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.

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.