Princess Skirts

Confession: I have a really soft spot for girly, meranguey, tatty, princessy things.  Perhaps it's  because I never wore them when I grew up. I was dressed in little modern A-line dresses made by mother.  They were lovely, cute and stylish but, I guess, we always long for what we didn't have. 

So, over the years, at every possible opportunity, I have done these quick fairy skirts with lots and lots of little girls working with their Mums... and sometimes little boys like to have one too.

 

 

These pictures were from an event in Milton Country Park. Honestly, I can't remember what year it was, who sponsored it, or what the event was for, but it was definitely long before lockdown.

 

Perhaps these 'Frozen' braids can give you some idea of when it was.

There was a lot of creative mayhem going on inside our tent - we had a few different diy costume making options. 

This one was pretty popular and by the end of the day, there was a whole sea of little girls in tutus all over the park.

 

I know it's a very gender specific and possibly  not a very P.C. activity, but there were a lot of very happy little girls that day!

 

 

 

Arbury Carnival

This year was very special because it's 40 years since the very first Arbury Carnival.  The  first Arbury  Carnival was a celebration of the Queen's Silver Jubilee.

This year we did a float as well as the usual costumes and puppets.

On the front of the flatbed, the young people from the  Nunn's Way Pavilion made a commemorative 'coin' with a collage of photographs from carnivals past.

Riding on the back of the truck, were some of the lovely  Carnival Queens from previous years.   See Cambridge Evening News for some pictures.



The Queen and Phillip were keen not to be left out, so they were in attendance, riding on the float!

Ellie and Lilly volunteered their Dad to be the Queen and a very elegant job he did of it too! Cary, who made the puppet heads, was a very energetic Phillip.

And we had to have some princesses and princes.

Yes, some boys made skirts too. But mostly they made princely (is that a word?) tabards.

 

Then, there was the screen printing, and what better person to emulate than Andy Warhol?

Andy Warhol did his famous portrtait of the Queen in 1977 and she, in fact, bought one of the prints.

Our work on this project is on behalf of the Kettle's Yard Gallery, so we like to make links with modern art in the work we do with them.  

By 'we' I mean Cary, Sandra and myself, although I was away for part of the time, so it was mainly Cary and Sandra this year.

The best thing, for me, about this year's workshops was that some of the young people who first came to make costumes with us 4 years ago, are now helping the little ones to make theirs. It's so lovely to see them growing up and taking resposibility.  

Looking forward to seeing what Carnival 2018 will bring!

Arbury Carnival Workshops

The Giants of Arbury Carnival.

The first year we did Arbury carnival, the theme was 'Musicals" and the Nunns Way Crew selected the Lion King.   Amongst all the other lovely costumes we made, Cary worked with the kids to make this lovely big lion.

The lion lived in a barn for a year and came out for the following carnival as ET - can't find any pictures at the moment so you'll have to trust me on this.

We are not sure where it spent the winter, but it arrived back in the workshop last spring and was transformed into a giant octopus. 

 

He/she(?) then took up residence on our kitchen sofa for a couple of months and drank lots of tea...!

It had one final outing, disguised as a spider at Ely Folk Festival and then graciously surrendered to the bonfire.

  In that time there have been other Arbury giants - the amazing giant robot,

 and the wonderful seagull made in consort with Dawn and  other folk from Arbury school

 This year we are working on something completely different.  I'm not saying what it is......  but you can find out by coming to Nunn's Way Pavilion Friday afternoons to help with the construction!  So that's every Friday afternoon, 3.00 - 5.00p.m. until the Carnival which is 10 June this year - not much time left!

 

Arbury carnival costumes, puppets

More from Arbury Carnival:

Fishy hats - (this one's Nemo) and Alfred Wallace style placard paintings

This year's giant!  It's an octopus!

Dawn, Cary and Hugh with lots of help made this seagull - currently having an emergency repair just before the parade!

Watch out for those chips!

Thanks to Karen from Kettles Yard for raising funds and being such a great hands on organiser.  And to my 2 co-artists - Sandra and Cary.  And to all the kids and parents who took part in the making and wearing and general blowing of bubbles!

Arbury Carnival 2016

YES, it was Arbury Carnival on Saturday.  And NO, for once, it did not rain on our parade!

Arbury Carnival Workshops

It's the carnival season again!  We're all getting pretty excited as 11 June and Arbury Carnival draw nearer.

This year's theme is "Beach Party". Thanks to Kettle's Yard, who are sponsoring our work with community groups in the Arbury, we had a great day with year 2 children from the Grove Primary school making crazy sunglasses.

See  Cambridge Evening News
for some more pictures by Richard Patterson of the 'spec-tacular' work. 

 The next open session for making costumes at Nunn's Way Pavilion is on half Term Friday 3 May '16 at 3.30pm and we have a banner making afternoon with giant octopus on Saturday 4 May '16 from 1.00- 3.30pm. Everyone welcome - come along, it's fun!

Lode Star Festival 2015

This year Cary and I ran a workshop at the Lode Star Festival to create Moon and Star lanterns. It was fun even though the wind made it a challenging day. Luckily the wind completely disappeared, just in time for the Lantern Parade across the site.  Accompanied by the Arco Iris Samba band   from Cambridge it was a magical event.  

And we met so many lovely  people who came to make lanterns!

 

And Phoebe Monk   who organised the parade as well as various other things at the festival had this idea to hang the lanterns up around the site so that the audience would see them as they left the main arena at the end of the evening.  Wish I'd had the energy to stay that late myself!

More from Arbury Carnival

This is how Aliens make more Aliens.

Arbury Carnival 2015

Despite the rain, Arbury Carnival was wonderful this year.  Sandra Scott, Cary  and myself, the wonderful volunteers from the Arbury Carnival Committee and from Kettles Yard worked with young people at Nunn's Way Pavilion and in local schools and community groups to do costumes, banners and giant puppets.   The theme this year.......well you can probably tell.

The final frontier!

Spot the flying saucer

Alien robot strikes!

Not only aliens - the whole solar system....

Alien selfie - yes that's me and Cary testing that the masks are wearable!

Giant robot - made by Cary and the glue gun posse.

Will have to find some better pictures of this - watch this space....

Arbury Carnival Workshops

 

The first carnival workshop, this year, for Arbury Carnival with Kettles Yard.  You can guess the theme!

Cambridge News

And if you'd like to take part come along to a costume workshop see details:
Costume workshops

Arbury carnival

Some more active pictures of the carnival! I hope these capture the happy spirit of the day: