A Withy Lore Family Day in March saw us back to the Cornwall Museum and Art Gallery for more stories and creativity. Through a series of different activities people of all ages were able to explore the Withy Lore exhibition through weaving, words and creativity. It was lovely to have so many generations weaving together and engaging with the exhibition.
Corky Baban Making
One of the stories we’d collected through the projects oral history interviews was about ‘corky baban’ making. Shared by Nigel Legge from Cadgwith, it was fascinating to learn about how this old tradition rippled down the generations.
Inspired by this story we devised an activity to allow people to make their own baby boats, complete with a wish for the coming season. It was getting towards the end of the season for working with green willow, but with willow kindly gifted to us by Geraldine Jones, families still managed to weave boat shapes and add willow masts. For sails we used old dictionary pages, finding words that gave the boats their own unique names. Finally a wish was written on a scroll and attached to the boat.
Withy Pot Detectives
Each withy pot maker has their own style of making a pot. Differences in how pots are woven reflect the maker, their family, their community and the place it’s intended to fish. Inspired by Anna Pope’s meticulously detailed drawings of withy pots, we supplied families with photographs of different pots, asking them to choose their favourite. They then traced this pot onto blue card using white carbon paper, revealing beautiful blueprints of pots. Simple but effective! Families were then invited to take their drawings to the Withy Lore exhibition and try and match it with the maker.
Withy Pot Barnacles
Families were also invited to add to the Withy Pot Barnacles installation by weaving onto wire frames with found beach plastic. Reflecting the transition from natural materials to synthetics, these pots would sit in contrast to the existing withy ones. With a colourful array of rope, kindly donated by Cornish Spliced, people of all ages had a go at simple weaving techniques. These pots now remain in the gallery space for people to continue to add to.
We had a great day, filled with stories and creativity and it was a treat to work in different spaces around the newly re-imagined museum.
