27th Sept & 4th October

Clare and I spent a very happy evening working with Beavers, Cubs and then Scouts and their leaders at different points during the evening. We ‘shook rattled and rolled’ recycled plastic bottles and drinks containers containing 50:50 shredded paper water mix from the Vindolanda Trust until the fibres broke down into a sticky paste. We danced to music and had fun! The paste was then sieved through cotton into a tray and a sponge used to compress the fibres and remove excess water. Paper was then stacked between pieces of reused kitchen roll and boards to remain flat and safe until I could hang them up to dry in my studio. Once they were dry I halved them and pressed them flat so they were ready for use the following week.

I was back for more a week later with the dry cards. The participants were surprised at how thick the card was and the final finish, all ready for writing. Barbara Birley led a short session on the Vindolanda tablets and handling digitally printed artefacts of finds from the site. Items such as tent pegs and a child’s wooden sword, wooden shoes from the bath house and even half a toilet seat! The printing method meant that you could really feel the lines of the writing on the replica writing tablet.
I put together a series for suggestions of topics that today’s Frontier Voices might like to think about and everyone wrote or drew at least one postcard. The Frontier Voices tablets included shopping lists, party invitations, text messages, local news, how people were spending their time and even imagining themselves alive in Roman times.

I now have to assemble a structure that suggests a piece of building structure so, the tablets can become ‘stones’ in our Wall structure. Watch out for some pictures!