Sing to work - work to sing

 Two weeks ago a couple of woolcrafties gathered on a very woolcraft busy afternoon to eke out some space and time to try something new - or rather ancient:
to sing whilst working - esp. if the work entails sustained rhythmical movements like rowing or waulking (beating woven tweed to soften and shrink fabric), spinning, weaving and rocking the cradle, and making the bread, from corn threshing to dough kneading. These intrinsic rhythmic tunes develop easily into dances, slow or fast, and have been developed more recently into chart topping hits.

Singing to work and working better whilst singing:
We can find it in all cultures as an expression of connectedness to the elements and the cycles of life, the communal efforts of surviving in them, as a means of gossiping, telling stories, lamenting and praising, and praying.

This little song here we chose by digging through an old Hebridean Song Book, looking for a simple lilt which can aid the simple circular movements entailed in wet felting a wee picture.

Luckily Jenny and Eileen are very musical and loved improvising on the tune as they at the same time learned some wet felting basics.
It would be fabulous if we could find more Gaelic worksong specialist to teach us some stuff from our first and future culture. :-)
Here are some good links to background of Gaelic Songs in general: http://www.siliconglen.com/culture/gaelicsong.html

I love to learn the sean-nós style, and at home I get so much strength and peace out of chanting the Ceile De Fuin to my daily chores and creative woolcraft explorations.


Lets see how we fare tonight with the second exploration session and whether Alison will be there this time and we get started back again at processing our Hebridean fleeces? :-) 

gosh - felting that fleece was more than 3 years ago!!

More blast from the past

Sgioba Luaidh visiting Galgael

This Friday was a very special day, because at long last Sgioba Luaidh Inbhirchluaidh (The Inverclyde Waulking group) came to put on a show at Galgael. If you have follwoed this blog ehre you will have met them already several times - at the Woolfest in July, and then Frances and Innes at an informal visit. This time they came in full strength - 8 women and Archie. They donned theiur Highland crone costumes and then never got cold in the big cold workshop, waulking the cloth with full throated waulking songs, bringign alive the history of the Isles, singing of feuds and fights (and there was lots in the times when these working songs were sung in very hamlet and town!), and of course, of the joys and sorrows of love and parting.

One hour before lunch and one hour after - it sure was a feast of witnessing the hypnotic spell cast by these vigeourous songs, and now and then also the longing lilt of a spinning song.

The guys (Navigating Life Trainees and trainers) were spellbound, and touched to their bones by something they may have never heard before, but which touched them in their blood with the power of past generations.

Some even dared to have a go at the waulking themselves, and learned soon that the grab&throw handmovements of the cloth are not that easy!

It is best if you see all the pictures on this album:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/urban.clansman/SgiobaLuaidhVisitingGalgael#

and better still if you see and hear the 10 wee video clips on the urban.clansman youtube channel

Here is one tiny taster of a beautiful spinning song sung by Frances whilst Innes was spinning and our women were teasing wool:

So, remember to visit

http://uk.youtube.com/urbanclansman & http://uk.youtube.com/user/woolcraftatgalgael

for to see some of the show, and visit also http://www.geocities.com/luadh/, the group's website and learn about their story - and maybe invite them to your group, too. It is great fun and they have many registers they can pull, with their big repertoire and vibrant vigour, as well very modern IT support (very educative and imaginative slideshows!)

We know we want them back - knowing also they loved the madness that is Galgael - and we would like the harp next time (February?), too, and then also (in early summer?) try out the songs in the boats to the beat of the oars, as many of the songs have been sung by men to the rhythm of rowing.

So, lets open the song books of the past,

and thanks be those here who make them last..

week ending 29th August

Big group this week at the Plantation Production felt making workshop, which was mainly about designing and sizing the "Portal into Wholeness and Wellbeing" wall hanging. Ali came to continue laying and felting the inner arch of the portal at Galgael, as well as getting her hands into clay and ceramics with Luis.
Sarah-Jane was also getting rolled in by making stone-felt for the felt portal with some clever effects such a wool neps! Plus:, she is getting Eugune rolled in too! ;-)

Wednesday saw also our participation at the Bridges Programmes Stakeholder meeting in the Pearce Institute. Bridgesprogrammes is a local organisation which help refugees into work in Scotland. It was very nice meeting them all, albeit some of the affiliated community groups we were hoping to meet for possible future working together had not been able to come. Still we hope that future working together is possible between Bridges and Galgael.
Sarah-Jane performed her spinning song she learned from Norman, and we met Sgioba Luaidh properly at last! You can watch Frances giving an introduction to the waulking tradition on
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=3Kb_EVaRWXE
and as snippet of the cheerful energetic singers on http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz8HO8gfBhY. Some of the young African men thought the song and rhythm was perfect for to do break dancing to it! Well there would be meat for a future project? !

More pictures can be found here:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/woolcraft.atgalgael/BridgesProgrammesStakeholderEvent#


The next day, back at Galgeal, the German girls were enjoying themselves with the woolcraft, and would like to felted hats!
So, Anneruth was sourcing a firm foam roll to serve as a base for shaping a hat via needlefelting, which Luis the potter sawed into an oval shape. He also prepared to create hat moulds via plaster pouring for the perfectly measured German heads.

Today on Friday, Laryna and others met for the usual group, with Jackie deciding she will embark on felting one or more pairs of mittens made from Hebridean wool, and got started with stage one: teasing the Hebridean wool. Katie from Berlin also got down to teasing wool for the hats, and thus partaking in the full wool craft process = from fleece to fabric.

Phew - this was a very busy week!

woolcraft log week ending 15 August

Anneruth made a sun, moon and stars wall-hanging mobile style: sculptured felt and plantdyed wool. The stars, flat felt and cut, birch leaves and silk; moon with birch leaves and sun with onion skin dyed wool. Presently it hangs at the Portal and serves as a demonstration to the feltmaking project folks there. This week they were 3 folks there further intrigued with the craft: 2 did sculptural felting with Anneruth, and one did a wet felt picture under the 4 element theme. The class this week there also included the brainstorming session for the planned wall hanging on the theme of 'wholeness'.

On Wednesdays also: Learning a Gaelic spinning song with Norman Maclean continues at Galgael. You can watch a teeny weeny glimpse of him on our spot on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/woolcraftatgalgael

On Thursday Eileen made another attempt on planning a weaving on the frameloom, but then decided that wool craft was not necessarily something she wanted to learn. She had very much enjoyed the Galgael company and we hers, so we shall miss her very much. Good luck, Eileen, to you finding a good job really soon (touch wood!), and come and visit us again sometime soon, too :-)

Anneruth made another attempt in tidying up the bothy again, but there is just too much stuff now for the small place, and the real tidy up thing has to wait till Marie, Rab and Alan will have made the shelves for Martin's desk and our one spare wall, and may be even painted the place up a bit.

On Friday Laryna sorted and plied more of the handspun wool (the various practise balls). Anna picked up the knitting needles again, and finds she can still knit and is now looking for nice coloured wool to try her hands on a baby blanket. Lynsay made more progress on her fine weaving project, too.