Our 10th event!
Organised by the Michelham Bowmen, this is a great little event in a beautiful location.
Despite rain and wind at various points over the weekend, we still managed to dye our new shiny spun silk and more of our new range of tapestry wools. Everyone who stopped by to watch the dyeing and discuss our colours seemed really pleased with what they saw and learnt.
http://www.michelhambowmen.co.uk/
http://sussexpast.co.uk/properties-to-discover/michelham-priory
Despite not many people being booked on ths course, it went very well with those who were there. All participants were very enthusiastic and seemed to be very satisfied with what they dyed. One person came all the way to Oxfordshire from Cornwall to learn about dyeing!
We were honoured to be invited to Silchester for both of their Archaeological open days in July and August.
Silchester is a Roman town in Hampshire, which has been excavated for the last 17 years by Reading University. They have discovered both the layout of the town and the Iron Age settlement which was there before.
At the first open day we took our new quern stones, as well as some grain, and helped the visitors use them to make flour. We ground all the grain we took in just the morning, the stones never stopped turning. It was brilliant to see the opportunities families took to educate children about the origins of bread they eat every day. The archaeologists were also exhibiting a Roman quern from Verulamium (St. Albans), and having ours for demonstration really brought it to life for the visitors.
Before the second open day, we made a replica of an Iron Age warp-weighted loom. We set it up and started weaving at the open day, demonstrating how it worked. This helped to put the finds of loom weights into context for both the public and the students.
Some of the hottest days of the year! We were impressed by the festival management providing cooling and entertaining fixed water sprays and their concern for everyone.
We were in the market next to a Merrie Noyse, a minstrel group who we accompanied in the main tent with some Tudor playford dances. This was enjoyable for all of us, its not often we get to dance for a full band!
Our first multi-period event! From the Vikings to World War II, there was something for everyone at Chalke Valley.
An incredibly relaxed family festival in the sunny grounds of Braziers Park. There was music and workshops galore. Our morning spinning and weaving drop-in sessions were popular, but the highlight was the afternoon natural dyeing demonstation – including the Woad Show!
We spent Saturday evening dancing to beautiful music by La Mort Subite, and watched everyones names in Futhark (the Runic alphabet) gather on our board.
We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves at Wood, though we slept for a very long time when we got home! It was brilliant to meet so many fantastic people, everyone was so kind and interested in what we were doing. We felt very inspired by the relaxed atmosphere of the festival and how everyone was taking the time to learn something new at a workshop or just relax in the sunshine.
We hope that everyone who came to learn spinning, weaving or hear about natural dyes enjoyed themselves and learnt something new. We’d love to hear if anyone has continued at home anything they learnt!
We had a great time selling wools and yew decorations. We also gave drop spinning demonstations and made friendship bracelets. Our cards and wooden pendants were especially popular.
It was brilliant to meet everyone and lunch was delicious!
Our colours had a very good reception, by both the public and the other living history participants.
For one of us, Michelham also brought back many childhood memories of being on the archaeological excavations here, so it was lovely coming back and seeing how the site has changed.
Our first festival! This was terrifying and exciting in equal measure.
The scale of Tewkesbury is very exciting, a very large number of stalls, two living history camps and a big battle.
Everyone we spoke to was very kind and encouraging, and we are so glad it went well. We will certainly be back for more in the future!