Shedding

The rain has stopped at last, so I’m finally getting round to thinking about the refurbishment of the shed. I shall venture into the loft today to ferret about for all the red, white and blue fabric I can find.

Rachel’s garden is looking absolutely stunning, so I need the shed to be lovely too!

http://www.ngs.org.uk/gardens/gardenfinder/garden.aspx?id=22910

I have booked in a few people to work in the garden. Some have chosen to work on their own, others have chosen days when there will be a group going round, so they will have a bit of an audience or someone to show their work to.

I’m going to spend a few days there myself. This summer is going to be mad and hectic, so the prospect of a few hours retreat from it all is looking very attractive.

If any of you musicians, artists and poets fancy doing the same, then please get in touch. The shed will be there from about 12th June till 12th July ish… haven’t finalised shed transport yet.

The open weekend is smack in the middle of this period – 23rd and 24th June. So if any of you would like to play or work in the shed over that weekend you will have an audience, and if the weather is nice, possibly a substantial one! Please get in touch!

I’ve written a sort of press release thingy…..

LOAF 2012

Saturday July 14th 10.00am – 5.00pm

Sunday July 15th 11.00am – 4.00pm

LOAF – Life and Other Arts Festival – is an arts festival with a difference. For the last three years the weekend-long event has included the installation of a rather unusual shed. The Shed is covered in bright fabrics and plays host to a full programme of singer-songwriters playing acoustic sets in the courtyard of The Coach House Arts Centre, Oldswinford, Stourbridge. Lately it has been causing a bit of a stir and has been featured in Jane Field-Lewis’s book “My Cool Shed”.

In 2010 artist Elena Thomas and singer songwriter Dan Whitehouse had an idea to create a flat-pack shed that would work as a mobile performance space, based on the other sheds Elena had covered in fabric. Since then it has travelled across the Midlands and the idea of the mini-festival has grown and this year 11 acts will be performing in the shed over the LOAF weekend, including locals Kim Lowings and Andy Richards. From elsewhere around the Midlands are Stylusboy, Rob Ryan, Angela Armstrong, Ellis Stephenson, Sally Sunbeam, Lee Mitchell, poet Heather Wastie; and Anja McCloskey is coming all the way from Southampton with four other musicians… we wonder if they’ll all get into the shed?

This summer, Dan will be headlining the event again, playing on Sunday afternoon. He is a regular player at The Glee Club in Birmingham, and has had recent radio plays on BBC Radio 2 and 6music’s Introducing. He is in the middle of a nationwide tour promoting his debut album “Dan Whitehouse”

In addition to the music, visitors can take pleasure in the art produced by the Life Drawing group, and the Rebellious Quilters, who get together each summer to show work they have done throughout the year. Work includes all manner of drawing and painting, ceramics, and textiles, and of course, the quilts.

I think I’ve included everything I wanted to… no doubt someone will ask me something crucial that I’ve missed out, or will draw my attention to a spelling misteak.

It’s been a hard day… I just posted this on my “Threads” blog, completely forgetting I had a Shed blog specially for these purposes! ah well…. vote again… can’t hurt can it?

http://www.readersheds.co.uk/share.cfm?SHARESHED=3…

Voting starts today for the Shed of the Year 2012… please click on the above link, and vote as many times as you can! We would LOVE to win it this year, as we have worked so hard to get our little shed out into the world!

Right, so here it is, now live. Please follow the adventures of this humble shed. The next post will hopefully be about her spring clean and refurbishment ready for a patriotic summer full of lovely art and music!

There was a picture of my shed, with Dan sat in it with his guitar in today’s Sun, page 61, not page 3. Unfortunately no name check for either Dan or me. But it’s very exciting to see a picture of it in the national press. I’ve never bought a copy of the Sun before!

It’s amazing the way people are looking upon me, and it, differently now it’s been in a Proper Book, and in a Daily Paper. It is a validation of sorts I suppose. The people who didn’t get it, still don’t get it, but seem to understand it a bit better now it’s in print. Perhaps I’m just not very good at talking about it?

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/books/article4324835.ece

http://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Cool-Shed-Inspirational-Hideaways/dp/1862059330/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1337373610&sr=1-1

Also, people are starting to book themselves into my shed for the garden event in June. Some people are keen to have an audience. Some keen to be on their own, to retreat. Interesting.