nature

So much going on…

It’s been a busy couple of months, with Wild Twins 2 full of sunshine and wild art in West Cork. Thanks to all who came and made it such a wonderful week. Photos and a write up on the website soon…

Next week my work illustrating Andreas Kornevall’s writing about Norse myth will be featuring in The Clearing, an online magazine from publisher Little Toller, I will put the link in my news section as soon as it is live. My latest article for Dark Mountain is here. It details my time under the trunk of a great fallen oak tree last autumn, and how returning to earth periodically keeps me sane and hale.

My work will feature shortly in print and online in Earth Island Journal, and at Wild Pigment Project online, and I will post snippets here as soon as they are finished. There are many projects awaiting the right time to announce, including an artist residency in a city farm, a possible illustrated book with a great author, and some collaborations. For now, it’s back to work for me, as I am off to the woods tomorrow to make buckskin and moccasins again, in the embrace of the wild wood.

There will be monthly classes in all the techniques and disciplines which  teach, and I am looking forward to launching those over the summer, and taking bookings for September. These will be small classes of up to 6 people, held at my home on The Thames. Do get in touch if you are interested in wild pigments, birch bark boxes, hand made watercolours, colour theory, drawing, painting and so much more. Updates and pictures post daily on my Instagram account, @foundandground

Best wishes from the river.

Caro.

Wild Twins walk

 

Books and news

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Bookmaking, not for the new tax year, but for the Wild Twins students and friends. 13 made, 8 to do when I get home from work tonight. Strelizia turns out to be a wonderful fibre with which to sew, whether stranded or reverse-wrapped into two-ply.
Sadly it seems two people who applied for the extra bursary both can’t seem to make travel plans fit in with work commitments. This happens sometimes in modern busy life. So the bursary is available again! In exactly one month’s time we will be meeting just a few feet from the very western edge of Europe. Can you come? Writers and artists of every kind are welcome to join me and writer Paul Kingsnorth, co-founder of #darkmountainproject . Everything you need to know is at wyrdschool.ie . I really hope someone will benefit from this reduction of the fees from €950 to €699. If you have a question about it email me via the contact page. I have become very knowledgeable about the travel options!
Together we make books, ink, quills, paint, brushes, charcoal, stories, paintings, artworks, poems, conversations, questions, discoveries, dreaming methods, wild walks, fireside songs, story journeys, connections with nature, friends. . There isn’t anything else like this we’ve spent 3 years working on it…

Wild Twins bursary newsflash

The Wild Twins course I run in Ireland in early May with writer Paul Kingsnorth has one more bursary place, as a student had to drop out, and the non-refundable deposit means we can reduce the price for someone on lower means, it is 699 Euros rather than 950 Euros. All the details are here. If you or a friend you know would like to come, get in touch.  Please feel free to pass this info on.

The venue Sherkin Island North Shore is amazing… Great food, wonderful hosts, wild Atlantic beauty.

 

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Found and ground

It is a joy to find what we need on the ground beneath our feet. ‘Making good use of the things that we find, things that the everyday folks leave behind…’ British folks who were kids in the 1970’s will remember the Wombles, wonderful resourceful animated characters who lived in Wimbledon Common and were proto up-cyclers, foragers and green champions. The show should be brought back, it would be so on-trend.

I’ve been finding some great materials this year, here’s a few pictures.

IMG_2500Red Devon clay, as I found it on a rainy day it formed these useful lumps.

foraged materials basket

Starting my wild basket in the woods with a ‘god’s eye’ of split hazel withies, followed with long strands of ivy.

Here’s my latest improv basket, made in the woods of Wiltshire. It’s just the right size for gathering nuts and berries, roots and leaves, which is what I was living on for four days. More about that later!

 

Foraging treasures

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Eagle feathers and deer antlers found for me in Aberdeenshire by Anneke. The feathers adorn my boat, the antlers will make a variety of things, tools for flint-knapping, a peg board, and possibly another toggle, for a new buckskin bag I am planning. Once the skins are finished… That’s a big job, and I hope to get round to it next week. In the shell is the gum exuded from wild cherry trees, which I use in place of gum Arabic to make watercolours.

Also found this week, lots of fresh water mussel shells left by the rooks, which I use for palettes and mixing ochre paints with the gum.

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