rockpool candy

Alternative Fete

Stuck in London and craving a bit o' the countreeeeee, my lovers? Well, this weekend, the Southbank is being transformed into a village fete. I'm not sure if there will be hoopla and throwing sponges at the vicar, but, as a Dooorset gurl myself, I'll certainly be there, along with my very talented friend, Julie-Anne of Curious Tales. (Seamstress of my famous corset and bustle.)

My fibre movement, Let Me Ease Your Day, will feature, and I'll be hawking my spinning batts and Curious Tales' will be selling her fab designer clothing.

For full details, read the press release below.

See you there,

x

Watch this Space Festival, National Theatre, South Bank, London SE1

Saturday 26th September: 12pm - 7pm

Sunday 27th September: 12pm - 3pm 

 

For the second year in a row, innovative live art and performance company, Home live art, presents a riotous weekend of artist’s, craft and produce stalls, performances and participatory activities which re-interpret the traditional village fete for the urban environment of the National Theatre.

At 12pm each day the Fete will be opened by a special Guest Star from the National Theatre….

 

Saturday will revolve around a vibrant stage programme - including a mass ukulele jam, contemporary barn dance, participatory skipping & hoola hooping and a spectacular bird of prey demonstration – alongside a wealth of fun, participatory fete based games and interactions that bring our traditional craft making practices into the 21st Century. The Legendary Miss Amy Lame invites you to make a pom pom for peace, while you can brush up on your knitting, sewing and craft skills with The Make Lounge, I Knit London and Rockpool Candy, as well as play fete games with The Society of Wonders and sample beautiful cupcakes and herbal teas. There will also be handmade toys and crafts using recycled and found fabrics.

 

Sunday's lunchtime programme will mark the seasonal move towards Autumn and Harvest with a series of innovative food and horticulture projects where visitors can share in the art of preparing, cooking and tasting to the sounds of anarchic Balkan beats from the Transsiberian March Band, ending with the fabulous School of Dance, where the audience can learn the Samba alongside the legendary Miss High Leg Kick and Boogaloo Stu.

Food artist Prudence Statie will be sculpting in chocolate, whilst Sharon Baker invites you to vote for your favourite bread breast bun, alongside cup cakes, home made jams & preserves, and innovative food interactions from performance company Curious and artists Lisa Cheung, Miche Fabre Lewin and Sophie Herxheimer.

 

Participants: The Benoit Viellefon Band, Bo-Peep Kids, Blue Field, Chrissy Cromer, Curious Tales, Cut a Shine, The Dulwich Ukulele Club, Golden Co-operative, The Hawk Experience, Hedgerow Provender, Miss High Leg Kick and Boogalou Stu's School of Dance, I Knit London, Lisa Cheung, Liz Bentley, The Make Lounge, MC Paul L Martin, Mary Mathieson, Miche Fabre Lewin, Peggy's Cupcakes, Pom Pom International (Amy Lame & Shane Waltener), Prudence Staite, Rock a Hula! Rockpool Candy, Roots & Shoots, Ros Badger, Sharon Baker, Simon Withers & Chris Jones, Skip Sisters, Skip Theatre, Society of Wonders, Sophie Herxheimer, Sugargrain, The Transsiberian March Band.

 

Notes:

home live art: ‘Home maybe where the heart is, but it is also where innovation takes root and thrives’ Lyn Gardner, The Guardian. Launched in 1999, home live art is a dynamic team of creative producers with a passion for presenting live art and performance work in site specific contexts. www.homeliveart.com

Watch this Space Festival is The National Theatre’s annual summer festival of outdoor theatre, circus, music, dance, comedy and film on the South bank from 1^st July until 27^th September. http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/wts

For further information or images please contact: home live art: Laura Godfrey-Isaacs laura@homeliveart.com, Tel. 07957 565336. National Theatre: Caroline Ansdell cansdell@nationaltheatre.org.uk Tel. 0207 452 3231

Fibre, Fibre, More Fibre and Travelling....lots of travelling.....NI, England & Wales

If you've been keeping up with my blog, you'll have read my post about trolling around Northern Ireland with Pom Pom International,

Cue a bum shot of Miss Amy Lamé.

And I must admit, on that tour, I had the best time I've had since I moved over to the Province. And got to meet just the best people.

Thanks go out to Derry Pride organisers and ball goers.

Here's the yarn you helped me to spin. I'll make and extra-special pom pom with it.

But that wasn't the only bit of travelling I got up to in the UK.

After the tour, I caught the sunny Belfast ferry cross the angry body of water better known as the Irish sea.

Ah.....summer......

I picked up the fabulous Ildi and we had a brill couple of days driving down to London, eating delish kebabs and staying in dodgy hotels to drop off one of my 'Great White' reefs for the Creative Stitches and Hobbycraft shows that are touring the UK.

It's for part of their Reclaim, Re-use, Recycle show and it opens for the first time today in Exeter and goes on until early next year. The reef is just one of the elements I've created especially for the show cabinet they've given me. I can't wait to see the final underwater scene.

Next stop, London and I Knit.

Me and my mucker mate, moonspinning . Hanging out, meeting other complete loons, like alabamawhirly and bringing fibre fiddlers over to the dark side of spinning. Come on, can you really resist ferreting in this and getting creative? (even if I do say so myself!)

 

Whizz bang and I'm in Ross on Wye, rumaging through beach detritus to finish my jellyfish.

  

And may I be so bold to suggest that, should you feel the desire to begin untangling neon fishing line and crocheting it... don't. It's a madness not best visited.

And so to Wrexham, Wales. Yale College to be precise. And their recycling exhibition. The poster is in both English and Welsh, in case you're wondering.

And within minutes, like ants around a just-dropped ice-cream, we fibre fiddlers are circling two spinning wheels and sharing techniques.

I even taught Marcus to make plastic-bag yarn and to spin moonlight, all against a back drop of my jellyfish and second 'Great White' reef. Now that doesn't happen very often.

And finally back home. To rest my weary spinning muscles and enjoy a bit of colour therapy.

Yarn is good........

Pom Pom International Northern Ireland Tour

What wonderful things pom poms are.
Natalie's beautiful, handmade yurt was the perfect setting to share our fiber fiddlery.

Despite some reservations from those faultering on the the threshold, once they sat down and began to wind a myriad of coloured yarns around their pom pom makers, they became entranced.

These Pom Poms really brought diverse people together in the name of peace.

There were pirates in Portadown.

Singing novice spinners in Derry.

 

Extended families in Fermanagh.

 

Welcoming volunteers in Darkley.

 

Teams of teenagers on the Shankill Road.

 

It was a memorable, if sometimes wet and blowy tour.

Thank you Northern Ireland.

Peace!

Pride in my Pom Poms for Peace

Right.

Think of three things that you would never expect to hear in the same sentence.

Pom pom.

Yurt.

Place of conflict.

So if I tell you that I'm going to be taking part in Amy Lamé's Pom Pom International Peace Tour, in a yurt, travelling to places of conflict here in Northern Ireland, you might be forgiven for thinking..."huh?"

But it's really happening, Reg!

Here are the dates.

Saturday 23rd August 

10am-4pm 

Lunasa - Bash at the Bann

Portadown

Co.Armagh

Sunday 24th August

7.30pm-11pm 

The Official Pride Ball 

(part of Foyle Pride)

The Corinthian Ballroom, City Hotel

Derry

Co.L/Derry

For which I've dyed up some special 'Pride Flag Roving' for proud fibre fiddlers.

Monday 24th August

4pm-9pm 

Share Village

Smith's Strand

Lisnaskea

Co.Fermanagh

 

Wednesday 26th August 

Time to be confirmed 

Crossfire Trust/Singing Kettle

Darkley House

Darkley, Keady

Co.Armagh 

Thursday 28th August 

2pm-5pm 

UNBCEP Cross Community Sports Day

Woodvale Park

Shankhill Road

Belfast

I'll be teaching folks of all ages and abilities how to spin, make yarns from recycled materials and to dye wool with Koolaid!

And all in a beautiful yurt built by the equally beautiful Nat at neck of the woods. 

So come on, set your cynicism aside and embrace the softness, the fluffiness, the pom pomery that is Pom Pom International's Peace Tour.

Oh, and it's free!