Natalie Wastnidge of the Giant Clootie Project in the Black Isle tells us how a 'Together Again' microgrant from Creative Lives helped bring people together to share stories and take part in creative workshops inspired by clootie wells.

"The Giant Clootie Project is a slow burner community art project that aims to bring people and their stories together using fabric as the primary medium, with imagery inspired by themes of regeneration, renewal, re-use and community action.

It aims to amass imagery from the community over time, with which to create a giant clootie. The inspiration for the project comes from the tradition of the clootie wells, and in keeping with the projects’ ethos of reuse, all fabric has been sourced through donations from individuals and local businesses.

To date the project has run 8 free workshops thanks to the ‘Together Again’ microgrant: 4 lino block printing work-shops, 2 collaborative print workshops as part of the Black Isle Repair Café events, and 2 fabric collage workshops were delivered at the Cromarty Youth Café.

I continue to gather work from participants for the Giant Clootie which gives people a chance to be part of a large art piece that, once complete, will be made up of many individual parts that depict peoples’ ideas about renewal, regeneration, reuse, rebirth and the climate emergency.

It has been fantastic to be in a space with a group creating again and the project has led to me being invited to run other workshops in the area which has been wonderful!

Big thanks to Creative Lives for dedicating this support to artists and communities enabling us to deliver these free experiences. These are vital in supporting peoples’ community resilience and help to create positive spaces where mental health can be improved and folk can be together!"