SATURDAY 13TH MARCH
COMMUNITY WORKSHOP
One of the requirements of the commission is to run two workshops with the community, so the first one was in Voe Community Hall, between 10 and 3, as advertised on Shetland Radio and in various other places… On Friday I went to see potential accommodation in Sullom, a couple of voes away, and when my extremely hospitable hosts invited me in for a cuppa and inquired as to what brought me this far north, the easiest way to explain was, very conveniently, within the leaflet advertising today’s workshop, which had been enthusiastically thrust upon anyone entering Voe shop in the last few days and happily had landed in their hands too. One word from me and my maybe-landlady disappeared only for a moment to reappear clutching my photograph. If only successful publicity were always so simply far reaching!
For the workshop I had prepared a clay activity. When I found out that weaving had been an important industry in Voe, I decided to pay reference to that through weaving in clay. It is a very effective, manageable activity and it was well attended by various parents, children and a few more adults supporting the project. Everyone created texturized clay using a variety of materials to impress into the clay surface and then cut their slabs into strips, which I taught them how to weave. All were impressed with the end results. I promised to fire them, having sourced a local kiln, although they are very fragile.
