The Remakery:Frome Project is thanking everyone who voted for them this time last year in the ITV People’s Projects.
Lisa Hawes of Remakery: Frome says, “It’s been wonderful to put the funding to good use and it is hoped that the effects will last long into the future. It has been wonderful to see all kinds of different people coming together to experience such a wide range of creative activities and connect over the simple pleasure of doing something with our hands. We can already see how people are taking both the skills they’ve learned and the connections they have made forward in their lives. Here’s what The Remakery have done so far:
Frome Women’s Shed: Launched the Frome Women’s Shed, which is now a thriving weekly group every Monday morning. Shedders have been making such things as fiddle aprons for dementia sufferers, bird box kits that they helped children to construct on an activity day, and beautiful quilts for vulnerable new babies in hospital. Every session, people use a variety of skills, and work on their own projects as well as on the group ones. The Frome Men’s and Women’s Sheds have grown so much in the last year that they have now secured their own ‘Shedquarters’ on the ground floor of the Welsh Mill and hope to move in soon.
Pictured top right: Shedders Sandi, Sam, Julia, and Helen are pictured here painting their new home, with help from Edventure student Felix. Ros Whitehouse, chair of the Women’s Shed says, “The Women’s Shed has been an inspiring exercise. Lots of people have met each other, discovered new things to do, and are learning a nice mix of new skills – serious woodwork is going on as well as some serious sewing!”
SHARE Repair Cafes: SHARE – A Library of Things have been able to run popular monthly repair cafes. Since gaining the funding they’ve fixed over 200 items, saving a total of 400kg from going to landfill and in the process saving people over £9,000 had they gone and bought replacements. SHARE do repair small items in the shop when members bring them in, but being able to run a regular repair cafe has meant they’ve been able to fix many more items and have a fantastic community event at the same time. Pictured bottom right are their wonderful volunteers Bruno and Luke working their magic on Zosia’s broken karaoke player and then a happy Zosia was ready to take it home, all fixed and ready for a sing-a-long. SHARE’s next Repair Cafe is on May 12th between 3pm and 5pm at Remakery: Frome. There will be tea and nibbles and community and a whole lotta fixing going on.
Free “Exploring Creativity” Days: During the Easter holidays, hundreds of local people of all ages have attended the free Exploring Creativity days at Remakery: Frome and tried their hands at wide variety of different skills, from willow weaving to film-making; from sewing to paper electronics and inventing musical instruments out of fruit! Aimee, aged 8 says, “I can’t believe how awesome it was, you can use almost any object to make a sound!” Jacob, aged 10 says “I made a banana sound like a trumpet! What else is there to say?!” The Experimental Film Day hosted by Frome Film Farm, was bustling! One of the founders, James Holcombe (pictured here on the projector) says, “It was so great to run the first ever Frome Film Farm event in the Remakery. We had an incredibly busy day and people made a 200ft film. Everyone said they had never seen or done anything like this before and at least two came away looking for old projectors on eBay to continue making films by hand!’
Edventure MAKE Courses: Edventure were able to run two MAKE courses – where young adults spend 3 weeks working as a team. Both teams started in the woods where they felled their own tree, then brought it back to Remakery: Frome and learned how to design, make and sell products from green wood to sell at the Frome Independent Market. MAKE is all about making ideas real and covers every aspect of starting a making business from market research and branding to selling the final product. Elizabeth Alstrom (pictured right at the market, in the middle with Sarah and Jamie) was part of the most recent MAKE team. She says, “At times it was challenging, both physically and emotionally. To do so much in such a short space of time required graft and focus, but we did it! Seeing everything come together for the Frome Independent Market was such a special experience. I felt an overwhelming sense of pride in what we had achieved as a team in such a short space of time. I have definitely learnt some new skills that I’m keen to take away and develop further in my own time.I would recommend the MAKE course to anyone who is at a crossroads in life, anyone seeking the opportunity to learn and grow and feel part of community”. Pictured below middle are the most recent MAKE team, woodworking in the Remakery, from left to right, Elizabeth, Cassie, Jamie, Levi, Sarah, Harry (greenwoodworker), George, and Leah. Edventure have just opened applications for a further MAKE course, running from 11th November up to the Christmas Frome Independent Market – edventurefrome. org/courses
OpenStoryTellers: Openstorytellers is a charity that works to enrich and empower the lives of people who have learning disabilities and autism, based at the HUBNub. We absolutely loved having them in the Remakery creating garden furniture for their new sensory garden. Jade from Open Story Tellers says, “Thanks for all your help with the benches, they are looking brilliant.”
The Remakey: Frome Project was the winner in 2018’s ITV People’s Projects thanks to public votes.
