Final 4th workshop in Svilengrad Bulgaria

The 4th and last workshop of our project was held in Svilengrad, Bulgaria on May 3-6^th, 2012. The purpose of the final workshop was to

• collect all the films and other outcomes done during the project plus
• enjoy the actual handicrafts made by the students and teachers in each country’s local workshops
• prepare and discuss the final report of the project

Most of the first day was spent in preparing and opening the exhibition.  In the evening we had a big meeting where we watched the new and improved final versions of the films and discussed on how we would best distribute them. A decision was made to host each individual film in projects YouTube –channel separately, since they were so specific topics and participants didn’t see the value of joining them into one film. Also it was discussed that it would be much easier to use the films for teaching etc. if they were shorter and separate, as they were also concentrating in different techniques.

Each participant country told others what they had done during the project, here is a short summary of each country:

Bulgaria

• See Bulgarian film and read more about what the film is telling here
• 10 meetings, students also met outside the project meetings
• Workshop was held about teaching traditional handicraft techniques
• Visits were organized to old craft centers
• Only 2-3 persons in Bulgaria are doing weaving professionally and looming was also not very known, so the emphasis was on how to get teachers and how to do teaching of these handicrafts
• Using imagination with traditional techniques was a big theme in the teaching and also very visible in the students works exhibited during the Svilengrad workshop

Germany

• Germany did a slideshow and a leaflet about the results the project
• 12 people (students and teachers) were mainly involved in Germany
• During the project traditional handicrafts were used for modern and creative artwork such as map of Germany
• See film of project workshop in Limburg, Germany (courtesy of Romanian partners)

Greece

• Greece made a film about women of Anogeia weaving
• About 10-15 under 30 year-old participants were involved in the project
• Their theme was transferring the traditional techniques from old to young and their film also showed both young talents as well as old masters
• Project’s 3^rd workshop in Crete and other project activities were covered well in local media

Romania

• Group of children were filmed in workshops, see film
• Theme was on how to conserve old techniques as they have always been and in the project some 18^th century patterns were used.
• Main issue was that it is not very common in Romanian families to pass on the skills in the family and there is also no teaching of traditional handicrafts in schools
• Project got could publicity in the media, see project introduced in Romanian Muntenia TV

Estonia

• Estonians had almost reversed the theme of the project: In their film young woman was teaching 27 older researchers the traditional techniques
• Also a book “Ornamental journey” by Joesti/Ehin was related to the project themes and some study materials and a leaflet was published about the techniques
• A lot of material also on video was collected about preserving the traditional techniques of the island Kihnu in Estonia

Cyprus

• A film was made by students about Julia Astreou- Christoforou, a local textile artist. Techniques on film were mostly weaving and appliqué. Film shows handicraft art with themes of various phases of human life (marriage, tsunami, politics, war and holiday). It also features a traditional Cyprus motif, man of Fiti
• During the project there was also participation with the Lykeio Palourgiotissas school which exhibited a collection of old hand-made clothes found in the closet of the school where they had been since 1930s.
• Role of Cyprus in the project was also to co-ordinate the project and host the 1^st workshop

Finland

• Role of Finland in the project was mostly to be a technical aid for the coordinator Cyprus and other countries.
• Website for the project was made as well as email, Flickr and YouTube accounts
• Locally project was introduced in the Finnish-Cypriot association magazine Avrio in several issues and materials made by the other participants were translated to Finnish. Also association blog, Facebook page and several meetings and events were used to tell about the project and enhance knowledge specifically about Cypriot traditional handicraft.
• Participants from Finland were also welcomed to the project for teaching how to take and edit video and photography and also as creating and sharing professional ideas about how to earn living with handicrafts

Avrio magazine by Finland – Cypriot association

Print: Threads that connect us leaflet

Project’s 3rd workshop was held in Heraklion Crete 14-16th October 2011

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.

“Eine einzigartige Schule” – Article about the workshop in Germany

The German newspaper “Nassauische neue presse” published a very good article about our projects 2nd workshop in Limburg, Germany. Article tells also about the unique school of ISTA International School of Textile Arts where the workshop was held.

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

Threads That Connect Us’ photostream

Threads That Connect Us’ photostream on Flickr.

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/

3rd meeting in Crete 14-16th Oct 2011

Meeting in Crete is held at Heraklion and the purpose of the meeting is to

• 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

Final Schedule Heraklion

Video of Limburg workshop

Courtesy of our Romanian partners

Workshop memo from Limburg

Partner meeting  in Limburg, Germany was very succesfull. Here are the details of the decision made in the project managers meeting:

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

Second workshop in Germany in 29/04-02/05/2011

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 workshop in Cyprus on 18-22/11/2010

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