Back at Stave Hill Ecological Park last week with a group of
first year 3D design students from Camberwell College of Art. I suggested going there only recently
to my Intelligent Trouble collaborators but they didn’t take to it, so it was
good to go there on a bright and sunny autumnal day and do some making with my
students.
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| twining with spindle and willow and rosehips |
The day started with Rebecca Clark, who runs the team at Stave Hill, giving us
a tour of the park and pointing out plants we could use to weave with. Much coppicing has happened there since
my last visit there and the park looked very different. The hops were high and provided plenty of flexible and lengthy material to weave with. They
proved handy to split too. Wish
I’d taken a picture of these...
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| weaving a stool with hedgerow materials |
The idea was for the students to make interventions on
site. However, following an active
foraging session, a purposefully short introduction to cording and twining and
a cup of tea, they all got stuck in and produced the various constructions illustrated
here. We ran out of time to make our interventions. I’ll just have to plan a two day workshop next time so we have time to install things in situ and so surprise joggers, dogwalkers and nature lovers who frequent the park.
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| twined hedgerow materials including brambles, hops, cherry and willow |
I deliberately kept the imparting of technical know how down
to a minimum, so students had the chance to familiarise themselves with the materials they were
using in their own way, and rely on their own specific ways of making and constructing. Less information often means more in this case, and the feedback overall was very good at the end of the day. Note to myself, I must do this more often...
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| plaiting with willow and cording with ash leaves |
