News from the Red Tent
Much of the ‘dreaming’ done for the Wood Sisters comes from ‘The Bardic Babes’, also known as Sue, Sam and Ronnie. We meet fortnightly to explore inspirations for stories and recently also to find out how to create a red tent. As Sue wrote in her journal post of August 29th:
The tent could have many uses, but it would definitely be for story, meditation and discussion (or filling the collective wisdom pot as we tend to call it at Wood Sisters). In just over a year’s time, the Westcountry Storytelling Festival will take place near Exeter and Wood Sisters would like to inaugurate the red tent there, where it would be at times a women-only venue and at times an open venue.
Last week we met with Yurt maker Tobias Fairlove, who introduced us to a Northern Iranian tent called an alachig… and it was love! Similar to a yurt (but less costly in both time and money to create) an alachig looks to be able to provide us with a beautiful sanctuary space for 20-30 women, sitting in the round with light shining down from a wheel shaped window above and warmth provided by a (red!) wood burner.
So plans are now afoot to invite our Wood Sisters to join us for some wild time in the woods cutting poles with Toby, followed by workshops at the Vicarage to steam and bend the poles and create the wheel. Meanwhile the red canvas cover and groundsheet will be created by local, women tent makers D&K Covers.
To enable this sacred red vision to become a reality, we are aiming to raise £2,000+ at our Imbolc celebration, through our Wood Sisters Winter Storytelling Festival on Friday 3rd and Saturday 4th February. More of this in our next post! Meanwhile, here are a couple of pictures of a beautifully felted Alachig, created by Steve Place and Anne Belgrave. You can find more details and pictures on Steve’s website at steveplace@yurts.fsnet.co.uk
