What a Spring and Summer we have had in Lumsden! Blue skies, long days, short nights and much outdoor fun.
We kicked off our Spring Community Making Space programme with a wide range of Thursday Making Sessions. Through these we developed our Materials Garden – building up the nitrogen in the soil (with thanks to the local horses), clearing scrub areas of the site, deciding what to grow and germinating seeds. We also learnt from artist Claire Rayner how to develop natural dyes and watercolours, connected with AiAi Studios in Japan to delve into dying with Indigo and onion skins and gleaned a huge amount of dye plant knowledge from Laura Spring at The Sculpture House in Paisley.
Following this we continued our Community Blanket – confirming a final design with Jane Ronie and adding naturally dyed cloth using our own processed and spun wool with the help of Forest and Dot.
We also ran a new series of DIY workshops; learning to tile with Cait from Cults Croft and to build and install shelves with SSW Technical Manager Ruaridh Allen.
These sessions were followed by a shared lunch enjoyed by everyone at SSW. Lunch hit recipes included Ruaridh’s feta pie, Sam’s bean chilli and Sara’s spiced roast potatoes and cauliflower.
Alongside our weekly Thursday sessions we continued our ever popular, monthly Clay Socials. A wide range of folks joined in to make medals for Run Lumsden, as part of the Lumsden School Netball tournament and Mary Fair.
We also designed and made tiles with RSA residency artist Jodi Le Bigre and created beads and pendants with wonderful guidance from SSW Group Residency artist Kishita Nayyar.
We were also glad to continue our work with local secondary schools to expand access to our ceramics workshop for teenagers.
Our Spring programme ended with a wonderful week of printing, dying and banner making led by artist and 2023 SSW X Counterflows Caregivers Resident Keng Keng Tang. Co-developed with young people, the group got to work making a new banner to display within Lumsden declaring ‘We (Humans, Plants, Trees and Animals) are Natural Together – Save our Earth!’
The banner was paraded throughout the village before coming back to SSW to be displayed over the next year.
We want to thank everyone who participated, led or connected with the Community Making Space programme this year!
Community Making Space programme is now on summer break and will be returning in September with a new Autumn programme. If you are local to SSW and have any ideas about what you would like to learn or if you have a skill you would like to share please get in touch on communities@ssw.org.uk. We look forward to seeing you soon.
