Down in the Basement....

......a Story Den awaits.

We officially christened our Storytelling Den on our first Saturday at Liminal Space, with a very lovely folk round-singing session courtesy of Rachel Drazek and Sarah-Jane Miller. The Den is still very much hungry for more stories though...

Storytelling through Lino.....

Last Saturday we were treated with the visit of Liz Lake, an individual whose quiet creative brilliance and modesty continue to strike me just as much now as they did when we first met as interns at the Bread and Puppet Theatre in Vermont, USA. Liz creates worlds, creatures and narratives through print-making, namely lino-cuts, and I've seen her bring these to life via incredible shadow puppetry performances too. But today she arrived to lead a small group of workshop participants on a storytelling journey through the folk tale of Baba Yaga.

After a telling of Baba Yaga in the storytelling den, by yours truly, the group began to map out key moments of the story and decide which ones each person wanted to develop further. There followed an hour of the most contented silence I've ever witnessed, as each participant drew out there scenes and began to carve their lino cuts.

And now to the printing.....

Liz introduced us to a  simple way of 'animating' still images - by turning them into a story bunting chain! And with that she was off onto her next adventure.....

http://lizlake.org/home.html

Eating and sleeping Baba Yaga

It is sunday night. Liminal Space has completed its first week, and as I look back on what has been achieved I realise that, collectively, we have undertaken a deep pictorial journey into our story, Baba Yaga. All of the elements of that dark Grimms tale have been unravelled, stretched out, animated, listened to, seen in terms of colour and shape and texture... static imagined scenes have been turned into animated performances via simple manipulation of card and cardboard. Scenes which vividly wrapped themselves around our imagination have been carved out of lino, printed onto paper with etching ink and delicately sewn onto bunting chains. We've listened to the the tale of Baba Yaga, seen it in our mind's eye, translated those pictures into physical form using an intoxicatingly refreshing range of craft skills, and woven our very own visual story tapestries. For me, its what happens to the imagination through storytelling that fascinates me - so it's been a dream come true to spend this past week working with a story to see what pictures and visual worlds emerge...

A day of Cassette Crankie Storytelling

On my bike ride in to open Liminal Space on its first official day, I find a plastic bag heaving with discarded cassette tapes. Voila - our first drop-in activity theme is decided. With half a dozen neat little boxes containing all the necessary elements (pairs of bent wire rods, lengths of scroll paper, empty cassette holders with two pairs of holes drilled top and bottom) we pronounce ourselves ready for the public.

...With just enough time to manipulate our cardboard supplies into a 'special thanks' display in honour of our benefactors...

Come 3.30pm a young, energetic tribe of school children pour in, eager to inject stories into cassette boxes.

Two hours later we are thrilled by the array of crankie picture boxes that have been made by people aged approximately 4 - 40...

 Meanwhile the window fills gradually.

And the last task before locking-up is a much needed patchwork sign. Now home!

Truly loving my neighbours.

We've only been in our little pop-up shop for two days now - already, I am overwhelmed by how many good, kind people are out there in the community waiting to offer their support to people who ask for it. The best example of this was the delightful manager of Budgens Belsize Park, a nearby supermarket that prides itself on its ethical practices (for example they encourage shoppers to discard unnecessary packaging from their items at the cash till, which are then sent back to the suppliers). Budgens was happy to provide us with a shopping bag full of essential pop-up shop supplies, including loo roll, cleaning products and coffee! And despite not liking having his photo taken, look at the pic we got of him.

Meanwhile, the settling in process continues...

When I'm cleaning Windows...

Tracey Emin shuffled modestly out of number 46 Malden Road this afternoon. Her neon "I Kiss You" sign was packed into a foam box, two big men spent hours peeling her vinyl window sticker off with their finger nails, and then the board came down, throwing gallons of golden sunlight into our new pop-up shop.

 

Two days until the doors fling themselves open...

After a weekend of furious cardboard cutting the Liminal Space team prepares itself to take over 46 Malden Road and start turning it into a sanctuary to beautified, crafted objects made from recycled materials, to lost folk tales and the seeds of stories yet to be written...

We will be open for business from 11am on Wednesday 16^th March, when you can come in to take your pick from a range of crafty drop-in activities including: ‘milk bottle puppet’-making, crankie-making and collaborative story-making in the warming environment of our adopted dry cleaners...

Our Paper Craft workshop on Friday 18^th March, 11am – 2pm, still has a few places remaining so sign up to learn pop-up book and paper automata techniques based on the folk tale Baba Yaga. (£5 suggested donation).

And there are still places for the all-day Kite Puppets workshop on Saturday 19^th March, 12pm – 6pm, led by Bella Lyster. Sign up to explore the effect of wind on puppet and object animation and create your own kite puppet.

On Saturday evening from 6pm onwards, we will be having a low-key Launch Evening with some acoustic music from Jack Hancock and a round-singing session with the lovely ladies from the Cecil Sharp House. All the info will go on the Facebook page.