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Sketches during lockdown, doodled with watercolour pencils, walnut ink and graphite pencil In these unprecedented times we have all had to find ways to cope with staying indoors, minimal social contact and the distancing of family and friends. It hasn't been easy, creative strategies to help stay well, physically and mentally have been invaluable. I haven't found it easy to write in the last few months. At first, solace on our little patio, planting seeds in old compost was my main tonic. Then the nearest park became an oasis and the budding trees and flowers a wonderful uplift, plus the unexpected crossing of paths with a local bemused urban fox were a regular delight. To help prevent any stress from building up I also returned to sketching, it has been really helpful. I hope you can find your inner doodler, it can be such a meditative activity, especially if you just enjoy the process rather than worrying about your sketching results. Here's Urban Fox not observing social distancing for some treats: https://www.instagram.com/p/B_pofCzH7Y5/ If you need some motivation or creative impetus to help you get your pencils out, the Royal Academy tweets a daily doodle challenge (#RAdailydoodle), these other web links are helpful too: University for the Creative Arts, sketch book making: http://webdocs.ucreative.ac.uk/UCA%20KaMCOP_Sketchbooking%20Guide-1590596280006.pdf https://www.uca.ac.uk/kamcop/resourcesarts-award-pages/creative-wellbeing/ Sketching nature - Great Nature Journaling Resource, with John Muir laws: https://johnmuirlaws.com/ Royal Academy Life Drawing: https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/article/7-life-drawing-shorts-at-home-lifedrawinglive Creativity and well-being, comments from the Arts Council and De Montfort University: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/blog/getting-creative-health-and-wellbeing https://www.dmu.ac.uk/about-dmu/news/2020/april/creative-ideas-to-boost-your-mental-health.aspx

Brighton Women’s Centre brought together a wonderful group of speakers for the Time For Unity conference to celebrate their 45th birthday on 19th November 2019. The conference showcased how partnerships can support women, their families and communities, it was uplifting and energising to hear the insights, experiences, progress and challenges openly discussed. Here are just some of the nuggets from the session in the morning. After the welcome address and keynote speech the first presenter, Dr Shona Minson (Centre of Criminology University of Oxford) shared her report: Addressing the Impact of Maternal Imprisonment airing the myths about maternal imprisonment and the range of impacts on children which went far beyond the obvious physical separation from their mother. Children also have to cope with increased poverty, disrupted education, social isolation (stigma and shame), difficulties in making visits and the resultant changes in the mother and child relationship affecting their behaviour and future stability. However, Shona also wanted to share signs of progress such as the NPS Guidelines (March 2019) and the JCHR Report and Recommendations (9th September 2019), finally she asked us to use our power to empower other women. An extract of the film ‘Safeguarding Children when Sentencing Mothers’ was also shown, Dr Minson later shared these links for the film and further information on maternal imprisonment, please see references below. The second talk Time for Gender Equality was chaired by Helen Pankhurst who was in discussion with Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, Natasha Walter, Susheila Nasta and Greta Squire. Helen Pankhurst began by asking for a show of hands on 3 options: optimism or pessimism about the progress in gender equality, or a third possibility, the idea that the situation can be further be improved but with a muted optimism; the latter was given the biggest show of hands. Helena Kennedy then spoke and gave thanks to Helen as an inspiring example, Helena continued by explaining that although she had been practising law for over 40 years she wanted to share her very first legal case because it marked the direction she would take for the rest of her career. Her first case was in Tottenham defending a woman with 3 children who had been caught for shoplifting, she was given a legal brief which consisted of just 2 pieces of paper, sadly, the woman was sent to prison because she was already in breach of a suspended sentence. Helena cried, this woman was poor and to make matters worse her DHSS cheque had been stolen, she had been left with no resources to feed her children. Helena decided to write an appeal including many details about the woman’s life such as the abuse she had suffered from her partner. From this moment justice for women became an important part of Helena’s life, she explained that ‘silencing women has been part of our own history’ we must acknowledge this. Hence, the #MeToo Movement was important, we should give voice to these experiences and recognise the failure of justice, parliament and our institutions. Helena emphatically stated that we have not yet ‘unknitted the business of patriarchy’ with all its unconscious biases, nor have we overcome the disadvantages that are built into our economic system. Unless we change society systemically our lives will not improve, Helena was also clear about the current UK government, she saw it has having no real interest in equality for women. Next Natasha Walter praised Helen and Helena for keeping feminist passions alive in a society where 70% of women describe themselves as feminists yet teenage girls are under incredible pressure to conform to the expectations and norms of a highly sexualised society. After Trump’s election there was a surge of solidarity amongst women but some of the resultant feminism was just a brand of marketing to sell us something. Helena continued, that even Ivanka Trump describes herself as a feminist but ‘we need a real movement of feminism to do battle with the patriarchy, no one women does feminism make.’ Feminist Bookshop at the Time For Unity Conference Natasha highlighted the fact that even now few reported rapes result in prosecution, then she described a devastating case from her work with women who have fled persecution in the Congo. A Congolese woman who escaped to the UK after the death of her husband and horrific sexual abuse, had to sleep on buses to try and stay safe because she did not have all the necessary paperwork to prove her ordeal ‘we need a movement big enough to challenge this system!’ Susheila Nasta came next, explaining that she was an academic and the editor of a literary magazine, in those roles she could see positive change across different areas of discourse (Susheila has also researched Indian Suffragettes). However, in universities there is still much inequality, especially for women of colour, for example in the UK there are only 25 black female professors out of 6,000, representation creates opportunities, so how do we create this structural change? Susheila also noted that there are a lot of women in publishing and the majority of novel readers are women but most of the gate keepers are white men. Susheila then quoted Derek Walcott real change will only occur if we also change our language. Finally, Greta Squire from Brighton University explained that her research into violence against women and girls revealed a definite, positive shift in attitudes amongst younger people, however, austerity has had an impact, creating more structural inequalities that have eroded women’s rights. She also cautioned that the rise of the far right and their cutting of services in certain parts of the world has been erasing women’s voices. We must understand this within a broader structural analysis, the resurgence of the ‘manosphere’ has come as a backlash to the small inroads many of us have made. This broader international context should be considered, with this in mind 'it is very important that we come together and support each other.' Questions from the audience followed, several of them related to the apparent quietening of women’s voices, such as in the judiciary and female probation service. Great Squire agreed, in her discussion with women from different parts of the world she did feel there was a quietening of women’s voices. Susheila suggested that collectives in literature were becoming common and this helped women find their voice. She added that there was a need for face to face conscious raising, sisterhood and help for refugee women who are often digitally excluded, more needed to be done - International Women’s Day offered an opportunity to act. Helena had grown up in a working-class background in Glasgow, she felt her own pain and perspective offered an entry point to her work, this impulse may also help others to act. As Helena is an international human rights lawyer, she can see how austerity has ‘snuffed out’ many of the vital supports that vulnerable people relied upon. Helena also reminded the audience to follow the money to the powerful actors, our welfare state was being eroded by populist politics and of course Brexit. It was at this point that the morning session came to an end, food was provided by the Network of International Women and a beautiful celebratory cake that had been baked by Linda Beanlands. Here are some photos of the celebration and a poem by Poet Unchained called Trap Queen to begin the afternoon session. Time for Unity! Unchained poetry (Lady unchained) reciting 'Trap Queen' a poem about the large number of women who take the blame for a crime on behalf of their male partner, reading can be heard here: https://soundcloud.com/unchained-poetry/trap-queen References: Film clip mentioned by Dr Shona Minson, Oxford Law Faculty - Safeguarding Children when Sentencing Mothers: https://youtu.be/L18nFBXzHlI and for further information about these issues, including Sentencing Guidelines please see Dr Minson's website: https://shonaminson.com/

Brighton and Hove Green Spaces Forum (BHGSF) was initiated to conserve and improve our local environment by creating a support and information sharing network for volunteer community groups working in the area’s parks and green open spaces. At their network meeting on Monday the 21st October Cliff Munn, the Chair of BHGSF told the well-attended event that the forum currently consists of 91 groups including BHOGG. During the evening there were two presentations, the first from Helen Starr-Keddle of the B&H Food Partnership followed by Luke Jones from The Tree Council; there were also helpful contributions from individual group members about their practical experiences, problems, challenges and notable successes. Helen described their food strategy action plan which focuses on policies to help people grow food, for example: city community composting, fruit tree planting, 3 community gardens, edible edges planting (wonderful for wildlife as well as people) development plans for Stanmer with hopes for a new eco building by the Carbon Trust and the selling of Saunders park community garden produce at Shabitat. Although Brighton and Hove became the UK's first Silver Sustainable Food City in 2015, there is no complacency with the B&H Food Partnership as they now aim for the Gold Sustainable Food City award. You can support this bid by sharing your B&H community actions on social media with #goldfoodcitybid and inspire others at the same time, for more information: https://bhfood.org.uk/goldbid/ Helen also shared new plans to help protect the rare and precious South Downs chalk landscape, the project ‘Changing chalk’ initiative will incorporate a long-term management plan in partnership with the National Trust. This will also tie in with therapeutic activities in the South Downs under the ‘Green Wellbeing Alliance’ to help encourage health and well-being by connecting with nature and others. Luke Jones described himself as an environmentalist, a green landscaper and the B&H Tree Warden. He enthusiastically outlined the many benefits trees bring, they clean the air, help store carbon, provide habitat and help improve mental health, but he admitted that the Tree Council’s objective to plant many more trees within the city boundary was a difficult task. It is not easy for councils to plant trees, it requires money and time, including the maintenance, this is where support from local pressure groups can really help move the process along. Luke reminded us that human civilisation has deforested so much of the earth’s surface – an estimated 3 trillion trees, or 46% of the world’s forests, but he hopes to help change hearts and minds and motivate us to put an area aside for one or more trees. Positive actions can be made, last year 15,000 trees were planted in the South East, this year he estimates 10 times that number. Trees can be supplied by The Woodland trust for free to local communities, the best time to plant a tree and successfully establish it (as a whip), is between now and March. Luke encouraged us to get involved, the B&H Tree planting strategy will soon be available for public consultation and there is also an initiative to plant trees in your postcode: https://plantyourpostcode.org/ BHGSF’s web platform is a dynamic ‘communication hub’ for all members so if you have a green space event, or some news to share please don’t be shy, why not register on the B&H Green Spaces forum? Use the event calendar, or the ‘Submit your news’ option and let people know what is happening in your treasured green space: http://bhgreenspaceforum.org.uk/ To read the minutes taken during the BHSF discussion on the 21st October at the Brighthelm centre: http://bhgreenspaceforum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/BHGSFMembersMeetingNotes21Oct2019.pdf This article first appeared on the BHOGG website as 'Brighton & Hove’s Green & Pleasant Land, BHOGG member Michelle Thomasson attended the Brighton and Hove Green Spaces Forum (BHGSF) latest network meeting last month.  Here Michelle gives us an update on their work: REF: https://bhorganicgardeninggroup.org/2019/11/16/brighton-hoves-green-pleasant-land/

Working on water colour paper is reassuring; I can roughly judge how the colours will flow and when I am working in mixed media I often add pastels, charcoal, ink or even fluorescent pen colour to the drawing, I love the texture, shadow and light that it brings. How to translate some of those drawings onto a piece of cloth? That was a new challenge for me because I wanted to have some nature themed, cheerful banners hanging in Paula Fahy’s garden for the Brighton and Hove Artist’s Open Houses May 2019. I returned to embroidery and crochet crafts several years back and have used embroidery in small art and poetry pieces but I hadn’t attempted ‘painting’ on textiles with anything other than embroidery stitches and folk-like felt shapes. I borrowed a few books from our brilliant library on natural dyes and decided upon the least toxic route I could find to mordant pieces of calico for some banners. The mordant helps prepare the fibres for the natural dye, producing a deeper, longer lasting colour and I needed the overall colour of the banners to weather well as they would be hanging outside for at least a month. I dipped the calico pieces into a mordant mixture comprised of alum and calcium carbonate, once rinsed I soaked the material in water with organic henna (auburn colour) and simmered other pieces in fermented birch bark mulch which produced a rusty-pink colour. Jane a good friend took a piece of the calico and boiled it with red onion skins. All three pieces absorbed the natural dyes, but I also used one calico test piece without pre-mordant treatment - it did not absorb the henna colour well. The comparison pieces are shown in the photo below: For more information on natural dyes please see the two links below. Jenny Dean’s website is a treasure trove of information and there is a new edition of her invaluable book ‘Wild Colour’. A new book by Babs Behan ‘Botanical Inks’ also has clear information and a beautifully layout. To translate my otter drawn with watercolour pencils, ink and charcoal I used a technique recently learnt from textile artist Sue Stone in Sue’s very helpful online course, using simple back stitch for the form or outline can make an effective basis for your textile piece. Here I used hand stitching and machine zig-zag for Otterly's outline: Once I had the reassuring form it felt less daunting to apply textile paints, applique and embroidery for the river scene. (Further information about Sue Stone please see the last 2 links below.) With Otterly Lovely completed I felt more comfortable using textile paints and stitch so I didn’t feel the need to follow an outline from one of my paper drawings for the little Adorably Dormouse that was to follow. The red onion skin ground on the cloth provided a rich toned background; I worked with that colour palate for the textile paints and nestled dormouse in the stitched outlines of several leaves, I also used running stitch for the darker areas of fur on the dormouse's tail and little behind. (The beautiful ceramic Woodpecker perched alongside was hand built from clay by Jane Sweeney). I would like to progress to all natural dye artwork but I still have to learn how to make natural dye and botanical inks that would give the opacity and rich colour blends created with standard non-toxic textile paints. I am growing Madder and Weld in a patio pot, I now have to wait for the plants to grow, it is process that needs patience, I am trying to grow that too! Natural Dyes with Jenny Dean: http://www.jennydean.co.uk/re-issue-of-the-uk-edition-of-wild-colour-in-hardback/ Babs Behan's Botanical Inks: http://www.botanicalinks.com/book Textile Artist dot org is a wonderful resource created by Sue Stone’s sons Joe and Sam Pitcher, there you will find valuable information about Sue Stone's work along with other international textile artists: https://www.textileartist.org/about and http://members.62group.co.uk/artist/sue-stone/

When I was studying environmental conservation I also lead the research for the Soil Association (UK) into the palm oil industry and primary habitat destruction (2009); I collated the information and produced an overview diagram of the sad destruction: Palm Oil and the Agribusiness Palm oil here in the UK has been in the news again, a frozen-foods retailer that does not include palm oil in it's products used a short animation made by Greenpeace for their Christmas advert which includes a poetic voice over by the actress Emma Thompson. There was controversy because the animation was deemed too 'political' or perhaps better said too important for the UK's food manufacturers, but what devastation does that oil agribusiness create? An area approximately the size of 2 football pitches is torn down every minute in Indonesia’s rainforest, palm oil is primarily driving this destruction and every day we lose 25 Orangutans, the same number hanging onto this advent calendar which I made for Brighton And Hove Artists Open Houses: Rainforests are known as biodiversity hotspots and are therefore vital for regulating the Earth’s climate and sadly the resultant drying out of the peat soils that often underlie the tropical forest exacerbates climate change. Palm oil or palmitic acid (fatty acid) is a very useful ingredient in the food and household goods industrial processing system, per acre it is also a very high yielding oil and therefore incredibly profitable, a dream oil for Agribusiness. Palm oil is also a highly saturated fat; too much is certainly not healthy for the heart. It is so important to the UK food processing industry that DEFRA mapped palm oil imports in 2012 to ensure the resilience for the UK food manufacturers and industrial applications. The RSPO (Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil) was meant to hold large producers to account by ensuring sustainable agricultural methods in palm oil plantations – this body has not been able to do this successfully. Big labels promised to clean up their act but Greenpeace eventually found that promise to be a sham. So what can we do? Check the label! Please read the small print and see under vegetable oils if palm oil or palm kernel is listed, you will find it in the following range of items: Bread, biscuits (including shortbread which is meant to be made of butter), scones, quiches, sausage rolls, cakes – even the Christmas varieties, mincemeat, Christmas puddings, ready meals, noodles mixes, curries, chocolate bars, chocolate gift packs, chocolate and peanut butters, sweet and savoury sauces, soap, toothpaste, shampoo, washing powder, vegetable spreads and even vegan cheese. There are many more items that could be listed! How can we do our little bit? Bake and cook at home when you can from basic ingredients Try and buy organic and locally Support local producers who can tell you where they source their ingredients Or support larger chain-stores that are also palm oil conscientious If all of us shifted our shopping habits as best we can the large palm oil producers and the food industry would eventually take notice. Helpful information and references: The animation about palm oil by Greenpeace for Iceland Foods: https://youtu.be/JdpspllWI2o Latest research casts doubt on the effectiveness of of the RSPO certification scheme as it is not achieving real improvements in the sustainability of palm oil production 'Evaluating the effectiveness of palm oil certification in delivering multiple sustainability objectives': http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aac6f4 And 'certification had no causal impact on forest loss in peatlands or active fire detection rates' from the report 'Effect of oil palm sustainability certification on deforestation and fire in Indonesia': http://www.pnas.org/content/115/1/121 Sustainable palm oil may not be so sustainable, report by authors from the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University and the Biological Institute, Tomsk State University (16th October 2018): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969718341159?via%3Dihub#! Latest published report from the World Health Organisation WHO on the palm oil industry and noncommunicable diseases published January 8th 2019, excerpt from the abstract: "We highlight the industry’s mutually profitable relationship with the processed food industry and its impact on human and planetary health, including detrimental cultivation practices that are linked to respiratory illnesses, deforestation, loss of biodiversity and pollution. This analysis illustrates many parallels to the contested nature of practices adopted by the alcohol and tobacco industries." From the same report page 9: "The relationship between the palm oil and processed food industries, and the tactics they employ, resembles practices adopted by the tobacco and alcohol industries. However, the palm oil industry receives comparatively little scrutiny." REF: https://www.who.int/bulletin/online_first/18-220434.pdf Greenpeace's report in 2017 'How the palm oil industry is still cooking the climate': https://www.greenpeace.org/archive-international/Global/international/publications/forests/2017/Still-Cooking-the-Climate.pdf

I painted this dystopian picture some years back to simply illustrate my poem 'The Skyline's Been Pierced'. I used it today in discussion on a wonderful post by Kate Raworth on a book reading list that could help us to understand the challenges our current economic and social system has generated. I was replying to a comment about wealth and the 'trickle down myth', even though I and the commentator (Henrik) did not accept trickle down we are living in an economic system where the idea is successfully perpetuated while stock market wealth is illusory. I mentioned that my and his lack of acceptance does not change the fact that we live in a world chasing electronic zeros on gaudy stock market boards, theatrical competition driven by the notion of exploit or be exploited. For those in power and emotionally invested in the system as it is, how do we engender empathy so that there is less of a drive to trash the planet and people? Here's my poem: The Skyline's Been Pierced How does the abstract drive us ever onward? The learned amongst us say the left hemisphere’s to blame while the right sits in silence, intuition has no game. But the poetry of honesty has no mention as yet or how easily we learn to forget uncomfortable truths the unfettered market and City rules. Skyline’s been pierced by virtual wealth myths dealt and traded, on 24/7 feral stealth. On a foundation of negatives voraciously dreamt in the pursuit of pure profit over a chasm of debt just a concept, with derivatives but it entraps most it’s met. Less than nothing, has a price, finance is a control, the cuts hit people the stock market bell takes its toll, or is it collateral damage? Real lives, pawn brokered, we can no longer afford. Aid? Medicines, most for profit go abroad. Services, facilities, even books and their worth are shelved, for our cut-price discounted, virtual world. The skyline’s been pierced, light could shine through if we help one another and one another helps too. What makes us believe that’s so difficult to do? Has hope been imprisoned by imaginary wealth, so our souls know no empire except all those dreams that persuade us to benefit the few. Michelle Thomasson - November 2010 I'm reading The Skyline's Been Pierced on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/michelle-thomasson/the-skylines-been-pierced On Kate Raworth's valuable post about 'Seaside Reads to Change the World' and to her book 'Doughnut Economics, seven ways to think like a 21st-Century economist' please follow this link: https://www.kateraworth.com/2018/08/24/seaside-reads-to-change-the-world/

The Art Wave festival for artists and makers in the Lewes district included a lovely nature walk with artist Jacky Misson and Thyone Outram the Ranger from Lewes District Council to walk, see, find and create in the Bollen Bush nature reserve. Although the emphasis of the walk was to look at the colours and shapes around us, as a group we also learnt about the beautiful woods - small pockets of the Bollen Bush trees indicate ancient woodland (though this can't be verified from map records) and Thyone explained some of the science of photosynthesis and how nature reveals colour as well as how we actually see it. Jacky encouraged us in our first creative exercise to sit and sketch the smallest details of a chosen leaf, it helped to focus the mind and be mindful of our surroundings (we used some wonderful small sketchbooks crafted with recycled materials and donated by a local company called Artbox). Then as we walked we chose certain colours from the nature finds around us, after slowly climbing up the hillside we came to a spot where we could all add to a colour wheel placed on the ground in collage (as shown above), and without prior coordination we completed a striking circle of colour: After rising through the woodland we came to a wonderful vista looking out towards the Southdowns and Newhaven, it was inspiring! We entered the upper part of the woods and as a final response to our walk and Jacky's suggestions we created natural artworks from twigs, leaves, plants, stones, (some even included litter). Here are just a few of the beautiful pieces, apologies I can't apply maker's names to them: My piece wrapped against a tree was made by placing each twig, log or piece of moss in balance, without any fixings other than gravity, I imagine the next strong wind will rearrange it: I hope this lovely event also inspires you to take some time in a local nature reserve or pocket of natural habitat and be re-charged. For further Art Wave information: https://www.artwavefestival.org/ And more on Bollens Bush in East Sussex, UK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1IVIxlgdVI Although not recent, one of my favourite books on photosynthesis and how plants do their amazing job: 'Reaching for the Sun how plants work' by John King (Cambridge University Press, 1997). Jacky Misson who led our creative endeavours can be found at Glynde Gardens Open Studio during the Art Wave festival: More information: https://jackymisson.com/

There are many occasions when a woman's role in discoveries, innovations and the creative sphere have been ignored or hidden. Embroidery, usually considered a feminine craft rather than art with status, has been delightfully sewn for my piece. I created it with 18 different stitches to make a phrase left unfinished but with the title 'Put on a Pedestal'; the embroidered linen in the hoop has been placed on a gold painted embroidery stand, like a pedestal. "Limited to practising art with needle and thread, women have nevertheless sewn a subversive stitch - managed to make meanings of their own in the very medium intended to inculcate self- effacement." Quote from The Subversive Stitch page 215, (2017) by Rozsika Parker. The beauty, meditative strength and enthralling texture of the embroiderer's stitch breaks boundaries for those who use it.

Mark making with brushes and inks created from plant material, another wonderful workshop hosted by No Serial Number, led by artist Ross Belton and assisted by Jonathan Dredge his creative partner at @moderneccentrics. Ross supplied all manner of foraged goods, mostly natural, recycled from his locale or rescued from pavement litter i.e. broken wiring left lying and unwanted after electrical repairs. Not only did the brushes provide a myriad of mark making potential, they were also works of art in their own right. Ross encouraged the use of handles with a curve or nodule that would make our hands move out of their habitual comfort zone and into a different form of movement to free-up the use of ink marks on the paper. Ross tied selected brush materials together using a range of items such as masking tape, wire, Japanese floristry wire, raffia, cottons and linen, the choice varied according to desired style, longevity required and project. Ross also showed us how to make red ink from avocado stones cut into small pieces and boiled for one or more hours. The photo (left, above) shows the depth of the colour after approximately one and quarter hours of simmering in water (rain water is best), the photo on the right shows the colour tests that were performed on strips of cartridge paper after 15, 30 and 60 minutes of simmering. During the process Ross modified the ink with a small amount of washing soda (sodium carbonate) and later he also added some Gum Arabica to thicken it. Interestingly in his studies Ross had discovered that the Aztecs likely gave the Conquistadors the key to brilliant red ink by showing them how they used avocados to create it. Finally Ross mentioned that he also added cloves or thyme oil as a preservative and all of his utensils were clearly marked with string to prevent their culinary use. My attempt above towards the end of the workshop. My brush consisted of dry flower heads and their stalk attached to a thicker twig with raffia and wire. The shape of the bush did free-up the angle of my hand and the colour tones were made with Ross' gall ink, (extremely permanent, hence its use in the writing of the Magna Carta) red from the avocado stones and the lighter orange-wash tones from a spray of lemon juice before the red ink dried. The whole process felt restorative and a long way from my concerns a few years ago when I began looking into the toxicity of art materials, this workshop was as uplifting as it was creative. Ross uses his brushes and created objects to make art collections e.g. 'Hope' selected by the V&A for the 'Inspired' exhibition, while being mindful of his environmental impact; hence he repurposes the found resources around him and uses natural colours to ensure that his work is sustainable as well as meditative, inspiring and challenging. To be further inspired: The 'Art of Ross Belton' and a 'Mark Making tutorial' in this summer's edition (No. 13, Summer 2018) of No Serial Number: https://noserialnumber.org/product/summer-issue-2018/ Ross Belton: https://moderneccentrics.myportfolio.com/exhibitions and https://www.instagram.com/spottedhyenas/ Jonathan Dredge: https://moderneccentrics.wordpress.com/category/jonathan-dredge/ and https://moderneccentrics.wordpress.com/author/moderneccentrics/ The book 'Making Art Safely, Alternative Methods and Materials in Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, Graphic Design and Photography' has a comprehensive list of the chemical name, health effects, precautions and toxicity of art ingredients and their uses, however, when I tried to purchase it a few years ago I did so second hand, as it was no longer in print. It was edited by Merle Spandorfer, Deborah Curtiss and Jack Snyder M.D. (1993). It was one of the very few books I could find that gave such extensive information.

I first saw the colourful ‘Illuminate’ tapestry when it was exhibited across the first floor mezzanine balcony in the Jubilee Library, Brighton earlier this year. Since then it has been on a journey to 3 schools in the city, on the 23rd June parts of the tapestry came back on show in the library along with a heart-warming wall hanging made by children, all under 11 years of age, from Queens Park School. Julie O’Neil, the Libraries Service Manager welcomed attendees and Linda Beanlands (one of the Network’s organisers) thanked the library staff for their helpfulness in providing a weekly space for the women to meet and sew, as well as a local retailer, C&H Fabrics and the council’s Safety Team who also provided venues to meet. The Deputy Mayor, Cllr Alex Philips emphasised that the tapestry tells the city about its diversity (there are 25,000 female Brighton residents who were not born in the UK) and that their creativity helps us to relate to their lives and what matters to them, a short film then provided further insight into the making of the tapestry. The 12 metre tapestry (with other pieces ready to be added), was described by Kate Harvey, a teacher who coordinated the making of the Queens Park School tapestry as having a real impact on the children who saw it hanging in the assembly space. Kate said the children ‘were blown away by it’ and that it created conversations ‘about democracy and the rule of law and what that says to them’, it made them question where the tapestry makers felt they belonged and if a lady seemed to be happy or not. The teachers gave the older children words to think about in small discussion groups, while the youngest children drew pictures, but even the 6 years olds were chatting about the profound issues prompted by the tapestry - belonging, citizenship, democracy, justice, kindness, fairness, respect, responsibility, liberty, the rule of law and sanctuary. The tapestry also went to St. Luke’s school, Sarah one of St. Luke’s teachers said that it had made the parents feel it was a welcoming place and it offered them a bridge into the social fabric of the school. Two ladies from the Network, one from Syria and the other from Jordan reiterated how welcome they felt in working together on their squares for the tapestry. Sam Beal (a School Partnership Advisor) explained that there were plans to have the tapestry visit other schools in the Brighton & Hove area, at this point Linda opened the discussion to broader uses and I highlighted the tapestry’s importance as a tool, to facilitate the teaching of democracy and power, integration and the meaning of active citizenship in an non-antagonistic, creative way. Another member of the audience thought that nursery schools should also be involved; the creative process was also meditative so it would bring other benefits to the children and it was also suggested that such a tapestry would be helpful in other areas of the country where they had less experience with diversity. Finally Pinaki Ghoshal, Executive Director of the B&H Families, Children and Learning was pleased to see how much had developed in such a short time from the initial ‘One Voice Partnership’ (part of the Neighbourhoods, Inclusion, Communities and Equalities Committee); he thought it was ‘fantastic’ that the children at Queen’s Park school had produced so much in only 2 weeks and he also emphasised how important it was to have mechanisms to celebrate diversity in the city. My thoughts are that the making of a tapestry in school offers a creative route to a shared learning process and the teaching of issues related to the children's concerns, it is an opportunity for children of all backgrounds to actively participate, this enables a discussion about what democracy and equality actually means and would help promote inclusion, understanding active citizenship and most of all it is a process that encourages communication no matter how diverse the school. With the use of recycled pieces of cloth and access to fair trade pieces it also offers a wonderful opportunity to link discussions on sustainability and working conditions as the use of textile in clothes and fashion is the second most environmentally harmful industry today. Further Info: https://www.facebook.com/intlwomensnetwork/ Film about the making of the Network of International Women’s tapestry by Cathy Maxwell and Piera Anna Tomasi: https://vimeo.com/264956846 Related issues A stitch in time: embroidery as a force for social change from the British Library: http://blogs.bl.uk/european/2015/07/a-stitch-in-time-embroidery-as-a-force-for-social-change.html