WORKSHOP NEWS | JANUARY
What’s inspired us this month
Image by William Anthony
The way of water
As lover of fantasy fiction, how has it taken me this long to discover author and activist Ursula K De Guin?!
Starting with this speech in defence of art over profits, this homage to her housework of democracy by Julie Phillips, and this essay 'The way of Water' in response to the 2016 US election.
Allegra and I will be adding the ‘Earthsea Series’ and ‘The Word for World is Forest’ to our production sewing audiobook club…
Image Carl van der Linde
'They spend a lot of time creeping out of their paddocks'
Mischievous goats and the patient farmers that are raising them differently: how a generation of South African producers are using rotational grazing for responsible mohair.
Featuring stunning imagery by Carl van der Linde who is also worth exploring here.
Image by Anne Brigman
I wanted to go and be free
A captivating essay published in 1926 by pioneering photographer Anne Brigman. Who, as one of the first women to photograph herself nude, would hike into the Sierra Nevada with her sister, friends and pack mules to camp and make work.
'Late in July I made up my mind that what ailed me was hunger—hunger for the clean, high, silent places, up near the sun and the stars ... The little No. 1A Ansco with its 2 ¼ film, would do. I didn’t want to work. I wanted to forget everything except that I was going back to heaven, back to heaven in my high boots, and trousers, and mackinaw coat. That was all I wanted.'
With further good reading by Joy Lazendorfer for The Poetry Foundation.
Still from ‘How To Love a Tree’ by Hair Nabi
To ask a tree
With curious conversations and gratifying sound design, this podcast of 5 instalments communes with trees to better understand their past and envisage their future.
Still from The Vessel film by Ingun Mæhlum
Archiving landscapes
How artist Hilde Hauan Johnsen uses natural dyeing, ancient weaving techniques and a love of foraging plants to document and express specific landscapes.
An interview by Hilde Sørstrøm and short film by Ingun Mæhlum for The Vessel from Hilde's cabin outside Tromsø, Norway.
Image by Ellie Birkhead
The on-going design journey of a self-confessed hobby-junkie
Ellie Birkhead's newsletters track her research travels through brush making, brick making, agroforestry, regenerative building materials and more.
By embracing ambiguity in her work discipline she has become an intuitive and adventurous voice in the intersections of craft, community and ecological transition. With an curiosity and plasticity that is much needed in times of systems change - which is likely why she has been shortlisted for the Arts Foundation Futures Award.
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Learn about the Spring brush making workshop at Argal Home Farm
