What's happening with the knitted bees of Tooting? - Update #2 on our partnership project with CARAS

We've enjoyed and learned so much from our partnership project with CARAS which has been running since spring 2015.
Here's Update #2 on one more of the project strands - this one involving the CARAS Women's Group for refugees and asylum-seekers. We shared Update #1 a fortnight ago - read it here.

The knitted honeybees of Tooting
It's not often you can ask "what’s happening in the world of Tooting’s knitted & crocheted bees?" We’ve been busy since spring 2018 on a fascinating quest that started with our beekeeper friend Richard who is Chair of the London Beekepers Association asking "Do you know anyone who could make some model bees as teaching aids? Toy bees available online are all hopelessly inaccurate...we need about 50..."
I immediately said "yes!" and a new project was born...which has developed to include the CARAS Family Day and Women's Group, a wonderful local group of knitters, beekepers and TTT.

It's been so moving to us all that this novel partnership has come together: local craftspeople with experience and skill plus refugee women with skills and desire to create plus our own TTT colleagues. We've got together for the interest and challenge, in order to work with a London-wide group's own fascinating project in an imaginative way.

Attaching wings and legs at the CARAS Women's Group

Richard and the LBKA are developing participative classes for schools. The bee models would need to have the correct number of legs (6), eyes (5) and wings (4), with antennae (2) in just the right place on their heads ("not like antlers and not like whiskers"), triangular downward-facing heads, a waist: all giving the general look of a honeybee with correct details while also being imaginative prompts for LBKA workshops. The bees should definitely not have cartoon smiles.

ReSparkle! Celebrating Creativity and Christmas crafts at Tooting Library

TTT have been ReSparkling with Tooting Library since 2012 - it's always a magical event upstairs in the beautiful children's library. 

Indoors last Saturday the library was full of colour, light and energy as it became darker, wetter and stormier outside. 

It's a free and simple event: for two hours we offered 5 activity tables, with eight of us helping.  

Why is it so fun and rewarding?

We think it's because:
1. There are familiar faces and new families every year - diverse, multilingual, positive, keen to experiment.
2. Creating a special occasion together is a good feeling 

3. The Library is such an excellent trusted community social hub in the buzzy retail heart of Tooting. Everyone is welcome, nothing is for sale, everyone can work at their own pace and  materials and goodwill are shared freely.
4. Children, parents and carers are discovering and making together - all generations trying out very different activities, getting familiar (again?) with using glue, scissors, staplers, velcro.
All these activities and more can be repeated at home.

5. Everyone creates using simple materials - making beautiful decorations and presents out of everyday things and scrap saved from waste.  
6. There's always new ideas - new activities, new facilitators from TTT, creative solutions from participants (turning the drinks cartons inside out to show off the silvery liner was very neat!)

There's more photos by Bryony, Chuck & Annie to look at online - please click here. And there's more of just Bryony's beautiful photos of ReSparkle online here - thank you Bryony!

ReSparkle! exactly six years ago on Dec 15th 2012

We value our long-lasting partnership with Tooting Library very much and want to say thanks to the Library team for hosting us so many times since 2012.

Many thanks to our TTT team of fab facilitators: Annie, Bryony, Elly, Jane, Jeni, Nicola, Resina & Chuck.
We're looking forward to December 2019 - please put ReSparkle in your diary!

ReSparkle! with TTT at Tooting Library, 2pm to 4 pm on Saturday 15th December 2018

All welcome to join TTT's free Christmas crafts workshop at Tooting Library, creating beautiful presents and decorations to take home.

We've been inviting everyone to ReSparkle! since 2012, and it's always a magical event.

 

When? Saturday 15th December from 2:00pm to 4:00pm
Where? 75 Mitcham Road SW17 9PD
We'll be upstairs in the lovely children's library.  
Free, drop-in and for all ages.

All materials provided - and everything we'll use to make beautiful creations is waste that's being saved from going to scrap.
"Reduce...Re-purpose...ReSparkle!"


Thanks loads to our partners at Tooting Library - if you have any queries, please phone the Library on 0208 767 0543. NB children under 8 must always be accompanied by a responsible adult.

Come and join the fun - please spread the word and tell your friends. Click here to read or download the poster.

We had a fun & creative seasonal session ReSparkling, Reducing and Re-using materials that would have gone to waste. And Happy New Year!

Thanks loads to our partners in Tooting Library for hosting our fifth annual seasonal ReSparkle! workshop on the 17th December.
Around 40 young people - from four-year olds to teenagers - joined in for two hours, solo or with parents and carers. Everyone learned how to do all kinds of imaginative things that can be repeated or adapted at home using everyday materials saved from going to waste.

We used simple and practical methods and tools that are good for children and adults to learn how to handle confidently - folding, gluing, cutting-out with scissors, hole punching, stapling, decorating.

What did we do? (If you look carefully you can see examples of the different things that participants made in the background of many of the pictures...can you work out how to make them?)

Jane showed how to make angels using the pages of an old book destined for recycling.

Rachel showed how to make snowmen and other figures from cardboard tubes - so simple!
Plus, Hilary made cardboard boxes.

Flora helped make present bags out of the Library's out-of-date foreign-language newspapers.

Below: look at the intense concentration when learning to use the hole puncher.  

how did she keep her hat so straight?

Reduce, Re-Use, ReSparkle! Free seasonal crafts with Tooting Library on Saturday 17th December

We're running our fifth annual free ReSparkle! event at Tooting Library, 75 Mitcham Road, SW17 9PD on Sat 17th, from 2-4pm.

All welcome, for all ages and all materials provided: the theme is learning how to make decorative and interesting things - perhaps presents for Christmas time - using re-purposed materials that would otherwise go to waste.
No experience necessary...you can do all the activities, and take home what you make. And teach others at home how you did it!

The venue is the beautiful Children's Library on the first floor.
We're combining the fun workshop with artist Jeni Walker's monthly Meet and Make sessions, so we can expect a really varied group.

Click on the year to see what we made at Resparkle 2015 and Resparkle 2014 - the theme that year was 'I never knew you could do so much with paper!'


Here are two highlights, and we look forward to seeing you:

Celebrating Local Food Together as a Community: Preview of #Foodival2016 on the 10th & 11th Sept

We're very excited about TTT's ninth annual Tooting Foodival which is all about Celebrating Local Food Together as a Community. 
We're planning the details now - here's a snapshot preview.
Plenty more information to come later on.

'Local food plus local community' is the weekend's theme:

I Grew This! (Foodival 2015)

Saturday 10th Sept activities run from from 1pm to 5pm and are based at Mushkil Aasaan, 222 Upper Tooting Road SW17 7EW. 

On Saturday we welcome all local growers to share and donate some of their local produce - maybe a bag of potatoes, or a single chilli pepper...whatever you would like to share.

Mark where you've been growing on our Growing Tooting Map.

We'll take your photo proudly holding your fruit or veg for our 2016 I Grew This! poster and we'll display what's shared.

Where will all this wonderful donated local produce go?

Top Tooting Cook! 
First, donated produce goes to anyone who wants to enter our fun Top Tooting Cook event. Take some produce or recipes away (or cook with what you have grown at home), and bring back what you make on Sunday for the light-hearted judging and more at Mushkil Aasaan from 4 to 7pm.

The TTC hat - not the only prize you might win

Show off your culinary skills using fruit and veg grown locally and you could win a prize... and the coveted title "Top Tooting Cook"!
Find out all about the competition here and get in touch with Belinda to enter.
For inspiration, look at these delicious dishes - sorrel soup, risotto with cavolo nero, fava bean toast with egg - cooked by visitors to the Tooting Community Garden, using produce picked that day!

Thanks Naomi, Charles and Janine.

Soup Disco!

Second, local produce donated on Saturday will go to Sunday evening's Soup Disco party from 7pm to 10pm in Tooting Market, 21-23 Tooting High Street SW17 0SN.

From 7pm, we will all starting chopping the veg to make our delicious Tooting soups for a shared meal. And throughout this collective cook-up, our top local DJ will be spinning the tunes so you can show off your dance skills as well as your kitchen skills.

Beginners welcome throughout... fabulous outfits very welcome!
Plus, some Graveney Gin and Unwined will also be open for business - it's going to be a memorable night!


Other activities for all ages on Saturday at Mushkil Aasaan from 1pm to 5pm will include:

Celebrate reducing waste and having fun by displaying your Ugly Veg. Or as it's called in the USA: Produce with Personality.

Learn about urban beekeeping, taste SW12 and SW17 honey and get close to bees. Local beekeeper Richard is bringing a demonstration hive of live bees. He can chat about bees & honey - and about sources of info for planting and gardening to encourage bees and other pollinators.

Sprouted teff seed

Practice being a successful home farmer by sprouting seeds - easy and delicious. Fresh seeds sprouted at home only have to travel a few inches 'from plot to plate'. 
NO food miles!

Play our fun low carbon living games including exploring food's footprint and much more.


Get hands-on and creative with crafts linked to food and the Soup Disco - all ages can come and enjoy making.

In the garden...

Explore the local network of community gardens which can offer you fun, exercise, friendship, time outdoors in nature and a place to grow healthy local food.
Plus, you will pick up plenty of growing advice and encouragement to grow your own fresh food on window sill, a balcony or in a front garden.


Discuss the other local sustainability projects that Transition Tooting facilitates with many different partners, find out how to get involved - and we welcome your suggestions and new ideas.

All welcome to #Foodival2016!

Reduce, Re-use, ReSparkle! Our seasonal family crafts workshop with Tooting Library

On Saturday 12th December TTT offered our fourth annual Resparkle! seasonal crafts session at Tooting Library -  this time combined with Jeni Walker's monthly Meet & Make.

The aim was to teach children and adults how to make interesting, fun and attractive decorations or presents using household materials - newspaper, drinks cartons, scrap textiles.

Here's what we had on offer to make:

• drinks carton wallets
• newspaper present bags 
• textile and paper decorations
• paper flowers
• adding to the Library's collage Xmas tree
• and some children made up their own ideas...

All these activities are easy to repeat at home - for us it's all about mixing creativity and upcycling everyday waste.
And it's all about enjoyment and making things together. 

Some children did every single activity on offer, then went back for more..



The afternoon was delightful - a real mix of Tooting's cultures, with a lot of concentration and focus from three dozen young people. There were rewarding challenges working with new materials and techniques, and persisting with folding, cutting, punching and sticking to make beautiful things.



Most of the adults were making too - it was great to see the mix of generations and also whole families doing these engaging activities together.
There was a lot of achievement, pride and quiet celebration.

 



Thanks so much to the multi-tasking TTT volunteers who ran the day: Jane, Jeni, Hilary, Rachel & Chuck.
Thanks to Tooting Library - to Heather and Khalid for inviting us (and for helping to clear up at the end).

                

                                      
 More photos in this slideshow  

See you at December 2016 Resparkle!

Resparkle! plus Meet & Make: Free upcycled crafts activities in Tooting next weekend

Two long-running TTT crafts projects which mix creativity and attractive recycled materials are coming together on December 12th at Tooting Library.

Reduce, Re-use, Resparkle! has been offered with our partners Tooting Library at Christmas for the past four years.
Meet & Make is community artist Jeni Walker's monthly project for local upcycling and making.
On Dec 12th we are bringing them together for a free event.

Resparkle! is all about making fun Christmas presents or decorations out of recycled materials - do come along from 2-4 at Tooting Library on the 12th. All ages, all welcome, all materials provided.

The regular attendees (and others!) at Meet & Make are invited to come along too - make some great upcycled festive decorations and also get some inspiration and encouragement on any making project of your own. All artists and makers welcome.

Three inviting photos from last year's Resparkle! -

More Meet & Make news:
Our newly formed connection with local charity Wandsworth Oasis was knitted a little closer last month with the generous hosting of our monthly Meet & Make in their new shop near Amen Corner. 

Helen brought along the finished shopper trolley started at last months M&M, Jeni whipped up a couple of tiny aprons for her toddler art classes and Martin chatted at length about the possibilities and challenges of starting a social enterprise based on up cycled making.

 
Elsewhere in the TTT arts story the power of making saw many hands came together to put paint, paper and glue to the Giant Saxophone. The friendly yellow giant was witness to young mums with their children, Pilates teachers, Meet & Makers, local arts practitioners, people claiming that they 'aren't any good at this art stuff' another saying they 'literally hadn't made anything in years' all creating a very pleasing result both visually and in the sense of connecting together.

We have plenty more participatory making planned - please come and get involved, and also do share your ideas for new projects or community groups and partners to join up with. 
Contact us at transitiontowntooting@gmail.com

Tooting Field Days - Free Family fun - Starting Sunday 19 April

Tooting Field Days are local safaris based in and around Tooting; a chance to get outside and play, walk or make something. We can't promise lions and zebras but you might discover something you've never seen before, think something new or have a mini adventure!

Tooting Field Days will happen every month on a Sunday afternoon from April until September. The first Field Day is Sunday 19 April.

The theme for the April Field Day is "Natural Neighbours." Make a pine cone bird feeder, discover voices of Tooting past and do scavenger hunts in Streatham Cemetry. Drop in for part of the day or join us for the whole event.

2pm: Meet at Tooting Library (75 Mitcham Road, SW17 9PD) to make a pine cone bird feeder that you can hang in your garden or balcony to encourage more feathered friends to visit you. Materials provided.

3pm: Depart Tooting Library to do Tootingwalks 1, a specially-made audio walk packed full of music and the voices of local people, talking about Tooting past and present and Tooting’s love of food. MP3 players and maps provided.

3.45 - 5.30: Treasure Trails, Scavenger Hunts and honey tasting in Streatham Cemetery (enter through gate on Broadwater Road).

You can join us for the whole afternoon or drop in for just one section.

All activities are suitable (and fun) for children and adults.

Tooting Field Day is a collaboration between Transition Town Tooting and local arts organisation fanSHEN.

To book a (free) place or for more information, click here