What I have always loved most about art making, is the ability to connect to others through the repetitive tasks where you share ideas, speak your frusterations and support one another through the making process. This experience allowed a group of sixteen people the chance to connect through practices new to most of us.
We were able to learn to spin fresh wool while soaking in the sun.
Some of us making butterflies of yarn using the skein winders, in preperation for our workshop on weaving with our teacher Ragga.
Natural dyeing with lupin flowers, dock leaves and rhubarb bark.
Coming to Iceland, I intended to explore aspects of Norse mythology and its many creatures, but what I had yet to expect was my proximity to creatures that these myths speak of. One I have been fascinated by is the selkie. Selkies can change form from seal to woman with the help of their seal coats. Many stories are told of their existence, where sailors fall in love, some stories speak of men taking their seal coats for ownership, some of partnerships, but ones I think most of are like that of my favourite film, Song of The Sea, where the selkie returns home to the sea.
During a hike, a group of students stumbled apon a cove of seals! So excited by the prospect of watching seals do what they do best, flop around and swim, we headed over the next day.
So we began our hike up the wobbly hills by the ocean.
Secluded black sand beach at the start of our hike.
The hills we passed on our climb.
Seashore enclosure where birds live within the crevises of rock.
Seashore meets sea stack.
And finally !
The seal cove, where we were lucky to see a seal pup.
Once we found them, we sat down and observed them, and quickly, they did the same. We spent a long time staring at each other, feeling the sea breeze and listening to the birds swooping overhead.
