Review of 2022

This past year we have managed to meet in person every month, have taken in 3 British Museum exhibitions,and started meeting in person for craft club again. Sadly we haven’t been able to do any fundraising, but we already have plans for 2023 stalls.

So what did we get up to this year?

January: We had a talk on Victorian clothes with Kat Jungnickel (author of Bikes and Bloomers: Victorian Women Inventors and Their Extraordinary Cycle Wear)

February: This month we got crafty, with a Peruvian inspired embroidery craft activity with Helena

March: This month was our AGM, attended by representatives of Middlesex Federation, and we also had a zoom talk on the history of the WI by Lisa Greenly who joined us remotely from Canada.

April: This month's talk was a fascinating evening 'Eat your Greens' with Jane McLauchlin, all about the domestication and history of the fruit and vegetables we eat today.

May: This month's talk was 'The Hot Spots of the World', an illustrated talk on some of the Volcanoes Liz Mooney has visited on her travels. 

June: June was a hands-on evening of making our own fabulously scented wax melts with Antoinette. 

July: July was another hands-on session, quite literally this time as Claude taught us how to carry out reflexology hand massages on each other!

Between meetings we also found time to attend the Soho Village Fair in July, and in 2023 we plan to have a stall there.

August: Despite the rain, we went for a walk and talk around St Giles looking at the haunts and history of Charles Dickens and his relationship with the area, led by Jane Palm-Gold. 

September: This was a British Sign Language taster session with Lindsey - we learned the alphabet, some basic BSL words, and some of the history and etiquette of BSL.

October: This month we tried out faux calligraphy with Jane in a hybrid meeting format, some of us in the hall, some at home and the speaker joining via Zoom. Luckily the tech worked, and we may have more sessions in this format in the future.

November: This month was another crafty evening, as we learned about Madhubani painting and created our own, under the guidance of Nilanjana from KraftGurus.

December: We went for a walk around the Christmas lights of the West End, and then had a Christmas dinner at Tas restaurant.

British Museum Exhibitions

As well as our regular meetings, our members attended the community previews of three major British Museum exhibitions - Stonehenge, Feminine Power and Hieroglyphs.

And towards the end of the year our Craft Club moved from online back to an in-person event, on the 1st Tuesday of every month. At the moment we're pub based, but hoping to find somewhere a bit more craft-oriented, with better lighting, soon!

Next Meeting: 16 November, Madhubani Painting Workshop

Join us on Wednesday 16th November from 6.30pm, for a one-hour Introductory Madhubani Painting workshop from 7-8pm, led by Nilanjana, founder of KraftGurus.

KraftGurus' mantra is: Learn, Create, Grow. It showcases India's heritage arts. Join us on Wednesday 16th November, for one-hour to be introduced to the colourful & intricate style of Madhubani Painting combined with fun-filled stories that explain the artform.

The featured artform is the vivid Madhubani Painting, originating in Bihar, India. In the workshop, you will learn a popular Madhubani motif, while understanding the significance of each element making up this art. You will create your own painting and will get to take home your creations! This workshop is suitable for all ages, experiences  and backgrounds – all materials will be provided.

About KraftGurus
Founded by Nilanjana, its creation is inspired by the love of her homeland, India, and its arts heritage. KraftGurus aims to expand the experience of the exceptional arts-crafts  of India through workshops-courses, handmade products and unique experiences.

With its aim to  support the prize-winning artists based in India, Nilanjana  works to increase awareness and knowledge of Indian art-craft practices through her unique storytelling style, which combines art practices in order to inform about the significance of different elements found in Indian art and the stories each element tells.' 

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HOW TO FIND US

Meetings are held in the Upper Vestry Hall of St George's Bloomsbury (look for the noticeboard by the gate on Little Russell Street) from 6.30pm to 8.30pm. Bring some refreshments to share if you can!

If it's your first visit, you can just drop in or you can email us on londonwestendwi@gmail.com so we know to look out for you. 

October Meeting, Wednesday 19th, Intro to Calligraphy

This month we will be joined remotely by Jane Lappage from Calligraphy Arts, who will be teaching us a form of calligraphy called 'Faux’ which is easy to have a go with paper, tracing paper, coloured biros/pencils and pencils, all things you can get quite cheaply from The Range (other bargain stores are available!) or have around your home. She will also explain the difference between chisel end and fine point calligraphy etc, and talk briefly about the history of calligraphy.

If you want to buy a starter pack before the session, the link is here, and she will also be able to sell them at the session. https://calligraphyartsuk.com/en-gb/books/647-1940-modern-calligraphy-starter-pack.html#/376,ap5-pack,647-defaultcombination

Jane will be joining us via Zoom, and you can either join us in the Vestry Hall of St Georges or contact us for the Zoom link. As usual meeting start at 6.30pm, with the talk beginning around 7 til 8.

 

September Meeting - 21st September, BSL Intro

 

SEPTEMBER MEETING  THIS WEDNESDAY September 21st, 6.30pm British Sign Language taster session with Lindsey

Lindsey has been signing for 11 years having passed both Levels 1 and 2 in BSL (British Sign Language) whilst supporting hearing impaired students in a high school. Now a Sensory Support Officer with Deafblind UK, Lindsey has a wide range of experience of working within a Sensory world. Lindsey will take us through the BSL alphabet, some BSL ‘etiquette’ and factoids and can even teach us how to sign Jerusalem! ____________________________________________________ HOW TO FIND US Meetings are held in the Upper Vestry Hall of St George's Bloomsbury (look for the noticeboard by the gate on Little Russell Street) from 6.30pm to 8.30pm. Bring some refreshments to share if you can! If it's your first visit, you can just drop in or you can email us on londonwestendwi@gmail.com so we know to look out for you.

Next Meeting: August 17th Charles Dickens Walk

Our August meeting on Wednesday 17th will take us out and about with a walk and talk around our local area of St Giles looking at the haunts and history of Charles Dickens and his relationship with the area. Local artist and historian Jane Palm-Gold will be leading the way. She did a brilliant walk around Seven Dials for us last year and is back with us by popular demand.

Meeting place is the junction of Stukeley Street and Drury Lane, on the paved part of Stukeley Street (Google map here), and we will be setting off at 6.30pm. We'll also post an updated location in the WhatsApp group after we set off, for any latecomers.

All members and potential members are welcome to join us. Email us on londonwestendwi@gmail.com or drop us a message on social media or our WhatsApp group if you'd like to come so we know not to set off without you!

Craft Club is back! Tuesday 2 August in person meeting

 For the first time in over 2 years we're going to try meeting in person for Craft Club. Since March 2020 we've been meeting monthly on Zoom, but from August 2022 we're back!

Our first meeting will be on Tuesday 2nd August in the Museum Tavern pub on Museum Street, from 6.30 to 7.30pm

Bring along your own crafts, get a glass of wine, and we'll begin to plan future meetings - if demand is high enough we'll set up regular in-person meetings with a set craft each month that we can all learn, demonstrate or practice.

Drop us an email on the main email account (londonwestendwi@gmail.com) if you have any questions. No need to book or let us know, just come along. All members and potential members welcome. No charge to attend, you just pay for your own drinks and provide your own craft.

Although we don't use the Craft Club blog at the moment, here's some images of previous in-person makes, which hopefully we can get back to: http://lwewicraftclub.blogspot.com/p/heres-some-we-made-earlier.html

Monthly update - July

July Monthly Meeting

Due to illness our speaker for July had to cancel the handbell session we had planned. However, our President Claude was able to step in at the last minute to lead us in a wonderfully relaxing reflexology session where we learned how to carry out a healing hand massage on each other. 

Soho Village Fete

Earlier this month we also had a trip to the Soho Fete.  We saw some Morris Dancers - who will be coming to a meeting next year - watched a snail race, watched a dog show and saw the firemen of Soho beat the policemen of Soho in a tug of war.  It was all round good fun.  The one thing missing we felt was a really good cake and craft stall... so we will be emailing the Soho Society and asking about our attendance next year.... watch this space.  In the mean time here are some photos of our day. 

A reminder of what we have coming up 
 

August 17 - Walk and talk around St Giles looking at the haunts and history of Charles Dickens and his relationship with the area.  Jane Palm-Gold will be leading the way.  September 21 - British Sign Language taster session with Lindsey.   Lindsey has been signing for 11 years having passed both Levels 1 and 2 in BSL (British Sign Language) whilst supporting hearing impaired students in a high school. Now a Sensory Support Officer with Deafblind UK, Lindsey has a wide range of experience of working within a Sensory world. Lindsey will take us through the BSL alphabet, some BSL ‘etiquette’ and factoids and can even teach us how to sign Jerusalem! October 19 - Calligraphy - a remote session with Jane  Jane will run through the ‘history of calligraphy’ and show us a few scripts and will guide us through a few styles that we can practice.  All we need to bring is some paper, pencils and pens. If you would like to buy a kit that's fine too. We will be meeting in the hall for this although there may also be an option to join remotely from home.

Review of June's meeting

At our June monthly meeting we welcomed Antiounette from Melt Me Ltd to lead us in a crafty meeting of making wax melts to take home and scent our homes with. We are now all looking forward to summer evenings scented with rose and oud, lavender and much more thanks to this fun session!

Review of May

May began with our usual online craft club - we have a small core of dedicated members who meet on Zoom on the 1st Tuesday of the month (or another day if that suits us better...) and all are welcome to join us for this - bring along any craft you're working on and spend an hour crafting and chatting. We put the details on the WhatsApp, or you can email us for the link.

British Museum

On Sunday 15th we attended the community preview of the Feminine Power exhibition at the British Museum, a stunningly presented journey through representations of women in world religions across history.

May Meeting

Our regular meeting was held in the vestry hall of St George's Bloomsbury, and was a fascinating talk by Liz Mooney about her world travels, in particular the volcanoes and volcanic regions she has visited - I think we all want to go travelling now and see some of these fascinating places she talked about!

Our next meeting, on 15 June, will be a crafty evening when we're making wax melts for candle diffusers. We need to know numbers in advance so Antoinette (our tutor for the evening) knows how many kits to bring - drop us an email on londonwestendwi@gmail.com if you want to come along please!