Above and Below

In Stitches March 22nd

Some speedy slow stitching on Gary and Paul’s textile bark strips for the next Above and Below Rust and Remembrance session. Gary had no time to stitch between sessions as he’s sorting through his dear departed wife’s craft stash – an epic task. Paul could only place and pin as he has his arm strapped to his side due to injured shoulder. I sent out a message inviting participants to bring in a jar with a lid and any small, rusty items they might have for the Monday session.

24th March

We were greeted by an absolutely magnificent array of rusty chains, nails washers etc to share amongst the group but before we started group member, artist and volunteer Lillian Douglas gave a talk about her pieces, which she had dyed and dried already.Lillian had three sample pieces and was able to talk us through what had happened during each wrapping and dyeing attempt. She had many valuable insights, tips and tricks to share and held the group spellbound.

There was also a lot of “So when do you add the tea?”

“Should the tea be hot or cold?”

“Do you just drop the rusty things in with the tea?”

“What should you wrap the bundle with?’

“Oh string, has anyone got any, no, well we’ll go and buy some?”

These and other questions ran up and down the table and Lillian patiently talked everyone through the process.

There was a lot of deliberation and discussion about how many items to roll inside the bundle and how long to leave the bundle steeping before unwrapping. This form of dying is unpredictable, so much depends on whether the fabric is natural or synthetic, how tightly or loosely the bundle is wrapped, how thick the bundle is, whether you remember to allow the bundle to dry fully before unwrapping and rinsing – there is a lot of delayed gratification!

Both Lillian and I came across this dying technique when we signed up for free, 5 day workshop organised by Textile Artist.Org https://www.textileartist.org/about/ Stitch Club and led by Deb Cooper https://www.debcoopertextileart.com and when thinking about creating a symbolic tree bark effect I could see this would be engaging and have great potential when working on the digial fabrics for the floating tree columns. I made a piece out of left over scraps.

Paul brought his Mum’s sewing tin to show us, and I was reminded of my Dad’s many, many tobacco tins – same brand different designs full of useful shed things. I still have a fair few, possibly awaiting a future project, it is hard not to feel outraged by the tobacco industry, but that’s another story. Paul had dismantled and reassembled my Dad’s shed once it had been emptied, that task had fallen to Andrew and was something of an archaeological dig. We are all tied by threads that chase between our roots and branches. The bark protects us and may be where we write some part of our stories. Silver birch bark peels like paper and has such subtle colours and marks like stitches.

Sukey brought in moss from her garden and once the wrapping and chatting and clearing were done we settled down for a mythic tale from Phil!

Having made the discovery that the cathedral Beech Tree was now a growing space for new life on the forest floor I decided that the Silver Birch might be the inspiration for the hanging tree columns in my eventual installation. I was also intrigued by the Celtic connection in ecology and legend

“When the huge glaciers of the last ice age receded, birch trees would have been one of the first to re-colonise the rocky, ice-scoured landscape. Hence, ecologists refer to birch as a pioneer species. In Celtic mythology, birch is also a tree of beginnings and came to symbolise renewal and purification. Birch or Beithe, is the first tree of the Ogham, the Celtic tree alphabet.”

https://treesforlife.org.uk/into-the-forest/trees-plants-animals/trees/birch/birch-mythology-and-folklore/

I love that term pioneer species as the many unemployed men who came to Corby to work were also pioneers. On my forest walks I came across silver birches which often shed their bark. I was struck by the colours and textures and the papery nature of the peelings. A kindly tree spared me some shreds to take to show the group. The reddish lines also reminded me of stitches. Before the session I sent out a message to all who had signed up to ask them to bring any extra fabrics, threads or needles with them.

We were joined by Philippa Tipper my fellow explorer on the walk to find the Cathedral Beech tree. She was keen to meet the group and get a feel for their voices, stories, and experiences. She was also wanted to make her own piece of fabric ‘bark’ to add to the installation. I introduced the project, explained what we were aiming for and why, we had a cuppa, gave out the packs and the conversations began to flow. Phil also regaled the group with our epic walk to find the Cathedral Beech.

It was a warm, lively session and most people took their pinned pieces home to carry on slow stitching during the following week. There were buttons to share.

March 14th

In trying to find out how to find the Cathedral Beech Tree prior to our walk I rang Fineshade but could only talk to a Bot who assured me he wasn’t a Bot and that if I left a message someone on the team would get back to me. This didn’t happen, it was only after the walk I managed to navigate the many pathways to find these two entries on the Rockingham Forrest Vision website.

“Fineshade’s Cathedral Tree – update

2 July 2024

We reported last autumn that what is arguably Fineshade Wood’s finest tree had lost two of its huge limbs. Forestry England have now erected fencing around the veteran tree, along with interpretation panels describing how they have decided to manage the sad but inevitable decline of what for many people is a most significant tree.  You can download a copy of the sign here but what is highly recommended is to listen to Forester, Scott Martin’s explanation, using the QR code or by following this link.​”

“Further demise of Cathedral Tree

29 August 2024

Despite Forestry England’s best efforts (as we reported in July) there has been further very extensive damage to the famous and much-loved Beech tree that stood in the woods between King’s Cliffe and Fineshade. The recent unseasonably strong winds have now brought almost all of the tree down.  This is exactly what Forester Scott Martin predicted in this excellent video: “If we get a real bad storm tomorrow it could take the rest of the limbs off in one go, or it could still be here in another 50 years. We just don’t know.”

We intend to produce a fuller article about the Cathedral tree in the near future.”

Below are some photos from the canopy by Shell’s brother

13th March

Enticed by this legend

“This veteran Beech has stood for hundreds of years on the eastern edge of Fineshade Wood and is called the Cathedral Tree by some Fineshade folk. However, it is much closer to the village of KIng’s Cliffe. There it is known simply as “The Beech Tree” but it seems to have special significance and one hears tell of solstice celebrations and of marriage rites being conducted under its arching branches.

Walking under the tree in summer you enter a huge vaulted green space that seems very special indeed.

The tree is entered in the national Ancient Tree Inventory and we have recorded its girth as 6.43m. which means that it is probably over 300 years old”

Philippa and I set off on a walk to find this inspirational tree. “Have you been there before?”

“No, but I’ve seen pictures!” in terms of path finding, map reading and compass points, I am about as much use as a chocolate teapot. We did find an OS map reference, we knew King’s Cliffe was where we needed to head for and the What Three Words ap helped us on our way.

It’s a long, long time since I have been on a longish walk, I am very creaky, I was worried I wouldn’t keep up and my breathing would be terrible. I am carrying too much weight, was inappropriately dressed and my boots were ancient and leaky. Hard to believe I had spent ten years on creative walking and wellbeing projects. I had achieved a great level of fitness, had lost weight but 10 years on and all that life had thrown my way, I was back to unfit central!

However, once we were on the path, which was wide and solid, I felt a lot better. The magnificent Beech had loomed large in my dreams for so long and this was the day we would finally meet. The air quality was great, my breathing was good, the lichen had told its truth and Phil was a brilliant Pathfinder. We marvelled at moss, grasses, saplings, catkins and the many changes in the weather, sun, wind, hail, rain, this walk had it all. There were gaps I the hedges which showing signs of animal activity. Not much bird song but a few wheeling Kites. We were on the Jurassic Way. We passed some purposeful walkers coming in the opposite direction and we asked if they had seen a huge and stately Beech Tree on there travels. They shook their heads and we trudged on.

We reached an area that had been cleared, it was like a field of bones, sloping down towards a managed area of younger beech trees, a Muntjac deer flashed his tail at us as he headed for the trees. Then it started to hail so we decided to brave the field of bones and shelter amongst the beech trees. There was a crispy carpet of leaves and beech masts and we sat for awhile on a sinuous upended youngster whilst the map app told us we were just a minute away from our veteran tree! We decided to walk down between the trees and stumbled on a path, we followed that. We found a trampled fence and a fallen sign, and it became apparent that the Cathedral Beech was no more! After three to four hundred years, it was a being reclaimed as a habitat. So once again we were caught in that dead, not dead liminal zone and what remained of the tree remined me, from certain angles it remined me of footage I had seen of the steelworks coming down. From other angles it looked like a David Shrigley sculpture. It was hard to know what to think or feel – than, as if by magic a young woman with two black Labradors turned the corner and came towards us. Shell was able to tell us what had happened and when and that her brother, a tree surgeon, had scaled the tree before it had lost all its limbs. She promised to send photos.

There was more to see and more people to meet on our way back to the car but the walk certainly felt like something out of a story!

“In narratology and comparative mythology, the hero’s quest or hero’s journey, also known as the monomyth, is the common template of stories that involve a hero who goes on an adventure, is victorious in a decisive crisis, and comes home changed or transformed.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey

10th / 17th March

Some much needed planning has started to happen, I had spent a lot of time exploring inks, watercolours, collage, stamps, small prints, and other materials thinking my way towards what I would create for Do The 100 Day Project 2025 and tying it in with artwork for the textiles I will create for my Above and Below installation. I had become so absorbed in that I forgot that my first Public Engagement sessions were due to start. Thankfully I had written the bid with a target group in mind and happily was able to fill the spaces easily, in fact I was oversubscribed. I had originally hoped for 10 people but now have 16 and really didn’t have the heart to turn anyone down.

I know there are more people who would have liked to come but the space can only just cope with this number of participants.  I want to have time to enjoy the interaction with the people present, hear their stories, share their recollections about Rockingham Forest. This will inform what I make. Having been a group facilitator for so long I need to find my way back to my own practice, whilst still making work that in informed by the community I am working in, so it is important for me to maintain the boundaries I set for this project and for myself. On the other hand, I hate to disappoint people, but I can’t allow myself to fall back into old ways

At the end of the Eloquent Fold’s “Pebble In My Pocket” I found myself with severe admin / spreadsheet burn out and I needed to take a break before creating a new project with The Eloquent Fold. The one shadow that hangs over this is the Bank Account we use for our projects is now charging £4.50 per month plus a charge for each transaction. The Eloquent fold is a tiny Not For Profit Community Organisation with no paid staff, we only have income if we have had a successful grant application. I am very proud of the work we have done with the community over the last 13 years. We have no core funding and a tiny reserve; it won’t take long for Bank Charges to eat that up; how will we continue? Should we continue? I am busy trying to put this out of my mind for the time being, but every time a statement arrives, there is the anxiety again.

No matter how hard you try to take everything into consideration when putting together a project budget planning and preparation takes more time than you can ever really budget for. I also discovered that I had made a bit of a VAT “Oops”, but nothing insurmountable.  So, in the last two weeks I have been drawing together materials and resources. I am trying not to take a huge number of materials with me. For the Rust and Remembrance sessions I have put together a pack of fabric etc for each person which they can add to at home, but its surprising just how much time this actually takes.

There have been good conversations and meetings with Kate, Philippa, Suzanne, and Steve. I must stop worrying about the end and start enjoying the journey. I also need to stop worrying about future work and money, or even just the future. Be in the moment. Enjoy each moment.

At least I know I am prepared and have a group who are keen to get started!