A Thousand Sheep

A Colourful day! I have had a fab day on Saturday as I went to the Ruskin Mill, near Stroud, for a training on dyeing with plants. Not only I learnt many precious tips for the project, but I also discovered the Ruskin Mill, a highly inspirational place with very fresh ideas for a different education. I will surely report this to the farm as food for thoughts on a new education centre in the making. You can come and see me at the farm on Wednesday as I will be testing more shades of red using english grown madder mixed with a few secret ingredients! I will light a few fires and prepare many vats with different mixes so if you fancy abit of fresh air and hard work, I surely could do with help between 10am and 3pm. I have set up a colour sample board in the education room for you to follow the progress of my experiments.I am still to find the best shade of red for the piece. I am looking for the eprfect "Turkey Red" so if you know any tips on how to get it, please feed in this

Monday 11th of April 7.30 am on site to test how long the water will take to warm up. I light my first fire with the rpint of my first rejected arts council application for the project; kind of satisfying!(I kept a digital copy for record) I have now swaped my town shoes for a pair of wellies which will stay at the farm(a new shoe rack will be organised soon for volunteers and me) The amazing aspect of the project is to be integrated to another project at such an early stage; the education part of the farm is currently in the shaping and there is great potential in being there now. Even the fire for the bath water becomes a way to clear the site of pallets and branches. The sheep have come back to the next door field so I can see them form the shed. They are the life behind the project after all and it feels great having their company when I am on site. 8.00am, dog walker and artist David Podger comes to visit. The rest of the day goes smoothly from heating up one bath and the other,

A Thousand Sheep: It is happening!

Week 1 at River Bourne Farm; I moved in the sheep shed, field 3, and started officially as the farm artist in residence on Monday 4Th of April. It has been a long ride already as I came to speak to the farm about the project in May last year. Since, I have been working on funding applications and have been developing ideas with many partners, friends, artists... I am now delighted to be on site and started with a week of heavy duty clearance of the site around the shed. For those of you who are not yet familiar with the project, here is a little background info and an invite to get involved in the shaping, thinking, clearing, ...whatever you wish. I will be based at the farm for a period of one year during which I will be making a large Sculpture/installation from the sheep fleece gathered at the farm. The idea started one morning , two years ago, when I arrived at my studio, based on ex-military grounds, to discover 1000 sheep grazing on the surrounding field. I then wished to crea