News

Our new workshop at the Arts Centre in Ōtautahi Christchurch

We are VERY happy to let you know that we are soon moving into the The Arts Centre in Ōtautahi Christchurch where we'll set up a Resourceful Skills workshop there. We are grateful to have the support of the Arts Centre and Life in Vacant Spaces to provide our Resourceful Ōtautahi workshops in the city centre. We’re looking forward to opening our doors from Monday June 11th 2018.

So a large bunch of new Resourceful Skills workshops at the Arts Centre have just gone up on our website. We’ll also be continuing to offer workshops out in the woods Lincoln University too.

Excited to have greenwood-working happening in the city and in the woods.

Peterborough Workshops paused until winter site confirmed

Hi folks!
Sadly we’ve had to press pause temporarily on running our workshops at Peterborough Street until we have found a good solution for wintering over (ie. working indoors), as the weather has been working against us.
We will have news in the second week of May re a new inner city site - exciting! Look forward to sharing this with you and to weaving & whittling with you again soon!

Our first Journal of Resourcefulness!

Limited edition of 100.

Published by Rekindle, with Editor Emma Johnson (of Freerange Press fame), Designer Cameron Ralston, with assistance of Gary Parker and the Ferrymead Printing Society. The cover was typeset on Leo Bensemann’s Diadem platen press.

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We are waste-creating creatures by nature – we are part of ecosystems that rely on the degradation of waste for health. Yet our current rate of resource disposal is far beyond healthy, and this inculpates our consumption habits.

 In response to this growing problem, Rekindle’s new Journal of Resourcefulness series explores and celebrates resourcefulness as a vital frame of reference for addressing waste, wellbeing and planetary health.

Resourcefulness, or making what we need from what we have, involves a mutually beneficial, healthy relationship between earth and our species. The first edition of the Journal of Resourcefulness explores three main areas and the major projects aligned with Rekindle’s journey towards resourcefulness: waste and reuse, design as a solution, and resourcefulness itself. 

Rekindle is not alone on the journey, and this publication accordingly celebrates the work of a number of experts in this sphere. Among others, Matthew Luxon discusses solutions to waste and the economics behind these, Clare Brass looks at her work at the Royal College of Art London and demonstrates how it is possible to design with values, while Objectspace's own Kim Paton examines the role of craft in relation to consumer choice, and Dr Benita Wakefield describes the potency of mātauranga Māori in care for the earth. The journal brings together educators, environmental scientists, academics and industrial designers to consider resourcefulness from a number of view points.

The limited edition physical journal is unique - it has been printed on waste paper using a combination of digital and hand-printed elements. There is also an online digital document that people can view, print out (on waste paper) and assemble at home. 

The Journal of Resourcefulness is being launched to coincide with opening of Rekindle's Resource: Rise Again project opening in Objectspace's foyer gallery on March 2nd.

Inspiration for work on resourcefulness - Article on the Orkney Chair

Thanks to Dr Amy Twigger-Holroyd et al for this wonderful article - Wrestling with Tradition: Revitalising the Orkney Chair and Other Culturally Significant Crafts, 2017 in Design & Culture. This article refers to my amateur first attempt at an Orkney Chair and to the more recent stunning work by Gareth Neal & Kevin Gauld which I saw in 2014 at the New Craftsmen in London. 

The article is available to read in full here. This article sparked memories of the making of this chair...

In 2004 I saw my first Orkney chair at Kettles Yard and soon after I decided to drive from Norfolk where I was living, to the Orkney Isles to find out about this tradition. I didn’t have a plan, thought I could just head up there and find out.

And so I worked as a woofer at to Wheems  Farm with Christina & Mike. Then when I could I headed to the Corrigall Farm Museum and learned about the history of black oat straw and how extraordinary it’s multiplicity of uses was.

The volunteer at the museum suggested a give Harry Flett a call as he knew most about this, but as I drove off from the museum I saw some straw in stooks in a field and two older gentleman stacking it on their trailer.

I wandered out into the field and explained why I was there. They, Harry Flett & his friend, were completely un-phased by my random pilgrimage and set about helping me walk all about the field to select the best stooks for my first Orkney chair. He suggested I went and talked with Jackie Miller, one of the chair makers, and I did. I had a lovely few hours with Jackie & Marlene of Scapa Crafts and learnt much just by watching and talking. Then I headed to Marwick bay to harvest driftwood as was the tradition of years before when milled timber was scarce. With the oat straw & driftwood in the car I headed back to my studio in Norwich and spent a couple of weeks making my first chair. This chair & it’s origin and all of the resourcefulness inherent in this tradition are a huge part of why my work now focuses on resourcefulness i.e. making what we need from what we have.

 

- JA

 

 

Whole House Reuse wins best paper!

What wonderful news! The academic review of the impacts of Whole House Reuse written by Dr Atiq Zaman with support from Kate McIntyre & Juliet Arnott has won best paper at the ICSED 2017: 19th International Conference on Sustainable Environmental Development, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, December 11 - 12, 2017! This paper will be published in our first Journal of Resourcefulness being launched on March 2nd 2018 at Objectspace in Auckland. There will also be a launch on 6th March at The Arts Centre in Christchurch. So keep those dates in your diary...

Pop-up workshop on Peterborough Street open for 2018!

Happy new year!

Want to come and learn to make things from tī kōuka/cabbage tree leaves? Free sessions begin again this week on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 12-4pm in our Pop-Up container workshop at 100 Peterborough Street, opposite the Peterborough Street Library. 
Bring your sunscreen & water, and don't wear your best clothes! Suitable for all ages. 

Thanks to Christchurch City Council and their Enliven Places Programme, and to Life in Vacant Spaces for making this possible.

Free Resourceful Skills Workshops at our Pop-Up Workshop 100 Peterborough Street

Delighted to be open again at our Resourceful Ōtautahi Pop-Up Workshop at 100 Peterborough Street, opposite the Peterborough Street Library, central Christchurch city. 

We will be there offering free workshops on Mondays, Tuesdays & Wednesdays from 12 to 4pm. And other session times are available for booking by groups. These workshops compliment the other workshops we offer at Ferrymead Heritage Park, there are more details here about those.

These workshops give you the opportunity to come and spend time in the central city, learning skills that put undervalued natural resources into use. You can learn to make string and weave with tī kōuka or cabbage tree leaves, or carve a peg from a stick, or even once you're practiced your whittling skills you could carve a spoon, and build up to make some larger objects. We will support you to safely and successfully learn new resourceful skills.

These workshops have been wonderfully supported by Christchurch City Council, TreeTech, Mackleys, Containers & More, Four Seasons Tree Care, and Life in Vacant Spaces.

We could not be more grateful to the Christchurch City Council for enabling these resourceful experiences in our city.

Rekindle's journey towards Resourcefulness in 6 minutes & 40 seconds

On September 26th 2017, Pecha Kucha Christchurch ran their largest night yet to coincide with the Social Enterprise World Forum in Christchurch. Rekindle's Founder Juliet Arnott was invited to share her journey. This is the first time Juliet had publicly spoken about her journey towards resourcefulness.

Rekindle at Social Enterprise World Forum

From 27-29th September 2017 the Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF) is coming to Ōtautahi Christchurch. This will be a wonderful few days.

Rekindle is involved in the Forum in the following ways:

1. Pecha Kucha: Juliet Arnott, Founder & Director of Rekindle is speaking about resourcefulness and her 'why' at Purpose - Pecha Kucha on Tuesday 26th September 2017 
2. Kahikatea Taonga: We have been commissioned to carve a taonga from local Kahikatea (we saved this precious wood from becoming wood-chip when it was being cut down in the Canterbury University grounds). This taonga will be gifted to SEWF at the closing ceremony and will travel with the forum to each host country from now on.
3. Visit Rekindle Resourceful Skills Pop-up Workshop: We are running open sessions from 11.30 to 1.30pm each day from Monday 25th to Friday 29th September 2017 at our Resourceful Skills Pop-up Workshop in the central city at 100 Peterborough Street. This is your chance to drop in and see resourceful crafts being practiced e.g. Hazel being made into clothes pegs, string & rope being made from Tī Kōuka leaves, and greenwood-working. We'll also have some of our wares for sale. 
4. At the Forum: Juliet Arnott speaking in the Enterprise of Waste Minimisation session at SEWF on Friday 29th September 2017 from 10.30am to 12.00pm 
5. Open Evening: Visit our workshop at Ferrymead Heritage Park on Saturday 30th September from 4 to 6pm and at 4.30pm hear about our work and see resourceful skills being practiced. Please book your place by sending an email to emma@rekindle.org.nz

Our new workshop premises at Ferrymead Heritage Park