Story castles and wonder towers

Storycastles

build a place where adventures might happen....

This is one of a number of posts replacing activity sessions which we have had to cancel. Storycastles is a Creeping Toad event in conjunction with Buxton Museum and Art Gallery and Stone and Water. Based in Buxton in the Peak District, we all collaborate and support each other as we can, working closely with the Babbling Vagabonds and The Green Man Gallery. If you enjoy this activity, try visiting the others for more ideas!

Now, flex those imagination muscles, exercise your scissor fingers and your colouring thumbs and join us to build a castle, build a tower, build a landscape where adventures might happen….

You will need

• ·      A piece of cardboard: A4 or A3 white is best but this will work with cereal packet card as well or anything that you can cut and roll without it cracking
• ·      A piece of stiff card as a base
• ·      Scissors
• ·      Ruler
• ·      Felt pens or colouring pencils
• ·      Sharp scissors
• ·      Small ball of modelling clay
• ·      PVA glue
• ·      Masking tape
• ·      Craft knife and cutting mat
• ·      A magazine with pictures to cut out, or tissue paper or wrapping paper
• ·      Barbecue skewers (one for each puppet character you want)

 

Step 1. Getting ready

Use the ruler to draw a line maybe 2cm in from one of the long sides of the card (line 1). Take the rule in another 3 or 4 cm and draw another line (Line 2)

Step 2. Drawing the castle

Above Line 2 draw your castle: think of it as a castle unfolded so work your way right across the card. There might be towers and battlements, and another tower, and a hole made by a cannonball. There might be arched windows, a door, arrow slits. Use Line 2 as a guide and don’t draw the top of your building further down than that line. If you do, you might weaken the whole castle. Don’t draw below line 1 – that will be used for something else

(We’re writing as if you are making a castle. You don’t need to: you could make a palace, a strange wizard’s house, a mountain, a forest. The same techniques work for all of these!)

Step 3. Cutting out and colouring

Cut out the castle. Cutting out windows: you might recruit a grown up with a craft knife and a cutting mat, or if you sit your castle shape so the window you want to cut out is on top of that lump of modelling clay, you can safely push the pencil through the card and into the clay. Give the pencil a wiggle. This should give you a big enough hole to slide some small scissors in and then you can cut out the window yourself.

Colour the castle in: completely? Or just draw in stones and ivy and decoration? Up to you!

All done? No! add a little bit more! How about some glitter?

Step 4: all decorated and looking wonderful?

Now cut tabs along the lower edge of the castle, cutting up to Line 1. Do your cuts about 2 cm apart

Run some glue along one side of the castle, then roll the other side round so they just overlap. Carefully press into place. Maybe use a bit of masking tape to hold it together while the glue dries or staple it if you have a staple. Carefully, fold the tabs out so that your castle will stand on the table with its tabs spread out like little feet

Step 5. Stand that castle up!

Turn your castle upside down and put a small squidge of glue on each tab. Gently stand on the castle on the tough card. You might need to adjust things a bit so that it stands straight and proud. Then press the tabs down. More masking tape will hold them in place while the glue dries. Now, rather than having a castle standing in a muddy cardboard square, decorate the castle surround with scrap paper or torn up magazine pictures or whatever (we sometimes use green sponges for bushes, grey ones for stone). There might need to be a paper moat) draw your own crocodiles or piranha perhaps). Step back and admire! You have a castle!

Characters

Having a castle means you might need a story to tell. Use some of your left-over card (or find some more) to draw someone to send on an adventure. Stick them onto a barbecue skewer (if it is very sharp, you could snip the point off with a pair of scissors so it is less likely to stick in someone!)

We made an adventurous explorer. We added a dragon. Because this is an Easter activity this year, we thought our hero should go on a quest….They met a dragon. They found a treasure chest. A chest full of eggs! But are they chocolate eggs? Or do the hero and the dragon incubate the eggs to see who hatches out of them….

If you want some help with characters, there is a pdf attached(we hope! follow the characters link...let us know if nothing happens or it goes horribly wrong!) that you should be able to print out of explorer children and some castle people

write, scribble, sketch, glue...start a journal

build the spring into your notebook

a pencil and a notebook

Give a gift that endures

How are you planning these next few weeks?

If you are one of our essential workers, thank you. I hope you find time to rest and recover between shifts and I hope the rest of us are supporting you in any way we can

If, like the rest of us, you are in a splendid isolation, then I hope we might be able to offer some ideas to keep you going

Creeping Toad along with Stone and Water, the BabblingVagabonds and the Green Man Gallery in Buxton are going to start posting activities. For Creeping Toad, these will often be the things we would have made/done in sessions at Buxton Museum or in the library. We’ll take it in turns to post and between us offer activities that will cover a variety of ages, abilities and interests (we hope!)

We would love people to come back to us with the results of these activities; the triumphs, the disasters and the complete detours you went on. We can’t promise to post everything but we will share what we can and keep our creative community communicating!

Email: creepingtoad@btinternet.com

Facebook: Creeping Toad or Stone and Water

A starting point: but now, why not start by giving something to someone else? I like journals. A mix of diary, sketchbook, scrapbook and scribbling pad, my journals generally make very little sense to anyone else but are important to me. Why not start your own? Or better still, take a moment to order a notebook and a lovely pen or some coloured pencils to send to someone else. Smart notebooks are good, something classy, or just different (black paper always feels like a treat until you loves your silver pen!)

Then use your journal as a personal routine: first thing, last thing, somewhen. Stop. 10 minutes will do (it will almost certainly grow)….Me being me, my journals are about the world around me: looking, listening, feeling the weather, the plants, the animals, history, dreams and wonders. We'll come back to nature journals over the next few weeks. I make no apology for this: your journal should go in a direction that works for you. Nothing big or profound needed: just stop and make marks on a page: words, sentences, emojis, drawings or a carefully dated blank page

leaf print

When I look at useful journal sites or books (a couple of links below) they talk casually about sketching and seem to produce wonderful art just like that. I don’t.

This is yours. Your book. Share if you want to. And do not be ashamed of the mess you make. Writing, or drawing, practice helps. If something doesn’t work. Try it again. Try something else…..

When I am making books in workshops (building little books is a different activity and also lots of fun: concertina, 1-page folds, al good fun, for another day maybe) we have a working list of “things I could do”

• Write
• Draw
• Scribble (very useful)
• Sketch
• Stick (magazines!)
• Make pockets
• Patch (coloured, patterned paper to write on)
• Cut windows
• Make pop-ups
• Add maps
• Add fold out pages
• Do rubbings
• Print (remember potato printing? Or leaves,,, more printing will follow, hang onto your Styrofoam pizza bases)
• Paint
• Stick
• Enjoy

we always bring too much stuff

Enough to get started?

Go for it….

....and persist. It takes time for this to get going. Journals can become a place for you to have a conversation with yourself or with the world or just to pause and reflect but sometimes that takes time.

Journals:

What to choose

Personally I use softbacked sketchbooks from Ryman. (no, I don't get any product placement allowance!) If I buy spiralbound notebooks I always manage to dismantle them. You could visit Papersmiths for some lovely small notebooks and beautiful fountain pens! Mayfly notebooks are just lovely but their journals are sold out just now (so many brilliant minds sharing the same idea?)...go window shopping online for lovely notebooks for someone else. Then get one for yourself! No money? Start working on scrap paper and we'll build books in a week or two....

Ideas for journal processes….

Try these sites for ideas - there are lots out there but don't spend so long looking at other sites that you don't have time for your own notebook!

Lily and Thistle

Nature Mentor

Whatever you do, no matter how beautifully or how trollish (I go for a certain boggart style myself) , your journals are your own and are wonderful for that!

Boggarts often influence my drawing and writing...untidiness accepted

Creativity with Christmas cards

A box, a scene, a Midwinter moment?

recycling Christmas cards

inappropriately summery scene?

Having a bit of a fidget?
Nothing to do?

Bored?
And it’s raining again?


 

Make a little winter a scene to hang on a tree, a branch, a hook on the walll to stand on a shelf, or make a box to put that extra special present (or maybe just the key that makes it go) in

Why not dig out last year’s Christmas cards from the bundle at the bottom of the cupboard, or stealthily purloin one of this year’s, or the birthday cards you don’t quite want to throw out, or use a cereal packet (good card for making and folding, just maybe not as exciting in images as cards) and make a lovely little box?
 
You will need: a card or two, sharp scissors, a ruler, pencils or pens, glue (PVA is good here) and glue spreader, stapler, bradawl (or something for making holes - a pair of compasses would work), thin string

1. Cut the card in half along the fold - keep the “plain” half, you will need it later

Stage 1

2. Using the picture half of the card, on the plain side, draw a margin maybe 2 cm from each edge of the card

Stage 2: drawing margins

3. Where the lines cross at the corners, carefully cut along one of those lines to the point where the lines meet

Stage 3, cutting into corners

4. This card usually folds quite sharply, so now (use the ruler for a straight edge if you want to) fold up along each of those lines and where you have cut in, fold the short bit to make a corner

Stage 4: folding

Stage 6: glueing corners

 








5. Before glueing it all together, decide: if you are making a scene, keep the picture on the inside of the box. If you are making a box: you might want the picture inside or on the outside (you could always line the inside with some spare wrapping paper, or make a bigger box to become a lid.). Reverse the folding if you want to change the position of the picture

6. Making sure the sides of your box are sharply upright, glue the corner tabs onto the next side. A staple will hold it all in place. If the outside is too plain, you could colour it in or add some coloured tape. Or sprinkle it with glitter!

Stage 7: tab

Stage 7: an owl!

7. While the glue dries, prepare the scene to go in the box. Using the other piece of card (from stage 1 above), you could make a little tab to fix a figure to (we used some “embellishments” bought cheaply in a local craft shop), or you could draw your own character. Fix by glueing the tabs into the main scene. Again a staple might help. You might want to colour the tab so it fits into the background of the scenes. Some extra glitter might help again.

Finished scene

8. Use a bradawl or compasses to make a couple of holes (aim for places about 1/3 and 2/3 along the top side), thread a piece of glittery string or ribbon through, know it and hang your scene.

 Experiment with papers, colours, tapes, sequins.

Try different places to hang your scenes: a picture hook on the wall? from your ears? on your fingers (and create a fabulous dance around them)? a snowman’s nose?

box with picture on outside

Lanterns in a Cheshire twilight

Twilight Walk,

Rudheath and Witton,

2nd December 2017

There was willow, and glue and children wrapped in wet tissue (accidentally!). Stained glass glowing blue in tall windows inspired echoing shapes in spired lanterns. There were arches for imagination and carvings, and presents and snowmen. There were reindeer and there was more glue and permanent pens and the delicate flicker of a tiny light


We were making lanterns. Looking for the shapes and structures of Rudheath in winter, for the excitements of Witton, for the sense of “what makes the middle of winter special for you”. Starting with an open day in St helen’s Church in Witton, we went on to work with nearly 300 people in local schools (family sessions brought parents, grandparents and carers in to join the making) and at the garden project at Grozone.

Our lantern walk day began with rain and a waterlogged field. We lost a musician to illness (just for the day, nothing permanent!). We nearly lost our route to a locked gate. But the rain stopped, the wind settled and a glorious full moon burned the clouds silver and the shadows of church, cemetery and river-side willow trees took us and at least 100 visitors out into the night

We recited poems, wandered, told stories, wandered a bit more, made up new stories (the ghostly Lantern Parade of Rudheath, the stout iron fences that hold the bramble creatures off the paths) and we had a beautiful evening of lanterns and laughter in the twilight. And at the end, Grozone received us with a burning brazier and welcome hot chocolate

Thank you! Thank you to the schools who hosted us and to St Helens Church who offered space to work in and a meeting point to gather at. Thank you to Grozone for taking us into their moonlit garden. Thank you to our artists and volunteers who smiled their way through willow-bend and tissue slap. Most of all, thank you to our makers and walkers, to the people of Rudheath and Witton who came and made their lanterns and to those who braved an uncertain evening with such enthusiasm.

This was the last major public event out the Creeping Toad Do It Together project for Rudheath and Witton Together. There might be other activities next year (we are still in discussions) but probably not in the same format as this year. Another Lantern Walk? O, yes please! We would nred to find some new funding for this but I would certainly be prepared to help organise a proejct and help the hunt for that funding, so any Rudheath or Witton people or community group who might like to be involved, let me know!  Contact Gordon on creepingtoad@btinternet.com

ready for a Twilight wander

Thanks to our friends in the lantern walk:
Grozone
Rudheath Primary Academy
St Helen’s Church, Witton
Victoria Rd Primary School
Witton Church Walk CE Primary School
and of course
Rudheath and Witton Together
who made it all happen!

Photos
All these photographs are c Simon Birdsey for Rudheath and Witton Together. People in individual shots are included in our photo permissions file but if you are one of those individuals and would like the images removed, please contact me directly: creepingtoad@btinternet.com

the company assembled

Plagues, kites and other delights!

Flying kites, festering sores and other delights!

Summer activities and winter plans

Rudheath and Witton 2017

a single stalk of grass can set an activity in motion

horrible ailments proved remarkably popular!

After a summer of liveliness, in the Rudheath and Witton Do It Together project we are turning towards autumn and thinking of winter activities

Over the summer season, we saw the completion of the first of the Lost Tales of Rudheath (with Rudheath Primary Academy) and of art and story workshops at Victoria Road Primary School. In public events we made, flew and crashed a few kites, gave people horrible diseases with associated horrible medieval cures and catastrophes. We made small fluttering windsocks and delicate mobiles of natural materials. In public events we met more than 200 local residents and through school sessions including children and visiting parents,  another 400 folk joined the ranks of the “Did It Together”!

small corners inspired small stories

Our aim is to plan and deliver creative events: inviting people to try something new, preferably something that we hope they can go away and try again. So we have used everyday materials where possible, worked in familair places that people can come back to and used technqiues that are quick to learn and easy to transfer

Now we are looking at a colder season and new ideas. We have some thoughts and hope and plans but would like to hear from our Rudheath and Witton friends about other things they would like to do.

Our plans include the following: if you have other thoughts - or particularly like the look of any of these (or don’t like the look…) please let us know! Either leave a comment here or through our facebook page or by email: creepingtoad@btinternet.com

the richness of autumn

Celebrating the seasons and the special qualities of Rudheath and Witton

•     outdoor art with natural objects at Grozone
•     a wintry storywalk
•     lantern making: the lights of Rudheath: capturing buildings, shapes, people, activities, the sculptures in Griffiths Park
•     small lights for houses: join us to hold onto miniature moments of Rudheath in tiny lanterns for table tops and corners, small treasures for the dark evenings
•     an evening walk with lanterns and maybe some carol-singing in December
•     Rudheath stories 2: collecting memories, writing poems and stories, working with artefacts from Weaver Hall Museum to remind of activities, games, dreams and promises
•     maybe finding the next of the Lost Tales

last lights of autumn

Who to work with

• anyone!
  everyone! 
• older residents
• new friends: Witton Church Walk C of E Primary School
• Victoria Road and Rudheath Academy Primary Schools - who feel like old friends
• families
• nursery age children either in groups or with parents

Where to do things!

•     outside? Roker Park, Griffiths Park, the smaller green spaces among streets
•     The Venue
•     Social Club
•     in the schools
•     any other suggestions?

First activities will start in October and run through October, November and December - so get in touch soon!

Lost in the Adventurewoods

The Adventurewoods

The Lost Tales of Rudheath, pt 1

work with Rudheath Primary Academy

summer 2017

into the Adventurewoods

There are mysteries here,

In these dark woods,

Stories never told,

Treasures never found,

People forever lost…*

We began with characters: who should we send on an adventure. Individually we created small people for small misadventures. Collectively, we set a quest in motion

getting the story started

They woke in the morning to a missing pet.

A rabbit, much loved, much cuddled, was gone.

Its hutch empty,

Its run abandoned,

The story grew from there: each class picking up the adventure and moving it on. Some groups added details of landscapes, or extra characters who we might meet - or just hear rumour of on the wind that blew through the spaghetti trees

They had torches and towels,

A picnic, a map and a compass,

And a rope for swinging through trees.

They took lots of string for emergency things

And a bright green apple for healing.

They found sticks for campfires and shelters and sheds,

For a boat and for fishing rods.

They found twigs for drawing maps on leaves.

 

mapping details

The story wandered. We found treasure. Got lost. Found a friend. Got lost again. Felt ill. Strayed too far

you never know who you might meet

Through the darkwoods,

Through the dangerwoods,

Into the shadows and the trailing cobwebs

Of giant spiders.

We discovered strange little asides: stories that belonged to the streets of Rudheath and Witton but never told before, heard before or, let’s face it, thought of before…

The palace was wonderful, decorated with patterns of weeds and reeds and the wind on the water. The girl went in, passing halls and thrones. Everything was pink. The walls were pink. The floors were pink. The ceilings were pink. The chairs were pink. The tables were pink. The curtains were pink. The carpets were pink. She found a set of stairs that ran down, under the palace. Nothing here was pink. It was dark and gloomy and sinister in shades of grey and green. Here she found a dungeon. There was a chest right in the middle of the room.

treasures helped us add detail

As part of Creeping Toad’s Do It Together project for Rudheath and Witton Together, “The Lost Tales of Rudheath” involved all of the children at Rudheath Primary Academy. Workshops were organised as "family learning events" with parents, guardians or other involved adults invited to join us, to participate in lively sessions using activities that would transfer. We went for activities that needed easy-to-find resources and that would work again in a garden or on a wander through a park. There was a lot of interest from our grown-up contingent: getting 6 - 10 Mums, Dads, aunts, uncles, grandparents and other family members with each class

often i found whole stories i didn't know were developing

The full text of the Adventurewoods story can be found as a booklet to download here

The trolls chased

But it was too late for them.

The Apple Tree Man had been woken by all the noise.

He felt branches torn,

His trees being broken,

He clicked his fingers.

With every click, one tree

And then another tree

Woke.

Tree Monsters and Woodland Warriors.

Long branches reaching out.

Twigs snagging in troll hair.

Sticks catching troll arms.

Branches like pythons, like anacondas, wrapping

The trolls into wooden cages.

 

school display in development

We learned a lot:  that broombrushes are smaller but faster than broomsticks, that bottles full of dust and smoke should be handled with care, that someone out there drinks tea while dragons toast marshmallows on their own breath

With many thanks to all the artists and storytellers of Rudheath Primary Academy and to the staff who welcomed and helped us  

*the italic sections are all extracts from the main story: 

groups gave me words, phrases, action and I edited things together