Saturday 11 August 2012

Exhibition open

We should have had a raffle, but Friday nights private view was a fun evening with the comb and paper orchestra entertainment, Steve Lewis who had done the found sound for the animation,  worked with Sam and Ben on milling songs using voice, comb and paper. They produced some good sounds and those musical enough to name the  tune  joined in.
There has been so much to do along the way on this project that I have neglected to write this blog at times feeling that getting the book copy to Alan or making the sets for the animation were more pressing. Now we have had the opening and had a very positive response from many people it all seems worth the slog.
Along the way one event that I should have mentioned was held on the site of Stainton Woollen Mill. Stella Adams Schofield an artist whose focus is the process itself has a rich knowledge of the textile processes from fleece to woven cloth. On a sunny day  a group of interested people came and enjoyed the washing of fleece in the river, carding, spinning and the weaving of  the yarn into cloth all accompanied by Stellas' interesting facts about processes and what the mill may have been like. All this took place in the field that the mill site now is, within the marked  plan of the mill site which Stella and I had marked out the day before with bamboo canes and warning tape with the message 'The mills of God grind slowly'. Being on the actual site made the event much more meaningful.
Stella cards the washed fleece in the background is the former mill house.