Dove Cottage gardens...

 A few blissful minutes sitting, watching and listening as Wordsworth would have wanted ...

Headend Quarry, Sandale

As a continutation of the 'Moss Hut' project I had planned, in partnership with the Wordsworth Trust and hosted by the Northern Fells, a workshop focussing on Wordsworth's quote 'Let Nature be your Teacher'. We used Headend quarry as our source of inspiration and generated both written and visual art from that visit. Another excellent community even - more are in the planning! 

The itinery was: 

10.00 Arrive at Bolton Low Houses Village Hall.

10.10 Presentation: Geology and Natural History of Head End Quarry.

10:25 Depart to quarry – a wander to explore the site with views over Central Lakes and the Solway to Scotland. Writing prompts and more information on the site.

11:00 Back for refreshments and presentation on Head End through the seasons.

11:20 Jotting down of impressions through written word or sketching; followed by a demonstration/ practical session on ‘Skies’ at Head End – written or drawn responses.

12:00 Lunch 

12:30 ‘The Earth’ at Head End Quarry – written and drawn responses - focus on the windswept hawthorns.

1:00 Take one of your responses, or more to develop into a reflective piece of work – written, drawn or combined.

2:40 Get together/report back

3:00 Depart.

A good day which will be repeated in more clement weather! 

The view across to Scotland.

Learning about the geology.

Work generated by our 'skies' activity.

...and working towards further pieces of art...

Dove Cottage

 Following all the 'Moss Huts' workshops, it was great to be able to see our work on display in the centre at Dove Cottage and to see the work of the West Cumbrian Carers.

The modern 'Moss Hut'. 

Our exhibition space. 

Tom and I focussed on changes in avian fauna over time and the hope that rewilding gives us. 

My nest based on my safe place ...Islay and inparticular Ardnave point - using found objects from Islay.

...and other nests...

Wordsworth's Moss Hut

Our final session for the Moss Hut project saw us get together to look at what we had made, do a couple more writing activities and discuss the upcoming exhibition and the way forward for the project. It has been very successful with a lot of good positive feedback.....watch this space for more ideas. 

Thanks to the Wordsworth Trust and The Northern Fells Group for funding and hosting this community project. 

Some final pictures....

Collagraph printing

Following our two previous 'Moss Hut' sessions, our third and final session was a printed response to the moss hut - introducing participants to the technique of collagraph printing. We had some great results! After we have collected responses, invited more responses and photographed items we will be working towards an exhibition at Dove Cottage in Grasmere - exciting! These sessions were funded by The Wordsworth Trust and held in association with the Northern Fells Group. 

As always the plates themselves are beautiful ...

Bird's Nests and Wordsworth's Moss Hut

A great workshop! As part of our 'Moss Huts' project, funded by the Wordsworth Trust, we were seeking to generate a community response to Wordsworth's moss hut. On the first day local poet and writer Susan Cartwright-Smith worked with us to engender a written response - thinking about our own safe places, the world around us and Wordsworth's words 'Let nature be your teacher'. It was a super session and led us beautifully into our next session - creating a 3D response. As Wordsworth's moss hut was based on a wren's nest we took this as our lead for the day and created a range of 'nests'. The main natural materials used were grasses, sticky jacks, docks, willow herb etc, together with different locally sourced wools. A great day was had by all.