16th October 2023 – A discussion of each person’s chosen place (Session 5)

Nine people attended the meeting today. We discussed each person’s chosen place of research inspired by the folklore, folksongs or dance recorded there and their inroads so far.

The places discussed today were Withington, Leominster, Bacho Hill (outside Madley), River Wye, Pokehouse Wood, Brinsop, and Kings Pyon.

Helen had picked hawthorn berries and blackberries at Madley Wood, which she used to dye french linen, wool, silk and cotton. She said that alum can be used as a mordant but also told us about the possibilities of using soya milk as a mordant and recommended a book by Rebecca Desnos. The group were interested to learn more about this process so we provisionally booked a date for a practical natural dyeing session in November.

We also discussed possible topics or themes for the meetings ahead and suggestions were the seasons, autumn, apples, trees, dances, bells, and fairies.

The group started to share practical tips for ways to work, as there was not a requirement to have any stitching skills to join the project. I invited people to respond to walking in or moving through their chosen place through stitch as mark making, so no need to produce a recognisable image as such.

Other recommendations from the group were a Ken Loach film ‘The Old Oak’ ( a compassionate refugee drama) , a podcast about the folksong Dives and Lazarus, and The Artemis Fowl Series of books (fantasy genre) by Eoin Colfer.