On The Tiles - Clay Update

The clay tile we made in the summer

have been fired

and glazed by artist Sonja Wilson.

Don't they look wonderful ...

shh, don't tell ...

we are going to give them out

in December, a lovely momento

of a year of growing - friendships, community,

creativity, laughter, skills, fruit, flowers.

So far, The View From Here has been just fine!

See how we made them 

and all the designs here

Autumn

The Green Patch was a hive of activity 

getting ready for the Open Day

Sue experimented with toffee apples

Carole worked with the group to create 

a welcoming banner.

This Autumn there has been an abundance

of delicious apples, we have made crumbles, 

pies, cakes and chutneys.

The nasturtiums are still blooming and 

are a great addition to salads.

Our Grow Wild planters seem to have a curious

 mix of wild flowers.

Down at the end of the patch the boat carries a 

wonderful cargo of flowers.

The ornamental squash have been harvested and the pumpkins

are ready to become both soups and Halloween lanterns!

Bessie's brood are exploring

and free ranging, getting bigger every day

and the raised beds are being turned over, 

ready for the next growing season.

You can see more images here.

Heraldry and Leaf Prints

Inspired by the rich history of the county

and all the delightful autumn leaves

feathers, cutouts and found objects,

the group made a series of prints on

Carole's portable printing press.

They then designed their own heraldic shields

adding symbols for things that interested them.

Felt Landscapes

Inspired by the summer landscapes we can see from 

The Green Patch, we made some wet felted panels

The View From Here - Exploring the Montagu Monuments

Way off, across the fields, St Edmund's Church, Warkton forms part of our view from The Green Patch and the Abvondale / Grange estate. During the summer Carole went to explore the church, and the newly restored Montagu Monuments with Ann-Marie Sandos, the Learning and Outreach Officer at Boughton House.

Ann-Marie was very keen to involve both Back To Books 

and The Green Patch in a creative exploration 

of the Montagu Monuments.

We began by making collages using photographs of 

details of the monuments and adding drawings 

and paint to express aspects of the monuments.

We later went on to create our own

salt dough memorial plaques.

Sign Up For free Threads and Chatter Family Sessions!

As part of Back To Books Project The View From Here, Phiona Richards and I will be holding free Threads and Chatter sessions at a as yet to be determined venue in the Avondale Grange Ward. If you live in this area and would like to take part follow this link  and fill in the days that best suit you. These are free, family friendly sessions please add each adult and child that will be taking part. Particpants must live in the Avondale Grange Ward.

You can see some of the things we made at KBA and The Green Patch here and here

Please feel free to share the link with anyone else in the Avondale / Grange area you think might enjoy taking part.

This project has been made possible by funding from Health Belief - 51 Community Interest Companies raising money to address health inequalities across England, Scotland and Wales through The Health Lottery.

Solar Print Bags

Sue had found some small pillow cases at the local scrap store and suggested to Carole that they might make good eco friendly shopping bags. Carole had some solar paints in her box of tricks and sent the group out to collect interesting leaves, flowers and grasses to make our solar prints from. 

The fabric was dampened and the pint was applied 

the leaves and flowers were laid on top and the pieces were carefully taken out into the sun so the paint could work it's photo magic! There were a few tricky moments, the wind kept twitching at the fabric, moving the carefully places stencils, the sun rain in and out of the clouds and finally everything had to be brought back inside as it began to rain!

After the shower passed and the sun returned the bags to be were taken out again to complete the developing process. We managed to create some beautiful, almost under water images and it was intriguing to see which leaves worked best.

we attached handles

stamped on The Green Patch

and left them ready to be fixed with a hot iron.

Great work everyone!