Our Thursday Making Sessions take place from 11am-1pm in the Community Making Space at SSW and are followed by a cooked lunch.
Sessions are free but please book by emailing communities@ssw.org.uk letting us know all of the events you plan to attend.
- 24 April: Natural inks and watercolours with Clare Rayner
- 1 May: An introduction to woad with AiAii Studio (Japan)
- 8 May: Community picnic blanket – colour and composition
- 15 May: Carding, drop spinning and making thread in wool
- 29 May: Working with our wool
- 5 June: Tiling walls with the SSW team
- 12 June: Intro to building shelves with the SSW team
- 19 June: Fixings for plasterboard and walls with the SSW team
- 26 June: Materials Garden planting day
- 3 July: En plein air painting in natural inks with Clare Rayner
Materials Garden
Natural inks and paints with Claire Rayner
Thursday 24th April
11am – 1pm
Join us for a session with local artist and SSW Community Advisor Claire Rayner to create your own natural inks and watercolor paints. We’ll learn how to extract pigments and use them in mark making. A meditative session connecting us to our surroundings.
An introduction to woad and indigo with AiAii Studio (Japan)
Thursday 1st May
11am – 1pm
We’re excited to be joined online by Sally and Junichi of AiAii Studio, an indigo farm, on the island of Awaji, Japan. Sally and Junichi will introduce us to their indigo farm and to the traditional Japanese methods of dyeing with naturally fermented indigo, called Sukumo. Living on an island famous for its onions, and as an expert dyer, Sally will also share with us their onion dyeing techniques which we will then go on to put into practice in this session.
Materials Garden planting day
Thursday 26th June
11am – 1pm
Join us for a day in the Materials Garden where we will be taking a look at how our plants are growing so far and tending to the garden.
Textiles and Print
Community blanket – colour and composition
Thursday 8th May
11am – 1pm
A hands-on session working through the final design of the Lumsden community blanket. We’ll discuss its proposed colour and composition and explore how we can finalise our blanket with an effective colour palette and a strong composition. We will then get to work applying skills in applique, embroidery and sewing.
Carding, drop spinning and making thread in wool
Thursday 15th May
11am – 1pm
Join us for a workshop on carding wool, drop spinning and making thread to produce an array of yarn to use in the Lumsden community blanket.
Working with our wool
Thursday 29th May
11am – 1pm
Join us for a session where we’ll be working with the thread we collectively carded and drop spun, adding further patterns to the Lumsden community blanket using applique, embroidery and sewing techniques.
En plein air painting in natural inks with Claire Rayner
Thursday 3rd July
11am – 1pm
Join us for an outdoor painting workshop with local artist Claire Rayner. We’ll be experimenting with our natural inks and paints as we paint outdoors. We’ll be working on cloth and paper, with our paintings on cloth being added to our Lumsden Community Picnic Blanket.
DIY Skills
Tiling walls with the SSW team
Thursday 5th June
11am – 1pm
Join us for a session learning how to tile a wall. We’ll be using tiles created by the community, and together use our skills to tile the wall in our Community Making Space.
We’ll be covering each stage; from planning the tiled area and preparing the wall to navigating around wall fixtures, applying the tiles, grouting and finishing.
Intro to building shelves with the SSW team
Thursday 12th June
11am – 1pm
Join us to craft your own simple pine shelf with support from SSW Technical Manager Ruaridh Allen.
Whether you are a beginner or DIY enthusiast, this session is designed to help you build your skills in woodwork, learn how to use tools safely and develop good practices for home DIY projects.
Fixings for plasterboard and walls with the SSW team
Thursday 19th June
11am – 1pm
Now that we have our handmade shelves, we’re going to learn how to install them.
In this hands-on session, SSW Technical Manager Ruaridh Allen will guide us through the process of fixing shelves to plasterboard walls. We will cover wall types, fixings, levelling and best practices for installing.
