A stitch in time

Here's me fiddling about with a prototype of the Exmoor National Dress.
Can't find anywhere to integrate the fantastic horse-motif Western shirt hanging on the wall, sadly.

Themes : Exmoor National Dress

Wild Flower Harvest

We had a very successful wildflower seed harvest on Saturday for What Will The Harvest Be? We gathered so many that we weren't able to process them all on the day, although we did make a start. They include: White Campion, Corn Cockle, Cornflower, Corn Chamomile, Corn Marigold, Field Poppy and Scentless Mayweed ... although I must confess we had a job to tell the Mayweed from the Chamomile.

The photos are up on Flickr here

URBAN SEED DAY II

Come & join us on Saturday September 27th for our second URBAN SEED DAY

We will be gathering the seeds from the wild flowers grown at Abbey Gardens this year - some we'll be keeping for next years Harvest Garden but some we'll be giving away. So, if you fancy a bed of wildflowers in your own garden or you've spotted a unloved patch in your local environment that could do with cheering up, this is the event for you.

I will be at the garden, with some of the Friends of Abbey Gardens group on Saturday morning from 10.00 -12.00. As well as collecting seeds we'll obviously be happy to tell you more about What Will The Harvest Be? and how our plans for the garden are shaping up.

We also have a few packets of seeds left (from the wonderful Chiltern Seeds) to give away to anyone who wants to get planting now for next season in the Harvest Garden. If you take some away on Saturday you can bring them on in your own garden (or just on a windowsill) ready for next spring.

If you have seeds gathered from your own gardens/plots do bring some along to swap.

You might like to make an East-London afternoon of it, bring a flask or picnic and join us for the Hackney Wick Festival afterwards, it's an interesting walk from Abbey Gardens to 'the Wick' and makes for a full East End double day out.

Themes : Abbey Gardens, harvest, seeds

Heard it on the Grapevine

Anyone who travels through Stratford station (East London) may have already seen the feature about Abbey Gardens in the 'Stratford Grapevine' last week ... if you missed it you can read about it here. The newspaper is a project by artist Lucy Harrison who's become a 'friend of' our Abbey Gardens project through our shared research into the area. The sort of spider drawing on the front shows how all the people who have contributed to the paper are linked together, and is a nice map of the connections made. Each time the paper comes out I find it really cheering to see people on the (super depressing!) North London Line reading about their local area rather than the Metro's version of London news.

Themes : harvest, abbey

King of Exmoor

I was delighted to drop in to Tom Lock's workshop in Hawkridge, after talking to a nice gang of Somerset artists at the 'Reveal' event recently.
I had asked Tom to consider making a 'head-dress' for the Exmoor National Dress a while back, but as his lifetime retrospective (at Hawkridge Show, see pic) was absorbing all his time he declined....But I know real no from a 'well....no' and I had a feeling he was going to come up with something good.
Here Tom is modelling the prototype - it will eventually have little antlers in declining size all the way round. The head-dress 'ring' is made of 4 or 5 curved antler pieces carefully glued and sanded, it's quite a feat to find suitably curved pieces let alone to fix them together. What I especially like is the front-most horn, which Tom describes as "freaky" - its a tiny straight horn emerging from a misshapen, bony nugget. He'd had it for years, finding it useless for most of his work, but now has a good use for the freaky!
I tried it on and can confirm that it's actually comfy too....

Themes : costume, Exmoor, antlers

Boswell's B&B

A couple of weeks ago I revisited Coll, a Scottish Island Karen and I breezed through in our 1996 Boswell & Johnson trail blog-a-thon A Hypertext Journal. On our first trip we only had a few hours to explore around the tiny village where the ferry arrives, but this time I spent 5 long rainy days on the Island looking into family history matters (more here for the curious) and mainly browsing drenched flora and fauna (pictures here for wildflower nerds!). Anyway never one to give up on resolving a project I did cycle down to the Southern end of the Island to see Breachacha Castle apparently one of the spots that the great pair stayed during the 10 days they were stuck on Coll due to inclement weather ... I might even have to get my well thumbed 'Journey to the Western Isles' out for a re-read of the relevant section.

Smocking-but not as we know it

Today I finally knuckled down to some (dress) making, something I have a love / hate relationship with ever since the hell-and-back 10 day lock-in when Nina and I had to make our Tudor costumes for our last film. Let's draw a veil over just how long it took to get even the basics right for 1578 - well, all I can say is you try and design a fitted bodice without darts or lycra....
So - back to Exmoor National Dress - this lovely print on canvas donated to the project by Exmoor painter Maurice Bishop appeared simply as an Elvis-style cape at Dunster Show but I thought I'd better explore other treatments, so attempted my first bit of smocking with it this afternoon...
I think it's rather too stiff but nevertheless it's an interesting effect...

RIP Tomas Bata

My journalist brother texted me the sad news today of Tomas Bata's death at 93. If you have been on the dark side of the moon for the last 5 years you may not know that Mr Bata- the Czech Republic's Bill Gates slash Henry Ford - was at the centre of our Anglo-Czech road movie 'Bata-ville: We are not afraid of the future".
Our passengers and us got to meet the charming and wise Mr Bata - in fact Nina and I gatecrashed his 90th birthday celebrations in Prague Castle - which he took very well. I think it was the uniforms.
There's a good obituary here.

Themes : Tomas Bata

Horticultural Hands

In case you need any more encouragement to visit Karen's mountain top garden at the weekend (aside from me doing the teas) here she is in full Horticultural flow at the Urban Seed Day. Obviously I know, that she knows, a lot about plants but I'd have paid to hear her on seeds!

Visit Karen's mountain

When I am not Somewhere I am generally gardening.
My garden at Lawson Park, near Coniston in the Lake District opens to the public for the first time this Sunday 24th August for the National Garden Scheme. Somewhere alumni Ms Pope and Mr Olden joins us in a tearoom and documentation capacity en route for hols in Coll.
Art highlights of the day include a chance to see how the box plants rescued from local art star Kurt Schwitters' Merzbarn are getting on.
You can see more detailed info on getting to us here

Themes : Merzbarn, Schwitters, open garden, Lawson Park

Somewhere Seedlings

The Urban Seed Day at Abbey Gardens was really good ... largely due to excellent guidance to the plants on site from Roy Vickery of the South London Botanical Institute (this is after 43 years at the Natural History Museum!!)

You can read more about the Abbey Gardens site on the project Blog

Or see pics. from the day in the Abbey Gardens Flickr Group

Somewhere Seedlings

Join us on Saturday August 16th for an URBAN SEED DAY at Abbey Gardens and get involved with our project What Will The Harvest Be?

Come and gather or sow some seeds for next year's Harvest Garden and find out more about our long term proposals for this unique historic site. We'll be spending the afternoon with botanist ROY VICKERY (of South London Botanical Institute) for an informal afternoon of WILD FLOWER SPOTTING, FOLKLORE, SEED GATHERING & SEED SOWING.

We will be at the garden, which is opposite Baker's Row in East London (Near West Ham or Stratford tube) from 3pm-5.30pm. The event is free but booking is advised via our contact page.

Refreshments, materials & equipment provided. Sorry, no unaccompanied children under 14. The event is supported by Newham Council & Friends of Abbey Gardens, we will also have some exciting seeds from the wonderful Chiltern Seeds to give away.

Themes : Abbey Gardens, garden, harvest, seeds

Heavy Load

I'm just back tired and emotional from BritDoc 2008 & I can definitely report that the festival is much more fun when your film is not playing! This year I was able to see more stuff, concentrate on what was being said/shown and enjoy responding to the question of 'what are you working on next' with 'a film about cat breeding' ... which caused most 'networking' pressures to evaporate ...

My absolute top recommendation would be a co-SXSW film from this year 'Heavy Load - A film about happiness', which I was excited and nervous to see. It didn't disappoint, I loved the film & you can't help but love a band who cover Kylie & the clash & wrote a song in tribute to George Michael 'Gay at weekends'.

Visit their website for more info & sign up for screening info when it's released in the UK - you won't regret it. The image to the right shows the band singing with the producer & director at the closing party.

It reminded me of Bata-ville in a funny way, and how moved I was by the experience of making it, and the commitment of many of the films 'characters'. Bata-ville has been called 'a sad film about hope', in many ways Heavy Load is a sad film about happiness, it obviously had as big an impact on the director as Bata-ville and its participants had on Karen & I.

The other film I saw was Man on Wire ... also a cinema visit you won't regret, although at a festival focussed on composers & music, it was shame to see a film with such a miserable off the shelf top-classical-hits sound track. For me it spoiled an otherwise top notch film.

Other highlights were my 'surgery' with Danielle DiGiacomo of Indiepix & an extraordinarily helpful hot housing session (we BritDoc grantees get extra special treatment) with the forthright Documentary Doctor Fernanda Rossi. The woman is an advice power house, I could see why you might end up paying her to Skype you with exec. feedback!

Themes : film, SXSW, documentary, britdoc, Heavy Load

The joys of local media

Here's a forensically detailed review of our film Living with the Tudors!

Themes : Tudors film

The Honesty Table at Arnolfini's 'Far West' show

We *think* that the Northern Art prize-winning Honesty Tables are out on show at Bristol's Arnolfini Gallery right now as part of the show 'Far West'. If you've seen the show please confirm or deny....
The show is a quiet launch of the finished multiple 'Titschy / kitschy' (the prototype was on show in the NAP too), a collectible set of two model houses depicting rural idylls in the English Lake District and Japan.
Price? I think that's up to the gallery....but excellent value of course.
Read more here about the show, though there's a far nicer project website here.

Themes : Arnolfini, Honesty Table

Karen on Exmoor

This week I'm on gorgeous Exmoor in Somerset, developing my project for the Triparksresidency, a great project hosting artists in 3 of England's National Parks. Following a productive 2 days of meetings in the implausibly named Pixies Holt outward bound centre on Dartmoor (a first for me to stay in one of these places, and goodness me what a crime against interior design it was...) I have broken away to pursue my many leads here in Exmoor.
You can read about my attempts to invent an Exmoor National Dress here.

Themes : Exmoor, Somerset, Exmoor National Dress

What Will The Harvest Be? - The Walk

Thanks to everyone who came along on the walk on Saturday, Karen & I really enjoyed it!
Special thanks to Len, Janice, Gordon & Louise for opening up the world of Newham
allotments for us, and to the Friends of Abbey Gardens for the food in the evening.

For those there (& those who missed it!) you might like to see my pictures on Flickr

Somewhere Seeds

I've been enjoying myself preparing packets of seeds to give away on the What Will The Harvest Be Walk we're planning for Saturday. I must say I'm quite pleased with the packets, as Karen says 'it all comes back to printmaking skills' in the end. The idea is to link the seeds to both the site/person who collected them and eventually to an on-line database of plants in the Harvest Garden. We're interested to see if we can link the real garden to an on-line audience and personalise the plants and gardeners at the same time.

See the What Will The Harvest Be Blog for where these first seeds were collected from.

Walk with us ... this weekend

This Saturday July 12th you can walk & talk with us about our new project WHAT WILL THE HARVEST BE? We will be leading a walk from Abbey Gardens around some of Newham’s other green spaces:

3.00 pm Abbey Gardens (Bakers Row)
3.15 pm West Ham Park
4.15 pm St Mary’s Allotments
5.00 pm The Greenway
5.30 pm West Ham Allotments
6.00 pm Abbey Gardens - Picnic

Come & join us for the walk to hear more about our proposed projects for Abbey Gardens and meet some Newham residents with green fingers. Following the walk there will be an informal gathering for a picnic with the Friends of Abbey Gardens, which you are also very welcome to join. Feel free to bring along some food (especially home-grown!) Elderflower drinks will be available made with the flowers I gathered on the site.

To book a place on the walk please email us.

Click here for more information on the project.

Abbey Gardens is located at the end of Bakers Row, Stratford, East London E15 3NF

Themes : regeneration, history, Abbey Gardens, garden, harvest

Tudor Screening

We had a great turn out from Kentwell last week, for our special screening of Living with the Tudors, so much so that the 'regular' audience members are virtually invisible! The manager of the cinema was very excited to see a mid week queue of Tudors stretching out down the block.

It felt great to finally show the film to a big group of participants from the re-creation, and a really interesting Q&A followed the screening. Questions touched on what our expectations had been, why we didn't show more 'non-gentry' characters and how we ultimately felt about the bad feeling the filming caused with some participants at the time.

Karen and I were too nervous to sit through the actual showing and went for the obligatory Somewhere regional curry. Fortunately we returned to the sound of much applause for the film as the credits rolled and there seemed to be a general good vibe to the evening. Of course some might argue that it's impossible to expect that everyone involved in making a film might like it - but of course it doesn't stop you hoping that this might be the case. I think the poor distribution manager from Soda pictures had certainly had enough of hearing about the Tudors by the time we let him back out of the car in Hackney.

Themes : film, Tudor