It floats!
The willow arrives
My Nigella-meets-willow look. Time to get weaving! (or whipping?)
Coil basket-making with Stella Harding using willow and my home-spun woolflax!
Spent Friday using Jen’s spinning wheel to spin wool and flax, making my own yarn/boat rope
Check out the blog my classmates and I have set up in the lead up to New Designers, which includes my jewellery project:
KLi2Al(Al,Si)3O10(F,OH)2 + Ag
Metallic native elements and elemental compounds are often extracted from abroad, using up resources which are becoming more difficult to obtain, having several sociological and environmental impacts. This project explores the value of material provenance in relation to the sourcing of precious metals and stones.
Why have we neglected our native resources and is there a way to make them more appealing to consumers? Through the study of the geology of Britain, the range of jewellery designed will be made purely from natural materials dug up in the UK – making us reconsider how we define ‘precious’ materials, is it rarity or beauty that makes something precious?
Yesterday I went to see Annemarie in Lewes to ask her about weaving a basket big enough to be a boat. Maybe it can be done?!
Today I went to visit Peter Faulkner in Leintwardine. He’s an expert traditional Currach and Coracle maker. He told me this poem, which speaks about the coming together of people over a common interest. Read til the end, it’s good!
Tuft of flowers
I went to turn the grass once after one
Who mowed it in the dew before the sun.
The dew was gone that made his blade so keen
Before I came to view the levelled scene.
I looked for him behind an isle of trees;
I listened for his whetstone on the breeze.
But he had gone his way, the grass all mown,
And I must be, as he had been,—alone,
‘As all must be,’ I said within my heart,
‘Whether they work together or apart.’
But as I said it, swift there passed me by
On noiseless wing a ‘wildered butterfly,
Seeking with memories grown dim o’er night
Some resting flower of yesterday’s delight.
And once I marked his flight go round and round,
As where some flower lay withering on the ground.
And then he flew as far as eye could see,
And then on tremulous wing came back to me.
I thought of questions that have no reply,
And would have turned to toss the grass to dry;
But he turned first, and led my eye to look
At a tall tuft of flowers beside a brook,
A leaping tongue of bloom the scythe had spared
Beside a reedy brook the scythe had bared.
I left my place to know them by their name,
Finding them butterfly weed when I came.
The mower in the dew had loved them thus,
By leaving them to flourish, not for us,
Nor yet to draw one thought of ours to him.
But from sheer morning gladness at the brim.
The butterfly and I had lit upon,
Nevertheless, a message from the dawn,
That made me hear the wakening birds around,
And hear his long scythe whispering to the ground,
And feel a spirit kindred to my own;
So that henceforth I worked no more alone;
But glad with him, I worked as with his aid,
And weary, sought at noon with him the shade;
And dreaming, as it were, held brotherly speech
With one whose thought I had not hoped to reach.
‘Men work together,’ I told him from the heart,
‘Whether they work together or apart.’
- Robert Frost
Visiting Ryan the boat builder in Barcombe yesterday. I found him on the Heritage Crafts Association website listed as a traditional craftsman. He let me visit his marvellous workshop and gave me a run-down on possibilities for my project. Haven’t been this excited in months! This is a video of him shaving some oars.
A video of the visit I made to Paula Bull in Wadhurst. I met her at the farmers market in Lewes whilst I was tracing the River Ouse through it’s different stopping points. My second attempt at video editing - improving slightly!
My *first* attempt at putting together a video of my journeys… this one is when I went to find the source of the River Ouse (part 1) apologies for poor quality… still figuring things out!
Mineral collecting at Newhaven
Collecting materials for my current project. I was so happy to find something!
