The Stove Network
Back to “Our Norwegian Story” so far – July brought us a two day event sharing skills and learning about our common love of making. We made boats, oars, whistles, rope and nets while also exploring the knitting of Sanquhar patterns and their Norwegian counterparts. Our friends from Galgael Trust up in Glasgow, Alyne Jones of Moniaive, Simon Lidwell of local group Clauran Haven and Wordsmithcrafts helped us explore the beauty of skilled craft and our intertwined history within it.
Snapshots – a fast paced photography competition was first conceived by blueprint100 member Elli – invited competitors to challenge themselves and their camera to a day of exploring the town through different topics in the form of a photography marathon.
2 Hours, 12 Topics, 12 Pictures
In the run up to the competition, photographer and Stove member Kim Ayres joined the blueprint100 Open Tuesdays, to offer help, hints and inspiration to those interested in taking part.
An ambitious 20 participants raced off at 10am, keen to win the ‘golden camera’ that was first prize, and most returned bedraggled and worn out and in need of coffee!
The judging panel was comprised of Kim, stove curatorial member Martin J O’Neill and Elli herself, who spent the following two hours judging all of the images that had arrived back at the Stove.
Following on from the competition, Martin hosted a workshop with blueprint100 members developing narratives from the collected photograph sets, to work into short pieces of poetry and prose in the run up to the next Brave New Words.
A selection of our favourite images from Snapshots Dumfries are available to view here
Borderlands II was a two day conference, including an amazing peat coring at Kirkconnel Flow, organised by Stove member and environmental artist Kate Foster, with delegates arriving from Northumbria and Cumbria, The Borders and D&G, as well as further afield.
The peat coring, led by Dr Lauren Parry, was a time travelling experience back to the Ice Age through the samples of peat and eventually down to boulder clay, six meters down in the depths of the bog.
The second day was spent in the Stove, including exhibition and talks given by a range of speakers including story teller Malcolm Green, Dave Pritchard on wetlands, and Nadiah Rosli’s focus on Peatlands of South East Asia.
Every Wednesday during November, The Stove is running a series of ‘craftivism’ stitch in’s. These are drop in events running from 5-8pm, anyone is welcome whether you come with craft skills of your own or whether you’d like to learn some basic techniques in a friendly and open environment (we have cake!).
What is Craftivism?
Craftivism is a form of ‘slow-activism’, sharing crafting skills in a social space, inviting discussion and reflection whilst making – engaging in the time consuming processes of stitching and making. It is a growing movement of crafters and open-minded people, looking to create new ways of exchange and discussion on issues and topics that we hope to share with others. Come along for a blether, a cup of tea and help contribute towards some of the projects we are currently working on. These sessions are self-led but with plenty of support from our Herald Moxie, and craftivist Joy Cheroukai.
Why Now?
The Stove is participating in ArtCOP, an international cultural programme that coincides with this years Paris Climate Conference (also known as the COP21) in December. We are looking for new ways to talk about the environment and the constantly changing nature of our world – what is changing for Dumfries and Galloway? What does anyone mean about climate change? Do we need a new language for talking about global climate issues? What has Dumfries got to do with it?
Our craftivism group is working towards two projects:
Wear Your Heart on Your Sleeve is a national campaign from the Craftivist Collective and the Climate Coalition, and asks everyone to think about the things they are passionate about – and in turn, how they could be affected by changing climates and rising temperatures.
The Stop Climate Chaos Rally is on the 28th of November, Scotland’s Climate March will take place in Edinburgh. The Stove has been invited by the Crichton Carbon Centre to join their bus to take part in the rally, and stitchers and makers at our Craftivism sessions are working towards a large banner that can be carried in the march, made up of smaller patterns and designs using unwanted fabrics.
We will be having an intensive banner making weekend before the rally on the 21st and 22nd of November.
If you would like a place on the bus (travel expenses covered by The Stove), please get in touch as we have limited spaces [email protected]
Drop by any Wednesday evening to find out more, or speak to Moxie on our Stove Herald facebook page www.facebook.com/thestoveherald/
Our third intrepid traveller, Uula Jero, will leave Balmaclellan on Saturday morning, picking up keen cyclists at New Galloway and making their way down to Wigtown, passing through the picturesque Galloway Forest Park. If cycling is your thing, you are very welcome to join Uula at New Galloway.
Uula will be somewhat unmistakable as he brings with him not just one of his amazing cargo bikes, but also a pedal-powered foundry! Remember the charcoal that the boats are bringing from Creetown (see the earlier post here); the foundry is charcoal-fuelled, and the Creetown charcoal will contribute to the heat necessary to melt and cast our very own Wigtown spoons! (More about Billy Marshall and his spoons here.)
The spoons will be cast in front of a live audience outside the Wigtown County Buildings as part of Trading Journeys on Saturday evening, the 27th of September. We are making a very limited edition of spoons, so if you would like your very own Wigtown spoon, come along to our spoon mould crafting workshop during the afternoon. Workshops will take place from 12 noon in Southfield Park and are free to everyone.
We will also be holding drumming and flag-making workshops in preparation for our procession prior to the spoon pour. The procession is open to all to join in.
Full details of the running order of the event are available on our website’s Trading Journeys page here.
