I have put together a short-ish experiment in podcasting. It’s about 21 minutes long and contains many of the things you would expect from a Felix DIY audio production; accordion music, many field recordings, a folk song plus a collection of reflections and anecdotes about textiles, knitting, and various places. This is the first of what I hope will be a sporadic series entitled ‘The Wandering Maker’ and I would really appreciate any feedback on it so far. The idea was to create a sort of sonic mood-board including sounds, information and images from the places that inspire me to design knitwear or think a little differently about clothes.

All the sound recordings on this podcast were made by me, at or around the locations described in the podcast.

You can download the podcast as an mp3; the link is at the bottom of the page.

Here are the shownotes:

Singing Alpacas – I only have a very few small clips of alpacas singing on this podcast and there is a lot of farm sweeping going on at the same time, so they are hard to hear. However if you wish to hear more alpaca singing, you can check out this webpage at Gentle Spirit Llamas which talks about all the different sounds made by alpacas!

Vauxhall City Farm

Managed by Tom Davies who recently starred in the Stitch’n’Ditch trailer, this city farm is a great place to see coloured Wensleydales and singing alpacas. Tom Davies also worked at Mudchute Farm, where he bred up a fantastic flock of Whitefaced Woodland sheep, and Oxford Downs. These rare breed sheep are guarded by some very solemn-looking Llamas and graze in the shadow of Canary Wharf. There is a fantastic cafe where you can buy the most delicious handmade fare in London!

Whitefaced Woodland and Oxford Down sheep grazing at Mudchute Farm.

Julia Desch who talks briefly in the podcast about the Vauxhall City Spinners, can be found at her website Wool Craft with Wensleydale and the Vauxhall Spinners can be reached through Vauxhall City Farm via this page. The wheel of handspun samples discussed in the podcast can be seen in The Wool Room at Julia’s farm, in East Sussex.

The map that I talk about in the podcast is the one by Braun and Hogenburg, which is held here.

The day in London I mention during which sheep are allowed to be driven across London Bridge is London Bridge Festival. This event harks back to a tradition whereby – for the advantage of trade – some men (entitled ‘Free Men’) were given various privileges, including the right to drive sheep across London Bridge without paying a toll. I am slightly unclear about whether or not members of the still existing Guild of Freemen are allowed to legally drive sheep over London Bridge, but the best description of the tradition that I have been able to glean from the Internet is here on the Ian Visits blog.

There are some fantastic images of this day as it is currently remembered in celebrations here.

Articles on the Mudlarks Button collection:

http://news.aol.com/article/thames-mudlark-button-collection/585978
http://www.britarch.ac.uk/news/090722-buttons
http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/English/AboutUs/Newsroom/Buttons+Bonanza.htm

Mark Dion’s work, Thames Dig was on show at TATE Modern for a while; I’m not sure where/if that work is currently on display to the public, however you can read about it here on the TATE Modern website. There is also a very interesting flash animation about the project on the TATE Modern website here.

Richard Long’s official website gives a really great sense of how he presents his walks in text and photographic format. You can see this here, and read about the TATE Britain show here.

The Knitting Goddess has details on her website of the skeins she specially dyed and wound for her time on the Fourth Plinth. Here is a link to the Sock Blanket set that she made, which displays the lovely colours of the London Underground lines that she developed; and here is a link to her page about her stay on The Fourth Plinth.

Additionally, you can read about Alain Bertau’s really cool coathangers here, on Simon’s Blog – Keep Left – relating to The London Design Museum. I left a comment asking about the hangers, and it seems they might be available in the London Design Museum shop soon. The original idea for the design is really interesting and you can read about that here.

These are the Plane Trees in Hyde Park; in the Wikipedia article on these trees, it says that a fabric dye has been made from twigs and roots.

This is the library at the Treehouse Gallery which was in Regent’s Park until quite recently.

The folk song at the end of the podcast is a version of a folk song published in Cecil J Sharp’s collection.

Thanks very much for listening to The Wandering Maker and I hope you found it interesting to take a walk with me! Please leave any feedback; I want to develop a series out of this idea and would appreciate any thoughts on how I could make it better.