more sketches for spring(s)

One creative idea sparks another. While on a recce at Coombe Trenchard planning the making and installing of sculptures to be part of an an exhibition there (see previous post), various ideas came to mind, including this one below.

I came across the avenue of trees (below) while looking for locations to install the work and thought of the following idea: how about weaving a canopy between trees. Using a similar technique to the one used to create installations in Darlington and Edinburgh, I'd strap on wooden stilts to weave at a height that then allows visitors to meander between the trees when walking through to the woodland area of the estate. I'm completely up for that acrobatic challenge and will think of this as a draft proposal for the 2017 instalment of the show at Coombe Trenchard. So, George Marsh, curator of the event, be prepared!

The Darlington Post

Here is a visual account of the installation at the Festival of Thrift and some of the twined baskets produced by visitors at the event. 

Three kilometres of sisal twine, a few days to stitch the installation, heaps of green materials, more sisal and yarn still to twine with, involvement from numerous, help from volunteers and well of course as the assistance from the Festival of Thrift's great team and Home Live Art, is all it took to achieve this! A fantastic experience all round and I certainly look forward to going up there again in a few weeks for another outdoor project in the making...

Highlights of the Festival of Thrift weekend? The Disco Bingo girls, thinking about landscape gardening courtesy of Nu-urban Gardeners, hearing but not having to dance the Lambeth Walk lead by Ida Barr during her now world famous Mash Up and meeting all those friendly Darlingtonians to name but a few things. Last but not least I have to add scything reeds and bulrushes in the nature reserve near Lingfield Point when foraging for materials to weave. This was done with the help of Peter and Tim (pictured below). Thanks to them and also to Stella, Alex and David who brought in clematis, willow, crocosmia and peony stems, as well as all the kids fro the nearby school who contributed their gorgeous twined constructions for the occasion.

basket bonanza

Forget loom bands, baskets were in at the Festival of Thirft in Darlington a couple of weeks ago (see previous and forthcoming posts). Here are some of the baskets and makers of them, and the director of the festival grabbing a few at the end of the event. She more than deserved them!

part of the installation stripped bare of
its twined hanging baskets

First Moves: from Darlington to Stave Hill and back again

Last week I rehearsed the making of a piece at Stave Hill Ecological Park, destined to be installed at the Festival of Thrift. Looking like what is pictured here only larger, the installation will appear as a hanging garden woven between buildings, patches of grass and a row of 18 trees with many more twined constructions (see below and link) made by visitors at the festival attached to it.

This trial is the first of many interventions I’ll be making at Stave Hill, where I’m due to take up an artist residency later this Autumn. I’ll be collecting materials to work with in the park to create installations and sculptures as well as harvesting materials I've sown and grown on site. 

I’ve long thought of creating something of a basketry garden since writing Practical Basketry Techniques and with this project, I'm much closer to achieving this. With this opportunity and other ongoing projects, I’m sowing all sorts of seeds at the moment. Let's wait and see what work I’ll be reaping in the future...

Art - don't use!

The Festival of Thrift instructible posted a couple of weeks ago on this blog, with instructions for twining with sticks and string, might have left you wondering what the object could be used for? Is it art? Is it design? If the Festival of Thrift is about celebrating upcycling and sustainable living, what is the point of making something that doesn’t have a function, no matter how green or economical the use of materials for its production are?

Well, art does fulfil a very basic human need and if you’ve made something, if only to look at, that is functional enough for me. The picture above is something I spotted outside the Czech Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennial a few days ago which, with humour, highlights this issue.

However, to put your sustainable minds at ease, I’ve turned the modernist principle of 'form follows function' on its head, and thought of a few uses for the original instructible…

·      fill the twined construction with seeds and nuts and use it as a birdfeeder

·      alternatively use it as a cover for a fat ball by threading and suspending the ball inside the cone 

·      use an apple instead of the a fat ball (see bottom picture) to feed your feathery friends, or use a pompom from which birds might pull threads and use in their nests for added warmth and comfort (see instructions below)

·      with a larger twined construction, use it as a hanging basket for plants by lining the inside with fabric or paper

·      finally, how about using it as a lampshade, using a low voltage bulb to prevent any fire hazard

Pompom making (a speedy method)

Wrap several yarns around your fingers, slightly spread.

Bring fingers together to release the bundle from your hand. Wrap the yarn tightly at least twice around its middle before tying and cutting off the yarn, 10 inches / 25cms approximately from the bundle - you'll be using this length to attach the pompom to the twined cone.

Cut the threads on either side of the bundle.

Fluff up and trim off the longer bits to make the pompom more regular.

Et voila!  Job done once again! 

For additional sources of inspiration on making bird-feeders and/or hanging baskets, click here and here.

Apple feeders for birds, better still with sunflower seeds
pushed into the fruits - click here for more pictures.