Carousel @ West Town Farm from Workshops n' Docs on Vimeo.

Documentation of an away day at West Town Farm (2/8/11) where the various artists working with The Devon Carousel Project came together to share their practice and ideas for work that they will be delivering at children’s centres and community halls around Devon starting from September. The work is predominantly aimed at families with children under the age of 5 and will in some instances be across disciplines.

7 introductory workshops to give you a chance to ‘try out’ different activities – workshops will start at 1.30pm and last 2-3 hours
SUNDAY 19th JUNE: BOOK-MAKING with Nina Fenner – make your own book by hand and find materials around the farm to make it truly unique
SUNDAY 26th JUNE: NATURAL DYES with Jane Deane – learn how to dye with natural materials – find suitable plants growing wild on a walk on the farm and find out about growing others
SUNDAY 3rd JULY: PRINT-MAKING with Emma Cayless – learn simple print-making using materials and inspiration from a walk around the farm
SUNDAY 10th JULY: WORKING WITH CLAY with Lucy Rockliffe and Amiee Lawn – try different techniques with clay including using a wheel; see where our clay comes from and how we process it
SUNDAY 17th JULY: MOSAIC MAKING with Lucy Rockliffe – learn the basics of mosaic working inspired by a walk on the farm. Make it for our community garden or take it home
SUNDAY 24th JULY: WOOD CARVING with Nic Wooton – walk up to the quarry and learn how to carve a spoon from wood that has been coppiced there.
SUNDAY 31st JULY: CHARCOAL MAKING and DRAWING with Rich Pringle – make some charcoal from willow, take a walk on the farm and learn charcoal drawing techniques for whatever inspires you.
If you are over 19 you can try one of these workshops for free – otherwise they will cost £10 per person.
Places must be booked in advance with a deposit (which will be returned for free places)
Transport can be offered from Exeter if booked

A lovely visit from a group from Ethiopia! They were part of an exchange with a similar group from Exeter exploring active citizenship. We had a very happy walk around the farm comparing farms in Devon with those in Ethiopia, discovering the significance of the coffee ritual and having demonstrations of cattle herders calls across the hills. Not what the cows made of that!! I hope to get some pictures of the visit here soon.

Visit Sarah’s Facebook photo album Exeter & Ethiopia – Active Citizens Antics for some fantastic images!

This was a really successful activity at the recent Spring Fair. We used stout card tubes from the Exeter Scrapstore and created a whole range of habitats for minibeasts to stay in.
Download a bigger pdf file here

Here are some pictures from some of the Pony Access plus a few showing Simon and Obama out and about and busy!