Workshop program in Heraklion

Participants were taken to see two museums related to traditional handicrafts and Cretan history. There was also possibility to visit other important historical sights f.eg. Knossos. Participants had many interesting ideas and conversations also between the activities which we could then draw together in the final meeting of the workshop.

Films are 92 % ready

During the meeting we saw some of the films that the partners had made about the local handicraft traditions. Romanian partners had submitted their film already before to Cypriot partners and now we saw film from Estonian partners which was almost finished and also from German and Cypriot partners who had already finished their filming. Greek partners and Bulgarian partners had their film also ready, but due to technical problems the films couldn’t be seen in the workshop.

Deadline for the final versions of the films from each country is February 10^th, 2012 which should be easy to meet since almost all films were ready. Cypriot partners will make the final cut of the film, and will ask for additional material or different formats if needed.

Website has been updated with the latest content which is Romanian film and German newspaper of the Limburg workshop, as well as information about the new textile apprenticeship available in Germany. Also photos from Limburg workshop taken by Finnish partners have been uploaded.

Website will be updated in next few weeks with:

• More films about the Limburg workshop from our German partners
• Heraklion workshop memo
• Pictures and video from Heraklion workshop
• Draft films from German, Estonia and Bulgaria (if format is supported) – If other film material is available partners can upload it directly to YouTube
• Dates for the 4^th workshop in Svilengrad

Mid-project reports were required by national agencies from most partners and we agreed that the part about “what has been done so far” should be copy-pasted from the mid-project report and send as email to threadsthatconnectus(at)gmail.com so that it can be put to the website and used for the final reports. It also helps all in the project and all interested parties to get a better understanding of the local activities. If you do not know what to send, just send the whole mid-project report.

This information about local activities done is important because there was first a feeling in the workshop that the project had not done enough concrete things to actually help keep the handicraft tradition alive! Mostly this feeling was due to the fact that all the local activities done by each partner in their local countries were not know by other partners and also because the film is not yet ready and some partners have been waiting for it to be finished so that they could disseminate the information in there trainings and activities.

Feedback from mid-project reports from national agencies has been positive and only things that remain to be done are finishing the film and Estonians were asked to produce the leaflet of the project which was mentioned in the original project plan in the application of the project and also they should do some more local training. Finnish national agency were very happy with the website and suggested that there could be some more Finnish-Cypriot association events where the results of the project could be shown. These are easiest to do when the film material starts to be ready and available (between November 2011 – May 2012).

In the meeting it was agreed that the leaflet could be produced generally about the project by Finnish partners and sent to all other partners so that they may add more pages to the leaflet in local language and about local traditions if they wish. Other partners are not required to distribute the leaflet except if needed or required by their agencies. Leaflet will be put to the website and partners can send back their local materials also, so that it is also available from the website.

Important note from Finnish partners: After reviewing the original project plan after the meeting and comparing what other Grundtvig projects have produced as leaflets we suggest that the leaflet should be mainly about the results of this project i.e. introducing the film to teachers and students of handicrafts and other interested public. Leaflet should be used for promoting the film, the techniques and the handicraft masters it shows  and could be distributed in the partner organizations and events. Therefore it should include information about how to obtain the film (dvd or download?) in case someone is interested to view it or show it to students etc. First draft of the leaflet is sent to the participants for commenting. Because of language issues, the leaflet tries to be very graphic and not require knowledge of English language to be understood.

Also it should be decided how the film is going to be distributed.

4^th workshop in Svilengrad, Bulgaria

It was decided that the most suitable dates for everyone would be 3^rd -6^th of May, 2012 for the workshop in Svilengrad, Bulgaria. Thursday and Sunday would be travel days because of the distance from Sofia and the actual program of the workshop would be on Friday and Saturday.

Travel options

• Flight to Sofia – arrival approximately 13:00
• 15:00 bus to Svilengrad, which takes, 2-3 hours. Bus leaves from Sofia city area, not airport. Bus back from Svilengrad leaves on Sunday at 6:00. the Bulgarian partners will check the schedule and if we choose this option they will also book the bus seats for us.
• It is also possible that we would rent a bus for 10-15 persons, then everyone should come to Sofia
• Greek partners have also the option of coming from  Aleksandroupolis to Svilengrad by bus
• Romanian partners can take a bus towards Turkey and leave the bus in Svilengrad.

Deadline for confirming travel options and amount of participants from each country is 10^th of January. Please send your travel plans to all partners because it will affect the bus rental and other planning.

Program for the workshop in Svilengrad contains possibly an exhibition in of all things (artifacts, photos, film) related to project. All partners should inform what they are bringing and are they going to send it before to Svilengrad or bring it. Deadline for this is also by 10^th of January.

Other activities for workshop are:

• viewing the final film
• editing the final reports for all partners: Partners should bring a draft  of their final reports to workshop and inform already before if they need something additional from other partners
• getting more information about Svilengrad and Bulgarian handicraft tradition

Other topics discussed in Heraklion

A new apprenticeship degree has been accepted in Germany about textile handicrafts including cembroidery, felting, knitting, bobbing etc. German partner International School of Textile Arts has been influencing the criteria and content of the degree and is also offering training for it. The apprenticeship is unique and is also available for students from other countries. The degree is transferrable in E.U. and is recognized by other E.U. countries.

German partners were interested in continuing the project’s work after this project has finished because the project group has been working very well and the results of this project are a good start to the right direction of reviving and using old handicraft techniques in new ways and by new generation. Romanian partners suggested that one of the ways could be joining an already existing project in Romania about a “open teahouse” existing in side a school where all kinds of training can be given and received in a very pen and informal way.

Read the article here. The school website is http://www.tentakulum.de 

Limburg workshop photos. Admire the wonderful work that our 2nd workshop host Baerbel and her students have made in http://www.international-school-for-textile-arts.com/

• make sure the films of each country  are ready and can be finalized by Cypriot partners
• decide on the final date and program of the 4th and final workshop in Bulgaria in spring 2012
• make sure all partners can complete all the tasks required of them
• agree on how to do the final report

Next meeting in Hiraklion

Next partner workshop is going to be in Hiraklion, Crete (Greece) approximately weekend of 15^th of October. Partners from Greece will get others information by the end of May.

Website

• articles published about the project (links to newspaper websites or scanned articles)
• short comments from the youth participating in the workshops and other activities
• calendar of activities (upcoming and past, because it is also needed for the reporting)
• news about the project activities in the website
• bright ideas which have been coming up in the discussions during partner workshops and other activities
• material until 31^st May, send it to threadsthatconnectus@gmail.com

Final Movie

•  6 x 5 min from each partner except Finland
• ready by 9^th of September
• Cyprus is doing the final editing, send it to them by post or uploading (Anna and Marjukka will sort out the site for uploading)
• Also some photos and already cut out film material

Status of each countries film:

Greece

• about traditional crafts
• material already shot

Estonia

• subject: young craft women, whose work is based on traditional techniques, specifically how mittens are done using traditional motives
• already 2-3 hour movie about an old lady
• final 5 minutes is going to be mixture of the young lady and the old
• a student is going to make the movie
• technique: knitting
• language: english

Cyprus

• at the moment 8-9 minutes
• techique: weaving
• language: english

Bulgaria

-         history of weaving in Bulgaria, and some techniques

• filming is done about the workshops and the ladies are doing the traditional techiques
• at the moment 5 minutes
• co-ordinator and 1 other person are making the movie
• technique: weaving

Romania

• 5 minutes
• about a workshop, possible another film could be added about a workshop in May
• interviews and young people doing the traditional crafts
• technique: weaving

Germany

• first idea was to make a film about the project, but it isn’t feasible because the movie has to be ready by next workshop
• might be interesting to do something about how to teach young people to do handicrafts
• Barbara and Bärbel are going to do it, some material was shot in this workshop

Provisional Schedule of 2nd workshop

Attendance form 2nd meeting

The meeting includes a 6 hours workshop in embroidery “Creative Bits and Pieces for Contemporary Embroidery by Hand and Machine”.

Materials and lectures are sponsored by Tentakulum Manufaktur and the International School for Textile Arts, so there is no charge for the workshop. There is also the possibility to purchase additional materials in the attached shop. We will also talk about the progress of the films of each participant so please bring your files with you or send them to us prior to arrival. There will be four computers/laptops available in the workroom.

First meeting of the project was in Nicosia, Cyprus.

The meeting included a 4 hour workshop in filming and photography.

In first workshop the partners agreed to these action points:

1. to make a 30 min. film containing films from 6 partners of 5 min. each. The film of each partner should be ready by the next meeting in Germany in April, even if it’s not perfect at least it should exist in some first form so that we can check if everything fits
2. to make short documentaries for the website – these should be 2-3 min. maximum
3. to place some written information on the website starting with a short intro to the handicrafts of each country – this must be sent until the end of December
4. to have the next meeting in Germany from 29/4/2011-2/5/2011 where we will present our films and talk about the next steps,
5. to tell Baerbel Zimber how many persons we will send to the next meeting until the 10/12/2010 at the lates
6. to have the 3rd meeting in Herakleion/ Greece in the first week of October 2011 with a film screening and an exhibition
7. to have the 4th and final meeting in Svilengrad/ Bulgaria

Report of 1st meeting with pictures (in Finnish)

Schedule and participants of 1st meeting

Information about 1st meeting to participants