Today felt special for several reasons. It has been my last day carving grain in the Grain Warehouse although tomorrow it will still be open during workshops. A woman called Vicky came and she absolutely loved the work and made me feel really good. She said she would come to the Finishing Event later. There were another few people in while I picked Michelle up from the train station. It is really great that Michelle from LUSH came all the way up from Pool to see the Project, come to the Finishing Event and the first workshop tomorrow morning.
Emma was with me in the space all day and that was nice too. She helped getting some of the stuff ready for the evening and was very supportive.
Maia and I arrived at Grain Warehouse at 5.30pm to get space ready. Very quickly after 6pm people started coming and there was a real buzz. I just sat and continued carving while talking to people and also trying to introduce some of them to Michelle and some other people.
There were Lou who came over from Hull; Julie Swallow, I’m glad she made it; Brian and Richard came again, which was nice; Utk and Suzanne revisited too; there was Helen from my MA course and Sue with two friends; Helen, Pete, Joe, Rosie and Megan; Mharie, Paul, Honor, Erien and Kitty; Juan, Jo, Corin and Anes; Sarah Wenham; David Lobo, who did some work for me in the space and from whom I rented the carving trolley and stool; Judy and Suzanne; Lynn, who I’ve known since my BA; some BA students; Mike, Mik and Richard from Nick’s work and that was lovely; Caroline, Jenny and another friend of theirs; Madeleine with her three daughters; Katie, Tilly and Phoebie; Vanessa Boddye, completely unexpected, who sorts me out with massages (a real treat); some people from the LUSH shop in Sheffield an I talked to one of them and her dad; Vicky, the woman that visited the project earlier and said she would come back for the event; the couple from Cafe 1819 with their daughter; and these are only the ones I know and remember from the night.
Maia reckonded there were about eighty people in total. Fran tried to document the evening but found the low light level tricky so unfortunately there aren’t many images that capture the atmosphere.
Although Maia made sure everybody took a grain, there is still a big pile left. More will go after workshops tomorrow.
