January and February's workshop ripples

We have been having a really nice time meeting new people and trying out various types of literary inspired arts and crafts as part of the Rippling Out project, funded by the UK government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

Introducing 'Phoetry'

In January we had a go at 'Phoetry' - the merging of poetry and photos - with facilitator Michi Masumi.

Michi and attendees taking photos of the river.

In two sessions, after a walk along Chatham High Street to Chatham Library, taking photographs of things that caught our eye and noticing how humans were affecting the environment, attendees returned to Nucleus Arts to begin poems.

Here are two poems written in the second session from Wendy and Jo, alongside the photos that inspired them (not sure what happened to the second photo, ignore the white lines!).

Poettery workshop

In January, we also had a go at decorating plates with words and phrases in a session we called 'Poettery' - we do love a pun at Medway River Lit!

CR Smith led this enjoyable workshop where we created plates and mugs. Below are the amazing pieces created in the session. Hopefully, the creators will be able to use their mugs and plates for years to come.

Creative plates and mugs.

Making some Zine Trouble

February's craft activity to try out was making zines at Intra Arts. A zine is a handmade personal magazine in which you can express whatever you'd like. Our facilitators David Dykes and Skai Campbell led 2 sessions, one which showed us how the risograph machine worked and the second session, where people got creative with their projects. The overall theme was about the environment and nature and some attendees stuck closely to the theme whilst expressing their own interpretations of it.

Online sessions

We'll be making a few videos with some tips if didn't attend the sessions but would like to have a go at Phoetry and/or Zine-making, so watch this blog for more details!

Coming up in March...

We have a sold out session at Chatham Historic Dockyard where we'll be creating text-art books and on Sat 29 March we'll be doing various activities shining a light on how we can make treasure from trash. Full details can be found in the Ripping Out section of the website https://www.medwayriverlit.co.uk/ripplingout.

The Rippling Out Sessions

Don't forget - literary inspired arts and crafts are only half of the story! We've also got comedy, theatre and poetry performances each month - check out the Rippling Out page for full details.

Hope to see you at one of our events!