The Tide Stays In!

In tropical heat to-day, some 40 people called into the Green Man Gallery for some determined "Knitting of a new landscape"

It was great! There were needles knitting, crochets hooking and alarming needle-felt barbs avoiding people's fingers. Seaweed was knotted and jellyfish ribboned and wobbled. A lot of the new creations were placed in the window display by their makers

And the Gallery has asked for our Ancient Landscape to stay in the window for another week!

branching coral

seaweed might be knitted....

seaweed could also be knotted...

...but sooner or later, it always gets someone!

a sea slug takes shape

a half-grown sea slug

the adult slug sets off on adventures

crochetted and fossilised ammonites 

contributions from our friends at Silverdale Library

Small creatures creeping in!

Following up on earlier entries....we've had a delicious delivery of tasty ancient seafood...or maybe just some wonderfully tentacled lovelies. Thanks you, Geraldine!

The seas of June

Ancient Landscapes splashing about the summer!

nesting coral from Lady Manners

We've had workshops all over the place this month, so here is a quick collection of excitements...

We have visited

Lady Manners School - working with the Year 12 textile students

Lady Manners, large drawing

National Trust at Ilam Park for a Father's Day event

Buxton Soroptomists where we gave an after-dinner talk complete with fossils, model trilobites and horseshoe crabs, and crochet seaweeds creeping across the tabletops

Lady Manners Horseshoe Crab

kelp!

Peakabout Arts with High Peak Community Arts: with some beautifully deocrated felted kelps unfolding stickily across the workshop

Silverdale Knitting Group in action

Silverdale Knitting Group - with comment below from our artist, Sarah Males, who led the event and then a further message from the Silverdale library team who host the knitting group (hope they don't mind me quoting their lovely comments!) 

needle-felting ancient fish

"A lovely afternoon at Silverdale Library with the knitting group. We set off travelling back through time, as far back as 360m years ago, thinking about life in shallow seas. Images of corals, sea lilies and brachiopods living in our landscapes, long, long ago and far, far away. Today we have fossils, clear and tangible memories of life at that time. And our challenge? To help the reef grow, creating with crochet, fossilising with felt and knitting new creatures to populate this ancient landscape.

Hooks and needles, stitching and stabbing (needle felt!) and a busy room all combined to produce twisting coral shapes and felted fish, jellies and stars. Some Silverdale folks plan to visit Buxton" Sarah

"I just wanted to extend my thanks on behalf of the ladies who attended the session yesterday .We all had a brilliant time! Thank you again for arranging it for us. A couple of the ladies mentioned on the way out that they are going to drive up to Buxton for the open day! All in all I think it was very successful and I wish that Sarah could come to us every Friday!!" Silverdale

Visit the Silverdale group: www.pokerlibrarian.com

The tide comes in again!

The tide is running!

 

fingertip corals growing

There are a busy few days ahead for some Carboniferous rockpools…

a) Green Man Gallery: our main Ancient Landscape will be rippling in the window of the Green Man Gallery in Buxton between 11th and 19th May. Why not pop into the Gallery and stroke a shellfish or squeeze a cuddly seaweed? Green Man Gallery, 55 High St, Buxton, SK17 6HB. Open daily, 11.30 - 5.30. (At the Fiveways crossroads opposite the London Road pub)

On Sunday 19th you can join our artists and add your own ancient wildlife to the landscape - or make your own pet trilobite to take home!

Sunday 19th May

Morning: a quiet event, between 11.30 - 1, drop in and try your hand at crocheting a quick something or other, or knit a ribbon of seaweed, of needle-felt a snail. We'll bring wools, felting needles and crochet hooks but please bring your own knitting needles

Afternoon: 2 - 4pm. Life in Ancient Seas: make your own trilobite! Handling and drawing fossils, making fossil puppets and bringing an ancient world to life! Free. No booking needed: just drop by and join in!

b) Hartington Village

the Village Trail invites us to look for fossils
as well as getting to know the history and geography of the village

As part of the events to launch the Village Trail, our more mobile Ancient Landscape will be on show for visitors to dip their fingers into the wooly tentacles of ancient sea anemones and risk a nibbling by trilobites

There will be a chance to add their own fingertip corals or other creatures to the growing reef and to make their own Prehistoric Rockpool to take home

Details

1- 5pm at Hartington Village Hall, Hide Lane, Hartington,   
Buxton
, SK17 0AW

There are lots of activities in the Hall and the village that afternoon: http://www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/visiting/village-trails

This link will tell you more about the event and give you a copy of the trial to download

Be careful if searching for the Village Hall as it is easy to be sent north of Longnor. Look for Hartington village on the B5054 off the A515 just north of Newhaven in Derbyshire

A pause in a rockpool

WORKSHOP MOMENTS - from sessions at Hartington Primary School and with Borderland Voices writing group at 

the Dove Valley Centre

we enjoyed, simply drawing our fossils and the animal models

Hartington: a busily creative tabletop!

Hartington: no injuries, just the first stage fingertip - or thumbtop?- coral

Thumb-coral growing

a somewhat psychedelic nautiloid

Pop-up Blossom Studio

This project is not part of Ancient Landscapes itself but is another environmental experience, organised this time by Victoria who painted the magnificent landscape we use in our publicity….

Blossom postcard by Victoria Brown

Have you ever felt disconnected from nature? Do you only capture its beauty fleetingly, rushing through your daily life?

I have a one-word suggestion for you...

BLOSSOM!

The wonder of the bud and the explosion of thousands of unfurling petals creating a cacophony and mass majesty of blooms. Nature trumpeting spring, life and infinite possibilities!

We lose so much connection of humanness when we forget the seasons apart from the disruptive side of its nature.

Sometimes we can feel like we’re grating against it rather than basking with it in harmony, sharing the seasons joy.

To me there are few greater weighted displays of nature’s celebration than the fresh fizz of 'Blossom' the subject and title of my new exciting project, kindly supported by the Arts Council England, The National Lottery and Arts Derbyshire.

The blossoms are transient, urgent for their life, then they’re gone.

Come with me in awe, see the blossoms and my work in progress or bring your brushes and enjoy, capture a place in time and reconnect- if only for that moment, maybe that moment yearly?

If they were not here on our planet, if they didn't bloom, what would we miss?

What if we were separated from nature and lived only remotely in an electrified wire filled world and lost connection to nature completely? What if we forgot we were any part of it?

For me my life would ache with the loss, nature is as grounding to me as it is uplifting!

Join me?

Fizz!

Visit www.victoriabrownart.com for information on Blossom events at Hardwick Hall, Chaddesden and Derby or follow Victoria on Twitter @victoriasart Facebook Page: www.facebook/VictoriaBrownartist and www.blossomblogger.wordpress.com

Telephone 07973162721 or email: victoria@victoriabrownart.com

 

Victoria's Ancient Landscape for our project

The tide comes in!

An ancient sea in Hartington!

 On Sunday 12th May from 1 - 5pm, the ancient landscapes of the Peak District will come to life again (albeit a bit woolly and fluffy) in Hartington

finger tip coral growing

As part of the events to launch the Village Trail, our Ancient Landscape will be on show. Visitors will be welcome to dip their fingers into the woolly tentacles of ancient sea anemones and risk a nibbling by trilobites

ancient rockpool

Visitors will also be able to add their own fingertip corals or other creatures to the growing reef and to make their own Prehistoric Rockpool or Personal Trilobite to take home

Event details

Date: Sunday 12th May 2013,

Time: 1pm - 5pm

Costs: our activities are free (not sure about others)

Venue: Village Hall, Hartington, Hide Lane, Buxton, SK17 0AW

Other activities include fossils to look at, the Village Trail to follow, activities with the Peak Park Rangers and the chance to enjoy one of the Peak District's lovely villages!

make your own rockpool to take home

fingers can be at risk in an Ancient Landscape!

Fossils, Art and Inspiration

Fossils,

Art and Inspiration

Art Days for Grown-ups

Sunday 10th March and

Sunday 17th March 2013

Dove Valley Centre

nr Longnor

10.30 - 4

two days of activities with artists from Stone and Water

These days are partly training for our existing volunteers, training for possible new volunteers and also just days for adults who'd like to have a go themselves. We have worried about the wording of these - we want to offer days for adults and teenagers rather than families - we do a lot of activities for family groups but sometimes it is good for grow-ups to have some creative time that is just for themselves...

These days also mark the overlap between the end of  our "Exploring with Stories" project and the start of the next phase of "Ancient Landscapes"

Inspired by fossils from local limestone and the rich landscapes of the Upper Dove Valley, we'll share skills, ideas and techniques giving ourselves time to experiment and reflect

No experience needed - just join in and have a go!

Workshops are free and materials are provided but spaces are limited so please book a place (either day or both)

Further details sent with confirmation

Sunday 10th: crochet your own coral, needle-felt a fish, printing fossils, small models of monsters

Sunday 17th: making tiny people, plankton cloths, casting fossils, just drawing, fossil lanterns

Booking and more information:

stoneandwater@btinternet.com

07791 096857

http://exploringwithstories.blogspot.co.uk