Naturally Useful Outdoor Classroom

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/funds/creative-scotland-crowdmatch 

Our project is part of the 2023 Creative Scotland Crowdmatch
competition. Creative Scotland will match individual pledges from the
crowd up to £10,000. So if you donate £20 to our cause, your donation
will be matched with a £20 pledge from Creative Scotland, effectively
doubling your donation!

Who are we?

At Naturally Useful, we make useful and beautiful products from willow, wool, plant dyes and wood. All our materials are either grown by us or locally sourced. 

We teach hand crafts, using traditional skills that transform these natural materials into products that last.

‘I believe that the good medicine of making is the birth right of us all. As my hands get older, I get great joy from passing these ways onto new hands.’  Karen Collins  

Making with natural materials can be profoundly transformative. Head ,hands and heart are brought together through the act of making. It's a grounding activity that can put us in the present and engender a sense of peace and tranquility.    

https://www.naturallyuseful.co.uk/

We believe that the act of making should be accessible to all. Being engaged in tactile, purposeful, creative activities and connecting with nature is proven to benefit mental health and well being.

• Thanks to everyone who supported our previous Crowdfunder project, we have successfully bought our willow field.

• The next step in our journey is to offer basket making, gardening and traditional textile skills - like felting, natural dyes and eco printing- to all on the field through our health and wellbeing project.

“I can’t thank you enough. It’s been an amazing week and I’ve learnt loads. I can’t wait to introduce Mr Fox to everyone at home.” Said Rachel Kirk who spent a week learning sculptural skills in willow.

Why are we crowdfunding?. 

• We need your help to make our dream of accessible, affordable crafts and gardening opportunities for all- a reality. Our local area has many people who are keen to come and learn from us. We are liaising and setting up the Health and Wellbeing project for local organisations like Leanchoil Trust, https://www.leanchoiltrust.org/ Wide Horizons, https://www.socialenterprise.academy/scot/over-16s  and the Job Centre. 
• We want to offer our project to those who are long term unemployed, veterans, those who have additional support needs and those who will come to us through green social prescriptions to support their health and wellbeing.
• The plan is to make an outdoor classroom to house workshops for our local community when there's bad weather. The groups will be between 5 and 8 people at a time, who will spend half of their day gardening and half of it crafting.

• Currently the existing workspace - the lovely pole barn which we rent (above photo) - is too small to be home for our new health and wellbeing project as well as meeting the existing needs for current students and makers. We regularly fill the barn with our various ongoing jobs; making coffins, felted shrouds and rugs, bespoke commissions, fulfilling on-line orders, teaching bespoke course students, and many other things besides.

The outdoor classroom will look a little bit like this:

How we’ll spend the money raised

The money you donate will help us to buy the locally sourced wood (Larch tree trunks and cladding), hard core for the floor, materials for a turf roof and sundries like screws and guttering to build an eco outdoor classroom. 

If we raise more than enough for the materials needed, then together we will fund the builder's wages and if there is even more, then we would spend it on the making of wheelchair accessable paths across our rough grassy ground.

The outdoor classroom will have open walls towards the south, woven willow walls in some places and one wall will be created by a shed on the side which will safely house the tools needed for the workshops. 

It will have upcycled tables and chairs for 6 to 8 people and a sink and cooking area especially for processing plant dyes from the field.

“Karen's second workshop week was keenly anticipated by locals and over 100 people attended.  Her skill at being able to adapt to all abilities meant everyone took something away regardless of talent or age.  Others have taken the challenge to further their skills by attending workshops with Naturally Useful”. Said Kate from Boat of Garten Wildlife Group.

Reward - a selection of 3 botanically printed cards.

Reward - willow bird art

Reward - willow field tour

Reward - natural dye garden tour

https://www.naturallyuseful.co.uk/general-course-information

Reward - Bespoke half day course - here are some examples of what you could choose to learn in just half a day.

Rewards - here's what some of our students have achieved during bespoke courses.

Thank you everyone for your generous help. It's going to be so appreciated by everyone who will be able to come to us thanks to having new workshop space in the outdoor classroom for our health and wellbeing project.

A huge thank you goes to Creative Scotland. We are extremely lucky to have been chosen to recieve match funding for our project which is the cream, cherry and sprinkles on top of this lovely cake.