Visible mending On Tour

Fresh from Northumberland via The Shed on the Allotment Carol Parker's mighty Visible Mending Exhibition - with additions from The View From Here group has arrived at The Green Patch in Kettering!

Visible Mending Exhibition

originally shown in THE SHED ON ALLOTMENT 17B  is now on tour!

 http://theshed1.wordpress.com

A self-funded, social media driven project by social artist Carol Parker; connecting communities through the traditional craft of darning and the contemporary craft of visible mending

Contributors so far:

Carol Parker, Lincolnshire

Kay Steven, Northumberland Lorena Hodgson, Lincolnshire Fiona Gurney, Lincolnshire Gillian Wing, Lincolnshire Suu Wernham, Lincolnshire
Carole Miles, Northants Anonymous, Yorkshire
Kate Marsden, Surrey
Anna, Sweden
Cassandra Harrison, Berwick on Tweed
Rosie Moore, West Sussex
Jeni Atkinson, Lincolnshire
Jane Pullan, Enid Lechie, Helen Porter  and Patricia Ward of  Unique Cottage Studios Textile Group, Lincolnshire Lucy Anderson, Maureen Walvin, Sonja Wilson,  Sue Rigby, Jenny - Northamptonshire

All photographs of individual work and tour will be uploaded here: 

If you can't get to the Green Patch here is a glimpse of the exhibition in the Summer House

A lovely place to sit, enjoy the view and all the Visibly Mended postcards on tour so far. 

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO DARN YOUR OWN POSTCARD TO ADD TO THE EXHIBITION.  DON’T FORGET TO LEAVE A MESSAGE ON THE BACK – AFTER ALL THAT’S WHAT POSTCARDS ARE FOR!….

If you'd like to add to the Kettering leg of the tour why not join us at the Resource Centre between 11 and 1 Friday June 20th for coffee and creativity!

Creating Our Silver Lining

We had another lovely session at the

Resource Centre - this was our view, 

which had inspired a number of new poems. It was great to discover that Lucy Anderson's writing exercises from last week had inspired some of the group to continue writing at home. A silver lining discovered by one participant was that writing was a portable art form, which could be done anywhere in moments between other daily activities. This discovery was exciting and liberating for her and definitely helped to refocus the view. We were asked to write without thinking or censoring ourselves, a free flow exercise which took a few minutes, Lucy then helped us to home in on a central theme, which we started to shape further. There was a round table sharing of the poems so far, which Lucy commented on and gave each participant a series of suggestions for constructive ways forward. It was interesting to learn that sometimes being stuck or writing about being stuck can lead to new thoughts and ideas.

Carole Miles brought in a selection of fabric samples, paints and stencils and invited us to create pieces which will become bunting to help cheer the view. This was a lively activity so in between we stopped for tea and cake!

We'll be meeting again Friday 13th June between 11.00am and 1.00pm so if you live in the Avondale Grange ward or are in the area please come and join us. The sessions are free and all materials are provided. You can let us know if you'll be joining us here

 

Visibly Mending the View

We have now begun our new pilot project 

The View From Here 

and will be meeting mid-morning on 

Fridays for 6 more weeks.

For our first exploration artist Carole Miles

invited the group to take part in the Visible Mending

touring exhibition by Art on the High Street.

We chose postcards and altered or mended them

thinking and sharing our views and experiences

as we stitched, darned and embellished our postcards.

Poet Lucy Anderson (finally united with her Art on the High Street Flouro Rattus who arrived named Lucy her creators by Carol Parker & Amy Lee)  invited each person to show their mended card and to share the story behind the stitches.

By a process of reduction we were 

led to a starting point for a poem

which we will be continuing to work 

with on Friday 6th June 11 - 1pm. 

Please do join us if

you are in the area.

You can see all of the postcards we mended here , they will be joining the existing cards when the Visible Mending Exhibition comes to the Green Patch on June 14th

You can more about Art On The High Street's Visible Mending here 

and you can see Carole's first card, which is already on tour here

You can let us know if you'll be joining us here

 

Remake Remodel Signage Project For the Green Patch

We have been involved in a lovely making project for Lucy Darby at the Green Patch, a wonderful community allotment in Kettering. Lucy asked Carole Miles if she could design a series of signs to help people navigate their way round the site and to highlight the plants and bees found in the new Bee Garden.

Carole a variety of cut stencils

and we set to work applying them 

to pallets, scrap wood and marine ply.

There is something very satisfying about giving

discarded or unwanted scrap a new purpose!

The stencils were applied with acrylic 

paints and sponge rollers.

Stencils were overlaid

and words applied with either 

paint or indelible marker

Mark edged and varnished them

and we can't wait to see them in their new positions!

You can see more images of the signs here

Fancy planting a Bee friendly garden look here

and here is a link to a lovely poster showing 

types of plants to encourage different types of bees

This reminded us of a lovely walk through the gardens at Boughton House where we were delighted to see many bees busily investigating the wonderful variety of plants last August. You can see the Flickr set here. Let's all get busy and give the bees a helping hand!

Inked and Laced

Our resident artist and project coordinator Carole Miles was invited to run a lace inspired print making session during the Keep Calm and Carry Yarn day at the National Centre for Craft and Design in Sleaford.

This gave Carole the perfect opportunity for some experimentation in her garden studio, using lace donated by a variety of Back To Books members whilst developing a new Remake Remodel activity and the chance to take some more steps further afield. Carole persuaded Back To Books member and walk facilitator Andrew Rushton to accompany her and to help document the work. It was also and opportunity for Andrew to explore the delights of the NCCD and of the area surrounding the building. He loved exploring Sleaford inspite of the torrential rain and took a lovely sequence of images in the rain-less moments! 

The workshop space provided at the NCCD was lovely, as was the group and only one or two had any previous print making experience. As this was a short session prints were made in a variety of quick and simple ways and Carole gave advice on how to avoid the pitfalls of using either too much or too little ink / texture. First impressions were a pathway towards much more successful prints as participants got the feel of what the materials might do and which colours might work best.

 We loved the journey this particular print took

 and were intrigued by the choice of materials.

We also love the way that Carole showed the group

how to get two prints from one pull.

There was also time to explore different ways of

utilising inked or embossed lace and 

both sides of the materials inked.

We feel certain that participants were happy as they left with a sheaf of printed papers which could be remade or remodelled into other things. You can see more impressions here

The day was also a great opportunity to connect with other makers like Anna Steiner, Phiona Richards, Amy Lee and Carol Parker and to see the gorgeous window exhibition by Ruth Singer. There was a wonderful exhibition of jewellery called Jewellery for the Famous and the Infamous taking inspiration from contemporary icons. There was so much to see and many old techniques being used in new ways or new techniques taking craft into new realms. The shop was full of delights including gorgeous work by one of Carole's favourite jewellers  Helen Noakes and we can heartily recommend making a visit or taking a course at the NCCD if you get the opportunity!

Free Drop-in Workshops at The Resource Centre, Kettering Exploring

              

THE VIEW FROM HERE

Do you live in the Avondale / Grange 

ward in Kettering?

If so why not join us For Fun Free Creative Sessions

Join members of BACK TO BOOKS 

and artist Carole Miles  

for a series of two hour drop in sessions 

on Friday afternoons.

The Resource Centre, 

9 Grange Place, Kettering

Friday May 30th, Friday June 6th, 

Friday June 13th, Friday June 20th, 

Friday June 27th, Friday July 11th, 

Friday July 18th, Friday July 25th

Time :- 11.00 am - 1.00 pm

The workshops open to any age but children must be accompanied by an adult. Come and get creative, share words and images, make something, write something to brighten your view from here.  Explore how we feel about where we are and how our viewpoint can change. A great opportunity to have some fun, learn skills and share your thoughts!

Free, friendly, supportive, creative sessions with coffee or tea and good conversation.

Click this link Sign Up Here now so we know you'll be joining us and we can get the kettle on!