Tiny! Goblins, Trolls and Faeries!

These workshops are not part of the Exploring sequence but is another Stone and Water event you might enjoy!

2012 will be the third year our local community group, Stone and Water has held some Tiny! adventures in Pavilion Gardens in Buxton as part of the Buxton Festival Fringe. After Tiny! The smallest lantern procession in the festival in 2010, we moved on to Tiny! A Pirate Adventure last year. This year we will take people on a strange exploration of the Gardens and make some of the Tiny! Goblins, Trolls and Faeries who may (or may not) live here

The Tiny! workshops have been delightfully silly and very popular. Everything works here in miniature. We make figures about 10 cm tall, adding tiny ships made round plastic bottle tops, tiny birds, lanterns, flowers, anything that takes our very small imaginations, really. Unusually for the Festival, no tickets are needed - you just turn up and join in and there is no cost (although this year we'll have some of our wonderful Exploring with Stories postcards to sell (for a small consideration)

Why not join us for a Tiny adventure?

Event details

Tiny! Goblins, Trolls and Faeries

Monday 9th

Tuesday 10th July

workshop 3 - 5.30pm

Meet by the Bandstand outside the Pavilion

make your own miniature puppets, enchanted castles and wizardly dens

and then join us in telling the terrible tales of the characters we made that afternoon!

FREE: no booking needed, just turn up and join in

Materials and storytelling provided

fb group: Stone and Water

Call: 07825 177355

Under 10s need to bring an adult with them to teach grown-ups about goblins

"Exploring" events - the list

Exploring with Stories

~ out, about and investigating with stories, books and exciting activities

~ all events will combine storytelling with art and discovery activities and offer ideas of things you could do yourself when out for a walk…

June

Friday 8th, Ancient Adventures, life and excitement in prehistoric Buxton

 with stories, model houses and pop-up caves! Buxton Museum and Art Gallery, Terrace Rd, SK17 6DA, 10.30 - 12.30, 1.30 - 3.30

Sunday 10th: Biodiversity Day: the great bird, beast and bug hunt: nature detectives making boxes of natural treasures, experimenting, investigating... Dove Valley Centre, Under Whitle, near Longnor, SK17 0PR 11am - 4pm

July

Sunday 1st: Exploring with Stories: a workshop for adults: looking at the wildlife of fields, woods, and ponds, listening to old stories, telling new stories. Relax and enjoy. Dove Valley Centre, Under Whitle, near Longnor, SK17 0P, 11 - 4. Please book a place: 01298 77964

Tuesday 24th: Away with the Faeries, Goblins and Trolls! magical storywalks, inventing tales, making strange puppets, the hidden creatures of Buxton! Pavilion Gardens, Buxton, SK17 6BE, 10.30 - 12.30, 1.30 - 3.30, meet by the Bandstand in front of the Pavilion

August

Wednesday 1st: National Playday in Leek: drop in and join in at our stall with the Borderland Voices team: make a Secret Leek storybook, tell a terrible tale! Leek Leisure Centre, Brough Park,Leek, 10am - 3pm

Tuesday 28th: Tuesday 24th: Away with the Faeries, Goblins and Trolls! magical storywalks, inventing tales, making strange puppets, the hidden creatures of Padley Gorge, 10.30 - 12.30, 1.30 - 3.30, meet by Granby Barn Interpretation Centre on the B6521 near the National Trust Longshaw Estate

Wednesday 29th: Into the Woods: the secret life of trees: animals, stories, spells and books, Buxton Country Park, 10.30 - 12.30, 1.30 - 2.30, meet by the Poole's Cavern Visitor Centre, Green Lane, Buxton, SK17 9DH   Car parking charges apply

Friday 31st: Run away to adventure: stranded on a desert island? lost in the woods? come and make the den you'd like to live in…..Buxton Country Park, morning and afternoon sessions, spaces strictly limited, please 'phone or email to reserve a place. Other details sent with confirmation

September

Another event to come in September at the National Trust at Ilam

Sunday 30th: Run away to adventure: stranded on a desert island? lost in the woods? come and make the den you'd like to live in….National Trust., Longshaw Estate, Hathersage, morning and afternoon sessions, spaces strictly limited, please 'phone or email to reserve a place. Other details sent with confirmation

October

Sunday 7th: Apple Day: celebrate autumn's richness with orchard investigations, apple recipes, wild fruit-creature-puppets, stories and laughter. Dove Valley Centre, Under Whitle near Longnor, SK17 0PR 11am - 4pm

Activities are free but car parking charges may apply at some venues

Unless otherwise stated, events do not need to be booked: just turn up and join in!

Biodiversity Day: the Big Bird, Beast and Botany Hunt

Sunday 10th June at the Dove Valley Centre

And the day dawned dry! After a week of incessant rain, the sunrise was welcomed and the sun's continuing attention celebrated as we set up for this event

Our role was to explore "natural treasures" encouraging people to go foraging and thinking. Large treasures were to be considered for the beautiful basket that grew during the day under the expert guidance of Rachel Evans. Smaller treasures could be added to Small Treasure Boxes. And we told stories of trees and animals, reminding people that there are adventures everywhere, you just have to go looking...

a basket woven of sheep's wool and willow, hazel, hawthorn and elm twigs, slender birch fingers and plaited rushes

Other activities led by other groups included pond and river dipping, wildflower and bird walks (we sent people out on these with card and pencils to draw and note additions to their treasure boxes). A Barn Owl project (Barn owls nest on the farm) and Staffordshire Wildlife Trust were there as well - leading walks and running stalls, and helping people tease open owl-pellets

A day of excitements indeed!

Next Exploring event:

Sunday 1st July: Exploring with Stories: a workshop for adults: looking at the wildlife of fields, woods, and ponds, listening to old stories, telling new stories. Relax and enjoy. 

Dove Valley Centre, Under Whitle near Longnor, SK17 0PR 11am - 4pm. Please book a place: 01298 77964

Ancient Adventures follow-up

Buxton Museum, 8th June 2012

How many people: 60

From our fur-rugged storycave, we ventured out to weave stories of children in caves and of life in Bronze Age round-houses

In these worlds, mammoths still roamed the hills of Derbyshire and dragon guarded treasures and deceived treasure-hunters with false delights

mammoth cave

In more settled times of mud-stone walls and thatched roofs, people herded cattle and sheep and found chickens roosting on their rooftops.

Life was not all gentleness and pastoral tranquillity as the settlement who had fought off an attack demonstrated. To reinforce the point, they had chopped the heads off their attackers and set them on stakes round the homestead……

The next Exploring event will be

Sunday 1st July: Exploring with Stories: a workshop for adults: looking at the wildlife of fields, woods, and ponds, listening to old stories, telling new stories. Relax and enjoy. Dove Valley Centre, Dove Valley Centre, Under Whitle near Longnor, SK17 0PR 11am - 4pm. Please book a place: 01298 77964

Ancient Adventures

the quiet before the storm.....

adventures on a rainy day. In Buxton Museum, caves and cave-children, ancient homes with grisly stories, farms, feasts and occasional chickens....The first Exploring with Stories event happened today!

60 people joined us through the day

story caves taking shape

a dragon cave with a fake treasure behind the beast (the real treasure is hidden somewhere else at the bottom of a pond)

a wall-painting of a mammoth, a bed and a campfire make this cave particularly comfortable!

settlements - 1 

settlements - 2

settlements 3 - details - a chicken on the roof!

settlements 4, the story takes a grim turn with a set of heads on stakes guarding the household!

settlements 4 - severed heads detail.....

proud artists and storytellers

a cave taking shape

accomplishments!

a settlement story grew so much, it became a whole wheel of a book