the project, the noise of chatter gradually rose and people started sharing their thoughts, their hopes and dreams.  Some of these were captured on their pages ready to be included in the books.  I think the hardest thing for people was to leave their books behind.

...and a good selection of stamps to express those ideas

We wanted people to make one for the Small Library and Take one home to fill.

A finished book ready to receive pages of ideas

Next week we'll be returning to Boston Library and Carole will be bringing her portable printing press so people can explore their own print adventure.

Photographs: Carole Miles

Penny Sessions

After a slight delay, my most current project, Penny Sessions has finally started.

Boseda Olawoye the Learning Manager has been working full on to ensure these sessions have had a take up.  Quite often with free opportunities people just don't see the value in what is being offered and then miss out on a great experience.

Over the next few months I will be working with a variety of groups that will access creative workshops that have been inspired by little known philanthropist, Samuel Morley.

So a little about the project.  

The Backlit Gallery in Nottingham is running a creative project inspired by the the life of Victorian textile manufacturer, Samuel Morley.  This man was truly ahead of this time - he supported women's rights, the anti slavery movement, he gave money to charity and gave rights to local employees who worked in his factories in Nottingham. Some of which we take for granted in the 21st century.

In 1889, he set up one of the first Adult Education Centres in the United Kingdom which was named, Morley College which offered 1d (old penny) talks for the working people in London.

The project is a series of 18 creative sessions that will be run in Sneinton and St Annes; sessions may includes activities such as pattern cutting bookmaking, poetry, embroidery etc.

If you are interested and would like to take part, please contact Bo Olawoye, Learning Manager by email bobacklit@gmail.com

The first session will be Wednesday 22nd July, 10am to 12pm at Backlit Gallery, Sneinton which will include bookmaking and poetry.

Sewing the Seeds of Creativity

For the past few years I have been working with artist Carole Miles on a variety of projects, including those with Transported Art.  We are now at the stage where we are going to set up our collaboration more officially as The Eloquent Fold as we feel there are many more adventures, places and people to engage with.

At the Green Patch, in Kettering, Carole has offered her creativity to the many visitors, young and old, to this delightful community allotment.  Walking around this wonderful space you can see evidence of her interventions with this growing space.  Our current project, "A View From Here" is set here, and at Kettering Buccleuch Academy where we engage both adults and children.  At the moment I am running, "Threads and Chatter" sessions, where participants can make and create and have a good natter.

Last night I worked with a group of eager and enthusiastic youngsters, keen to be outdoors, running, jumping and exploring their community space.  I brought to them some pencils, their previously made hand stitched books, needles, scissors and a box of colourful threads.







It was all about encouraging them to sketch their favourite parts of the allotment.  Some did quick sketches whilst others disappeared for 20 minutes before returning to the group.  As the was a reasonable evening we chose to work outside until it got cooler.

Despite a few, "oh I'm rubbish at drawing".  Every youngster produced a sketch.  Every youngster made a start on stitching their picture. Every youngster was fully absorbed until about 5 minutes before the end of the session when some had concentrated so hard were ready to go home.  Age range was about 6 - 12 years old.

Japanese Stab Binding Workshop

Three different styles of books were on offer to explore by the participants.

The first one was a Chinese Accounts book.  I like this structure as it gives an introduction into a few bookbinding techniques.

-   exploring the grain of the paper

-   how to fold paper the correct way

-   making folios

-   how to make a template for 

    stitching positions

-   what makes up a signature

-   how to stitch together the pages 

    of a signature

-   trimming up the edges

-   stitching the spine and finishing

    off

Each person finished their first book and as you can see the result of each was very different styling depending on how much thread they used in stitching the covers on.

One thing I found very strange was that six needles broke.  That is something I have never experienced as a needlewoman or during binding books.  I don't know whether people hadn't made their holes big enough for sewing or it was a bad batch of needles.  However, when I contacted the company I bought them from were very apologetic and sent me a replacement pack which has now been received.

Book number one complete and it was time for lunch.  It had been a heady morning with plenty of concentration; choosing paper patterns, cutting by hand, piercing paper and sewing.

After lunch, we moved on to larger books. The group were given a choice of books either the basic or hemp stitch.  I went very much by the pace things had gone in the morning and felt that there was a good chance that only one book would be completed by each person in the afternoon.

  

Most were keen to start on the hemp book, but a few wanted to do the basic binding first.  Each person  had a handout, but despite the practical morning sessions without handouts, some of the group found it difficult to follow the written instructions.  It was a bit disappointing since I had looked high and low for a hand-out that made sense and was easy to follow.

There are not many books about on the subject and certainly not many links online.  The book I like to refer to is Japanese Bookbinding:  Instructions form a Master Craftsman by Kojiro Ikegami

Note to self: Developing my own set of binding instructions. 

View From Here Project: Threads and Chatter presents sewing a bookmark

I even managed to get Carole involved!

It looks like we are back on track with regards numbers.  It was a worry as it is always better to have a healthy group to bounce ideas amongst rather than a small number.

The power of twitter allowed Carole and I connect to a couple of the parents at Kettering Buccleuch School who had attended previous sessions with their children.




Feedback from them
had been very positive and both parents and children always seemed to leave happy.  They kindly spread the word and we had a full and lively group, just the way we like it.

I decided to give the group the challenge of sewing a bookmark.  Which is no mean feat when you think that I have a few 6 year olds in attendance.

Never the less they all rose to my challenge and within the one and a half hours we are afforded at the school, they all finished their projects.

Feedback for the session as always was very positive.

And a big thank you to artist Carole Miles for taking photos during the session.

If you would like to read more about the View From Here Project please click on the following links:-

View From Here Project starts here
View From Here Project : Taking Threads and Chatter to the Green Patch
View From Here Project: Threads and Chatter wrapping threads at the Green Patch
View From Here Project:  Threads and Chatter wrapping threads at KBA
View From Here Project:  Threads and Chatter threaded Mandalas at KBA
View From Here Project:  Threads and Chatter gathering papers stitching handmade books
View From Here Project:  Preparing for World Book Night at KBA and The Green Patch

Just a box of old bricks

I love this time of year when all the car boots start up again.  I'm at my best when I am treasure hunting, looking for the mundane, bartering or hoping that the tin or box of random stuff will be a reasonable price.

Yesterday's finds reaped it's own rewards; an old button tin and a box of old bricks.  I spotted a few vintage

bricks at the top of the pile which I thought would be perfect on my stand alongside a few old books serving as display but also complimenting my work.  I am amazed at the variety of wooden bricks from different eras that I found in this box when I got it home.

These are the very vintage brick I spotted first.  I love the illustrations and the typeface that is used for the alphabet.

Wooden Bobbins what a nice find.  You don't find too many of these to the pound now.

BSA Bicycles, gosh that's going back some.

These are cute, possible 50's or 60's I'm thinking.

No idea of the date of these but love how they are embossed.  I wonder whether you could use them for printing or embossing onto surfaces.

Now these bricks have me really puzzled.  Austrian infantry, British Hussar, doesn't that relate to the Crimean War?

And finally a collection of bricks I used to play with as a child.

All in all this was a good find and I hope to find lots of ways of using some of these in my work.

Folding Magic Workshop

It seems such a long time ago since I completed my Foundation in Art and Design and although I have tried to keep a track on what everyone is up to that was on the course you inevitably loose track.

My foundation was not an experience that I particularly enjoyed, it felt very much like boot camp to me and at one point I very much doubted that I had a scrap of artistic ability.  I very much enjoyed meeting and working with the other students and we were a very strong year, it became a community where we helped each other and moved forward to a common goal.

Recently, I linked up with Steff Lee who was on my course.  She is now a wicked illustrator/ animator and if you click on the link it will take you to her shop.  I love the styling of her work which seems to be very much influenced by her cultural roots.  Just before Christmas last year we had an online chat about doing a skills swap but due to our commitments as freelance artists this is the first opportunity we have had to get together.  At this point I won't share what I wanted as part of the exchange but Steff on her part wanted to learn how to fold some flowers.


I advised her what she would need and I went armed a selection of paper, wire, green tape and other bits and bobs we would need for the day.

The day started off with discussing what she wanted to learn and why ('cause I'm nosey that way). I took her through the basic folds keeping out the names of bases etc.  When you first learn origami I feel you just want to know a few basic folds and bases, get the feel for repetitive folds then your knowledge will grown from there.

We worked steadily through the day taking in nibbles and recording our progress as we went.  By
lunchtime we had two Kusudama structures ready to finish.

It's amazing how the time goes, as they say, when you are enjoying yourself and our day was no exception, it fair whizzed by.

After lunch, I finished off the day by showing Steff how to fold some random shapes using the techniques she had learnt earlier; a heart, a butterfly and a tulip.

It was a lovely day and I hope we repeat it again sometime.

Steff Lee and Phiona Richards