Fantasy Fish Swim into Rowntree Park, York

A clue to where you can find the Fantasy Fish (& more Fantasy Fish here too, of course)

   
I was hoping for a dry day as I loaded up the car yesterday and headed for Rowntree Park, York where we were installing our Fantasy Fish Yarnstorm.

All packed up & ready to go

On arrival, I called in at the RP Reading Cafe to let Emma and the crew know what we were doing and found a delivery of #fantasyfish #fishfromafar - all the way from Cambridge! Thanks Lisa, they're lovely.  
 

Thanks to Lisa for these fish from Cambridge

Next we set up base camp, deciding to start on the tennis court fence.

Base Camp

We made a start with the big fish and the writing ...

Excellent progress & Deborah takes a well earned coffee break

I was wearing my fish necklace that Heather Chalkley (another textile artist) had made for me - isn't it fab!

Coffee from RP Cafe, fish necklace from Heather

Time to switch to some little fish - follow the arrow!

After a while we started hanging the little fish too.  And then we had a final delivery of fish from Dev to #increasetheshoal  ...

Final delivery arrived just as we were stringing up the fish - thanks Dev!

Deborah gets to work

There was quite a shoal which took up more space than we had thought it would ...

Not just fish, there were other creatures too ...

Today's catch surrounded by jellyfish

We finally finished at 7.15pm by which time my camera had run out of juice so I had to wait till today to snap a pic of the whole installation ...

Already it's proving to be a photo opportunity ...

and popular with families ...

and there's quite a big sign!

     
In case you're wondering what it's all about you can take a look here.  And that's not the end of it - the installation is up until after the Rowntree Park Birthday Party on Sunday 17 July.  Then we will take it down and sell the fish to fundraise for the York Flood Appeal - the fish sale dates are: 

Saturday 27 August 2016
Friday 2 September 2016

You will find our fish stall in or near the cafe from 10am to 3pm.  Come & buy fish!

If you have loved seeing the Fantasy Fish Installation and would like to support the York Flood Appeal directly with a donation, click here and please mention Fantasy Fish in the message box.  Our fundraising success depends on you - we can only succeed together.
 
Deborah New & I would like to say thank you to everyone, near & far, who have made fish, other creatures, pompoms or finger knitting for this project, the venues where we have held our workshops - The Winning Post, The Golden Ball, RP Reading Cafe,  City of York Council for permission to go ahead, Rowntree Park Tennis Club for letting us use their fence (again!) and to our sponsor - the Friends of Rowntree Park and the other businesses (*) who have supported us through donations of supplies/materials. Thank you all!
 
So do go and take a look!

* The Fantasy Fish Project is sponsored by the Friends of Rowntree Park and has been supported by Hobbycraft, York, Knit & Stitch, York and York School of Sewing.

Fantasy Fish get ready for a Fishstorm

Piles of fantasy fish!

     
It's official - we now have piles of #fantasyfish.  People have managed to #increasetheshoal to over 500!  Here are some of the fish that have swum in recently to join the #fishstorm yarnstorm.
 

Chris's fab five

Carol C's shoal

 

Naomi's jellyfish

 

Sarah & Catherine's cool contribution

Some great fish from an unknown maker or makers

  

Carol W's fish - knitted, stitched and felted!

More from Natalie & Gillian

An embellished fantasy fish from an unknown maker

Suzanne's cute crochet

A shoal of jumper fish

Christine's super crochet & felt creatures

As a result of the arrival of all these fab fantasy fish I've been in Rowntree Park doing a bit of test hanging ...

Just trying to work it all out ...

 

Part of the shoal...

The Fantasy Fish Yarnstorm goes up on Monday 27 June 2016, weather permitting - keep a look out ...


The Fantasy Fish Project is sponsored by the Friends of Rowntree Park and has been supported by Hobbycraft, York, Knit & Stitch, York and York School of Sewing.

Something fishy's going on at Fairfax Court!

The Fairfax Court Yarnstomers - Jose, Edna, Jean & Doreen (not pictured) & their Fantasy Fish

  

This week I went to visit the Fairfax Court Yarnstormers who over the last few years have been fantastic at supporting our yarnstorming projects.  I knew they had been knitting fish as I went to tell them all about the Fantasy Fish Yarnstorm earlier this year and they were keen to join in.  However I had no idea how many fish they would knit...

Piles of fantasy fish

It was amazing.  When I arrived, I was met by piles of #fantasyfish - more than I could have imagined!  Jose told me how good the project had been for using up all her bits of yarn and (top tip) if you used two yarns together you got a rather nice mottled effect. 

and here's the shoal!

It did take a while to lay them all out!

The Fairfax Court Yarnstormers have done it again!  More than 130 fish have swum along to #increasetheshoal. Thank you so much Jose, Edna, Jean & Doreen!

Lasting Impressions in the Spinning Room at Salts Mill, Saltaire

One of my recent trips was to the Saltaire Arts Trail where I visited The Spinning Room at Salts Mill.  Textile artists, Hannah Lamb & Claire Wellesley-Smith were there encouraging us to leave imprints of our clothing on small porcelain tiles and in doing so to consider the value of cloth and clothing.

Porcelain tiles

Every participant was given a porcelain tile and a numbered tag.  You left an imprint of your clothing by pressing it into the tile and numbering it to match your tag number.

My tile with an imprint of my cardigan

Then, on the tag, you gave some info about what garment it was, where it was made, what from, how long you'd had it and why you liked it.

Information tag

The tags were then hung up so you could read what people had said about their garments.  It was interesting to read through them.  Some people's clothing was special because of comfort and familiarity, practicality, where it had been bought, who had made it, or from remembering happy times when wearing it - a "material" representation of memory and experience.

Everyone's information tags

The tiles were stored in drawers until they could be taken away to be fired.

Imprinted porcelain tiles

As a reward for taking part, you could have a gold or silver stitch made on your clothing - one lasting impression in return for another.  Thanks to Hannah for my silver stitch!

Silver stitch on my cardigan - another lasting impression!

I am looking forward to hearing more about this project and where it is going next.  I'm sure we'll be hearing more about it soon.