Thursday 23 April 2009

Spring in Rannoch


After Grandtully we were off over the hill to Kinloch Rannoch. Spring was in the air so Claire told the story of Hare rescuing the sun from Toraks. The hare was helped by Polar Bear, Wolf, Snow Bunting, Owl, Mouse and even Spider. All of these creatures were made by children from the school's Pupil Council for our final felt panel for this part of the Felt Story project.

Our last three sessions (Logierait, Grandtully and Kinloch Rannoch) were all funded by Pitlochry in Bloom, Scottish Cooperative Community Fund and Take A Pride in Perthshire. A big thanks to them for helping us bring stories and feltmaking to our local schools. We are hoping to have an exhibition of all the panels in the summer, so watch this space for more information.

Giants in Grandtully


Friday 27th March and we were in Grandtully Village Hall, beautifully redecorated with a lovely wooden floor, so we had to make sure we did plenty of mopping through the day. Claire told the story of Kitty Ill Pretts, a tale of a feisty girl on the make. After their mother died she and her sisters knocked on the door of the king and asked for a job. When she was asked what she could do Kitty said 'I can turn the moon into cream cheese and take the stars from the sky', modest eh? Anyway the king thought she was worth a try and sent her off to steal the sword of light, a set of silver bells and the most beautiful coverlet in the world from his neighbour, a giant. Being a clever girl Kitty successfully tricked her way through each task and eventually the king married her.


The children from P4 to P7 each made an image from the story and we added them to a colourful background, with a particularly gigantic giant and a sprightly Kitty.

Thursday 19 March 2009

And what we did last summer


Felt Story has been going a bit longer than it looks from this blog. We started in March 2008, with short sessions in Glen Lyon primary school and Kinloch Rannoch primary school. Then we got some funding support from Pitlochry in Bloom, Scottish Co-op Community Fund and the Scottish Book Trust to do three whole day sessions. The day with Kenmore primary school at the Crannog and with Blair Atholl primary school at Blair Castle were supported by this funding, with another session in the beautiful Douglas Pavilion in the Plant Collectors' Garden, Pitlochry. That day we had a bunch of teenagers from Brooklyn, New York, over here with the Ambassador's programme. It was a horrible August day, cold and wet and there was definitely an air of exhaustion and possibly a hint of teenage sulkiness when they arrived out of the rain, but by the end of the morning the girls were smiling and relaxed and had all listened spellbound to Claire's story and were absorbed by the felt making.
In the afternoon some local children came along to help us finish the whole panel, which was one of our biggest so far and was made to celebrate the Silver Branch project. It was made from 3 carded batts for the background, plus more than 25 pictures made by all the youngsters. In total it was made with over 1.5 kg of wool and a lot of soap, water and hard rolling.

Tuesday 17 March 2009

Feltmaking and storytelling with a bit of Comic Relief



We were at Logierait Primary School on Friday the 13th of March, Comic Relief day, and there were a few red noses about. Claire told the story of Mrs Magpie and the Fox, who was busy tricking her into giving him her eggs, until pesky Crow came along and gave Mrs Magpie a hint on how to get the better of a crafty trickster like Fox. The children from P6 and P7 then made the characters in wool and the whole school joined in the mess and the fun to make the whole felt panel. Red noses weren't just on the children, some of them were
transformed into Mrs Magpie's eggs and appeared on the felt panel. Again everyone involved had a great day. The children learned some basic felt making and they took a wee step into the art of storytelling. For Claire and I the day showed just how much children can get out of the opportunity to take time out of the day to day school routine and concentrate on making and sharing stories through traditional storytelling and felt making. Thanks to children and staff at Logierait Primary school for all your enthusiasm and for making it a fun day.

Wednesday 1 October 2008

Felt Story at Blair Castle


A cold day in late September, and this time we were at Blair Castle working with children from Blair Atholl primary school. The children huddled under the shelter in the adventure playground and listened to the story of The Hunchback and the Swan. This is an old traveller's tale about friendship, love and resurrection. The children were spellbound and all came up with beautiful images to work into the felt panel that we created during the day. Thanks to Blair Castle for providing a great environment for making and listening. This panel will be on display in the storytelling yurt during the Enchanted Forest in Pitlochry later this month.

Wednesday 17 September 2008

Felt Story at the Crannog

Felt Story had a great day with children from Kenmore Primary School at Oakbank Crannog by Loch Tay on Thursday 4th September. Claire Hewitt and I were working with them to use the story of Brownie the Cow to inspire them to make a large piece of felt and in turn using the feltmaking to inspire the retelling of the story. Even though stories are made from words and are told with the mouth, whereas felt is made from wool using hands, children relate easily to both and come up with some wonderful pictures from the story. They also soak up the story as Claire tells it and spending time using their hands to explore characters from the story helps them really fix it in their brains.
That's what our logo is about, it shows the journey of the story as it travels from heart to hand and back again.
Felt Story is based in Highland Perthshire and we have run workshops for children at Birnam Institute, Kinloch Rannoch and Glenlyon Primary Schools and for youngsters from Brooklyn in the Douglas Pavilion in the Plant Collector’s Garden, Pitlochry.
The day was supported by Pitlochry in Bloom, who raised money from the Scottish Book Trust and the Co-op Community Fund.