The bairns are given the Gran Grifón story by Shetland with Laurie as stimulus then do their own creative writing telling the tale from the point of view of a hen on board the ship. We will weave these into the new piece. We start the music today with a warm up followed by singing Cabrillas Galopando (White Horses Galloping) in 4 parts. After the singing and galloping instruments were fetched and Stu leads a music improvisation session based on an arriving storm – this material will be used in the new piece.
While they do this I write out El Gran Grifón in large letters on a banner for folk to colour in throughout the day.
The afternoon is an open-to-all crafting session with Jo on macrame teaching duties. It is a happy scene - folk chatting and knotting, pebbles and sea glass are wrapped and some added to the macrame jewellery, Fiona creating a set off the A-frame (Anne has donated a length of damask fabric and people have also brought in rope and ribbons). There is an excellent life-size cannon with cannon balls Fiona has made out of cardboard with the bairns. Folk take it in turns to doodle and colour the letters in the banner.
Anne Sinclair brings the pages from her historical accounts that relate to the Gran Grifón. Stewart Thomson talks about the excavations in the 70s - he helped bring up cannons when he was among the divers exploring the Gran Grifón.
The resulting pieces look great - some get taken home but we will make an installation of the rest for the concert. The CHROMAties stay after the session is over, with Jo starting some giant knotting, Fiona creating some rigging, Caroline and I making some paper ruffs and Lydia making some smaller pieces.
As we leave the hall we see the sun in a mist, looking like a glass orb filled with milk, a slight violet glow. Never seen it look like that before. Feels like we are on another planet! Later Stu sees in the news that it is a consequence of the fires in Canada.
Stu has wrangled the materials everyone has created so far into a shape for the new piece - it is coming together!
Thank yous today to everyone who came along to make knotted pieces, and to Fiona for her art teaching, including making a cannon and creating a set for this project.
Blogging by Claire Shovelton
