#belper winter food festival

"we normally see you behind a stall" was a comment i received as i wandered around the second belper winter food festival.  

we'd taken the decision to not have a stall at this winter festival as we didn't have an activity akin to the murmation project that we ran in 2011.  





so being able to wander around and take in the sights and smells of the day was a treat. for the first time campbell street was closed and i think if it's closed again in the summer that it'll add an interesting extra arm to the festival. something else that was being tried for the first time was using a truck for a stage on the market square. i think it worked well, however if it's to be used again i do wonder if the angle that the truck sits at needs to be considered further.

sara brighty had an open studio event for the day and i enjoyed a warming cup of fruit tea while we chatted and caught up.  there was a steady stream of visitors.




chatting with sara brought home that after the new year holidays we'll be about  2 months away from the submissions deadline for the art trail in july. 

belper can be justly proud of their now bi-annual cultural offerings.

do you photograph the #bluesky

a question that came up in conversation today over a coffee. i retorted that i usually record the sunsets with the huge contrasts.

somewhat inspired after the meeting i took a walk with an intention to record some of the blue sky of today, as it really did sum up the morning activity.

onward.

a workshop with julie

saturday morning, cold, a bit damp, very november. definitely a porridge and golden syrup for breakfast day. the other distinguishing thing about this saturday was it being a peer to peer meeting day and also a workshop run by julie clare day.

i don't get to go to workshops that often, so despite feeling a little under the weather and just a little cold i assembled the items prescribed and ventured out to st john's chapel where a beaming julie warmly greeted me and i immediately knew that the journey was worth it and this workshop was going to be fun.

julie was running the workshop for transition belper and i found it very interesting to learn about the origins and uses of bio-plastics.

once we covered that and had a very lovely cup of tea we all moved onto the really fun bit playing with stuff from the kitchen cupboard.  the image above shows the phase where we played with milk, food colour and washing up liquid.  we also played with a cornflour and water combination.  i got quite into watching how the liquid rapidly turned into a solid and as quick back into a liquid.

after the excitement of that we all had an opportunity to make one of the several tree decorations made from paper that julie had on show.  i chose the one that i couldn't easily work out how it was made.  while we made the decs we'd chosen, julie effortlessly chaired a really interesting discussion.

i thank transition belper for facilitating julie to run such an excellent workshop.  i hope that julie gets more opportunities to run more of these style of workshops as she made accessible bits of physics and chemistry and i certainly left with some ideas to try out in my own kitchen / studio.

@dropinntweet getin all halloween

during october there was quite a vibe down at the drop inn, they were planning a twenty foot skeleton for their halloween party.

a few days after a really successful event i popped in to have a look at how the project had turned out.  as i walked into their space i was met by the above result and i smiled a lot.

the energy and potential of the drop inn never ceases to amaze me.  

i loved the skeleton guys, you've done well.  how are the plans for the outdoor version going ?

discovery day belper

sunday 28 october. it was cold and ulitmately wet, but that doesn't matter right now.

the celebrations were centred on the belper river gardens where various activities informative stalls and folk friendzy entertained.

with some friends we took in the wool based activities in the north mill. i sat down next to a lady i'd never met before and within moments i was making a pom pom and having a really lovely chat with her.  

folk friendzy's second performance of the day was in the river gardens near the swiss tea rooms.  braving the rain we strode out into the gardens to discover the troupe in the bandstand. despite the rain they were still going to perform.

something then quite unexpected happened. a lady in a green top arrived and we were hastily introduced to her and she started into a monologue about her dad and the east mill.  i think the lady is an actress from belper, possibly last seen in belper at the short play festival.

her piece began as a quite lovely account of things to do with the mill and working there.

as it progressed it twisted and turned and became about contemporary community and use of cars.   i noted that the piece was telling us that people don't form into community so often now as it had been in the past.  something that i thought was a little misplaced with folk friendzy as an audience as they effortlessly promote community. the performance continued and finished.

we then watched the girls adapt their dances to the band stand.  the rain poured down and under cover i watched the dance out develop a special atmosphere from seeing something that hadn't been intended to happen. well done to all involved.

@FolkFriendzy at crich tramway museum.

annually the museum has a special halloween event at which the belper based dance troup perform.

the added attraction of the event is the chance to to have a ride on a vintage tram. the trams run all afternoon and into the evening.



i've watched the group at previous dance outs and this one is a particular favourite for the girls as they get to dress up in the halloween theme.

the first dance took place with the back drop of a low sun. helped along by a rum infused hot chocolate we stood and watched the girls smile their way through a series of routines.  it was particularly excellent to hear the time warp again.  in the second set i teamed up with another member of the audience to dance along with it.  i enjoyed that very much and when invited to participate in a group dance, took the opportunity to and throughly enjoyed myself.

after the last set we took a ride on a tram. we sat upstairs and the conductor was perfectly in character, which made us all laugh.  the tram rattled and shook it's way along the line and i loved it.







i really like how folk friendzy bring people together and give opportunities to the girls of belper and surrounding area to rehearse and perform at interesting public events.

having never ventured into the museum before i was a little unsure about what to expect.  it's a really lovely place and i think i need to go back there in the summer to ride on the tram in the light to see the views and to walk through the grounds.

come draw with my by ruth gray

i've heard that these sessions are really good.

here's the facebook event link
https://www.facebook.com/events/183307788471690/

what is it? a free drop in session where one can draw stuff and talk about drawing and look at drawings

where? at studio 61. that's the studio/workshop/shop run by the delectable karina.

when? this thursday morning.

i'm hoping that ruth will be able to tell us about her experience of running these sessions at the next peer to peer meeting in november.

artist call out launched

east mill abstraction

right at the end of the 2012 trail i published an image of the east mill. 

i really like it and wanted to bring it somehow into the 2013 trail project.

so it's quite a pleasure to unveil the 2013 trail header, an abstraction of the east mill.

and we're off :

following the successful 2012 trail we progress quickly onto the 2013 trail project.  we learnt a lot and i'm certainly hoping to put into practice stuff that i learnt as a result of being part of the 2012 belper art trail.

we're going to have a call out for artists to respond to and we're going to be launching that before christmas.

we also have some more peer to peer meetings booked before christmas and there are more planned for the new year.

for me this particular trail project will be about the process, much more than the final exhibition.  

i hope that we have an opportunity to meet and chat along journey to the exhibition and i hope that we attract top quality work again to mount another successful trail around the summer food festival in belper.