Crafting and creating in Brum?

Last weekend, two friends and I went to the UK’s largest creative crafts event at the NEC and spent a small fortune of crafty items.  Over lunch, we were discussing crafting in Birmingham and how we hadn’t seen any Birmingham based companies (but a lot from Worcester).  We were a little disappointed by this, and I hoped it was because none had been invited or that the craft shops in Brum are too small to be able to give up trading for the day.  In any case, crafting in Brum seemed to be something my friends and I want to do, but can’t seem to find out how.

I’m really hoping that with the help of the wonderful, wonderful people on the internet might be able to help.  I want to try and find out more crafty things to do.  I’m not talking a 30 week fine-art level sculpture course, although I wouldn’t mind, but more the down to earth crafts – knitting, sewing, jewellery making with beads, crocheting, quilting, tatting and anything else anyone knows about.  I’m not sure whether I’m including food in this quest, but baking certainly seems an option.  The more informal, the better.  Oh and I don’t mind Sutton Coldfield or Solihull either, they’re not Brum, but if I can get there on a bus, they’ll count.

Once I know more about crafting class and the like, I’m hoping to go to as many as I can over the year and blog about it.  Really it’s just that I like to craft and would like to be able to learn more.  I’ve been describing it to friends as “creating in Brum”, somewhat plagiarising the wonderful Created in Birmingham website’s name.  But hopefully you get the idea.

Things I already know about

1. The Birmingham Bead Shop – including Bead Club and the bead workshops run there.
2. Creative Open Workshops.
3. Stitches and Ho’s at the Hare and Hounds, Kings Heath.
4. A Crafty Beer at The Victoria, Birmingham city centre.
5. Loaf, based out of Cotteridge, Birmingham.
6. The Bead Loft, Jewellry Quarter, Birmingham.

If you know of anything that I really ought to know about, please comment on the blog, tweet me (@lauracreaven) or email me laura [dot] creaven [at] gmail [dot] com.  I’m really keen to hear about everything and anything.

Things to do in Birmingham: bake bread

Stash for bread from the course

Where: Loaf HQ, Cotteridge

When: day course, check the available courses here

Cost: £75 (free for me as it was a Birthday present)

What: See, taste, feel and understand bread in a way you’ve never before.  Seriously.

A day course on the basics of bread; what goes into it (very little), what mass produced bread contains (lots of nasties) and how to make your own.  And by how to make your own, I mean how to make a lot of bread in a relatively short space of time.   We made loaves, buns, batons, ciabatta, wholemeal bread, white bread, glimpsed the wonders of sourdough, pizza and fougasse all in one day.  Oh, and went home with the dough for brioche, to be cooked the next day.

Making bread at home

Would I go again? Without a doubt.  The course was fascinating, not only to see the ease of making your own bread, but also the magic of it.  Call me silly, but to see flour, water, yeast and salt transform into dough and then left for a couple of hours double in size, is fairly amazing.

The course is paced well, with enough time to make a mountain of bread, but also to chat to the others on the course, eat freshly made brioche for elevenses, cook and make pizza for lunch and ask questions.  And we did ask a lot of questions; from where to get the flour to what liquids to use and whether breadmakers are a good idea (yes and no).

In fact, I enjoyed the course so much that three days later I’ve had a go at making my own bread from the booklet provided. What’cha think?

Things to do in Birmingham: Debate at the Birmingham Salon

Where: The Studio, Cannon St, Birmingham
When: monthly (I visited Tuesday 9 March)
Cost: £5

What: A group of people felt Birmingham suffered from a lack of debate and so the Birmingham Salon was set up to allow people to watch a debate and follow it up with discussion.

February’s topic was appropriately titled ‘Whose election is it anyway?’ with guest speakers Dolan Cummings from the Institute of Ideas and Peter Kerr, senior lecture in politics at the University of Birmingham.  Both speakers talked about a broken political system.

Dolan Cummings discussed the general malaise of the general public, who felt divorced from the political system and the conflict over whether MPs should be viewed as “one of us” or whether this downgraded them and they should be viewed as leaders.  His solution was to reignite politics in a way that inspires the public and becomes what they want.  He suggested a 21 topics which needed discussing, but were currently being ignored.

Peter Kerr believed that to most people there was no difference between the political parties, with the major parties more interested in the cult of celebrity and battling over who could do less and shirk responsibility.  He pointed to membership numbers of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds having more members than the Conservative party.

The audience, it seemed, myself included, believed that the general public were still involved in politics, but couldn’t find a place in the current system.  People spoke about the wider world, with reference to the recent Iraqi elections and the popularity of pressure groups on social networking sites and community groups.

Go back? Absolutely.  It was nice to finally see a place that allowed for people to discuss current affairs and challenge the ideas of themselves and others.  The organisers were friendly and accommodating of new people.

The next discussion is ‘Mr Science and Mr Democracy:
the pursuit of modernity in China’ on Wednesday 21 April at The Studio.  For more information, visit the Birmingham Salon website.

Why high street bookstores deserve to die

On Saturday I tried to buy the second book in a series where by the first one has just been made into a film whose opening night was two nights before. This should have been easy. After all, it’s a successful series in its own right, opening night was a few nights ago, all major bookshops would shift over their Twilight collections to make a bit of room for the now-a-major-motion-picture tie-ins and related books in the series.

Except they didn’t. Two of the, admittedly the same chain, stores did not have a copy of the second book in at all. One of the stores admitted they’d sold two that day and had 16 on order “which should take about a week”. For a book which follows on from a huge film aimed at 9+ year olds, which has just been released a few days before the half term holidays.

So, the two stores have failed to order in enough, if any books, of a huge series which is bound to get more attention as people see the films. But it’s okay, it’s not like anyone will go anywhere else for books, like, say Amazon. Oh wait.

Fair enough, it could be that so many people had seen it that they’d sold a rush of them that day. But two is hardly a rush. And what is worrying is a huge national chain takes a week to deliver 16 books. Independent bookstores can usually, if the publisher has the books in stock, get a book within 24 hours. I know, because a friend is an ex-indie bookseller and regularly did this. In fact, she looked up, on Bertram Books, the availability of the book I tried to buy on Saturday, and surprise surprise, there were plenty that could’ve been bought for bookstores.

Surely bookstores, and music shops for that matter, can beat the online retailers at one factor every time; immediacy. I’ll buy from Amazon if I know what book I want and I’m happy to wait. But if there’s a book I want asap and it’s an obvious book, like the sequel to a major film just released, I expect the bookstore to have it. I suspect a lot of people wanting fairly mainstream books want and expect the book to be there.

Or they’ll either forget about it or go to Amazon et al and get the book for half price.

So why do high street bookstores deserve to die? Because they are stuck in the past. They haven’t truly embraced or understood the digital age and moved with it. I don’t want them to sell me an e-book or e-reader, I want them to sell me the tie in with the latest films, the book some TV star has recommended or radio 4′s book of the week. I want them to do away with a centralised ordering system if it slows them down and means they can’t even get the most basic of bookselling right because of it. I don’t expect them to rival the huge warehouses of online booksellers, but I want them to recognise this and play it to their advantage, whilst at least having a reasonable selection and the latest, most well known books in. I want them to pretend like they know what they’re doing.

Incidentally, the book I wanted was given away free with the Times today. So I’ve a copy of Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters to read after I’ve read the first one. So no one got my money for that book, but they could’ve on Saturday.

EDIT: So, according to an article in a magazine I read recently (it could’ve been the Bookseller, I’m not sure), they’ve changed their ordering systems amidst complaints it was clunky and didn’t give room for local tastes.  Which has to be a much better thing. And I went in last week with a book recommendation from a friend and managed to pick it up easily.  So I’m a lot less cranky.

Birmingham has a new academy

If it weren’t for the fact I am sat on the floor in the new Birmingham Academy listening to the first headlining band, Editors, playing I might not believe it to actually be open.

They’ve been talking about this move forever, so it’s good to see it finally happen. I spent a fair amount of time in the old academy and it was a woefully depressing music venue. The air conditioning stopped working, the loos always flooded and you could barely see anything on the Academy2 stage. Bar academy was a smelly tunnel and completely useless for an audience of more than 15. I spent a lot of time at the academy because it was where the bands I wanted to see were playing. As a music venue it was horrible.

But enough about the old. This is a new Academy. The new paint smell is still lingering and the carpet has that freshly laid bounce. It’s shiny and brand new. It has at least 44 ladies loos. More importantly, there are three very seperate venues. Something the old one never really managed. I’ve only seen two so far, as Academy2 isn’t open to the public yet, but The main and third academy look like good spaces.

Main Academy holds around 3000, I think, with a balcony area which is currently holding the VIPs so I’ve not been up. I’m not overly keen on balconies, so we’ll leave it at that. The floor, however, feels better. There are three quite large bars on two adjacent walls, a nice big merchandise area and a few good spaces to sit – although still not enough, in my opinion, hence sitting on the floor. More importantly there’s a good view from the room. But there’s still quite a lot of those blind spits the old Academy suffered from, they just don’t seem as bad.

Academy3 is very plush. It holds about 250 and looks like the kind of place you’d put on nice singer-songwriter gigs who weren’t going to make a mess. It’s also where the good carpet is.  Waiting to see how long that survives.

The Academy team have done well, this place looks great. I’m looking forward to seeing the middle-sized room and hopefully the increase in bands and artists playing in brum. Hopefully when the fresh paint smell us replaced with spilt beer the shine or the Academy won’t go with it.

Bank holiday fail

It’s a bank holiday, the last one of the summer. The back to school rush is imminent, so is work tomorrow. This calls for a lazy day philosophising over the nature of existence, cinema trips and lazing in coffee shops.

Or it would if any were open.

Now I’m apreciative enough of the anti-consumerist spirit that places should be closed on bank holidays and maybe even Sundays. I get this, I accept it and sometimes I wish more shops closed on Sundays. What I don’t like is shops with no consistency.

Opening times vary in most places. Late night Thursday, Sunday trading hours and inexplicable Wednesday afternoon closures at the library. That’s fine, every shop likes to open to their own needs. But please, let us poor consumers know when this is. I’m looking at you, Kitchen Garden Cafe and your open one Sunday afternoon, closed the next.

Bank holidays are special, I get that. But we’re creatures of habit. We need to know what’s going on and if there’s change we need telling. Are you planning on opening on a bank holiday?I’ve offered three possible answers…

No – pop a sign in the window a week or so before and let us know.

Planning on opening Sunday hours – good, this is the general pattern, let us know.

Planning on opening crazy hours that fit neither your weekday nor Sunday hours – then please, for all that is good in the world, tell us!

I’ve laboured the point haven’t I? But after attempting to visit no less than three cafes today, only to find them closed, with no explanation, you have hopefully understand my frustration.

So Urban Coffee Company, Starbucks on Colmore Row and Coffee Republic, I am disappointed in you.

LUCIA bookcrossing challenge

Our contribution to the LUCIA challenge

Through library book-sales and charity shops, my housemate and I carried, in bins and broken bags, 14 books home for the LUCIA bookcrossing challenge which starts on Tuesday.

Our friend and bookcrossing legend, Liz Broomfield, has organised a group of bookcrossers to release books for the LUCIA charity.  Bookcrossing is an online community where members leave books in public places for people to, hopefully, pick up and read. They’re then left, or released, in all manner of places; cafes, pubs, toilets, bus stops, parks, etc…  There are many variations on how they do this, one being challenges, where books are picked around a theme, but also charitable releases.  The two have been combined to raise money and awareness of LUCIA.

Liz has arranged a group of people who are going to release books in September themed around women’s roles, as LUCIA primarily supports women’s groups in Ethiopia.  The response has been overwhelming; there’s over 500 books ready to be released all sporting a specially designed bookplate telling anyone who picks up the books about LUCIA.  The challenge is taking place all around the world, from Birmingham, where the charity is based, to America, Scotland, Canada, Switzerland, Finland and Australia.  There may be more as the challenge starts.

Some of those people who’ve amassed books for the challenge are also sponsoring any of the LUCIA books that are picked up and registered on the bookcrossing site.  So not only will people be made more aware of the charity itself, but it’s raising money too!

More information about the release can be found on the LUCIA site, where Liz has written a post describing the challenge.  There’ll also be regular updates on the site, their twitter and wherever it can be mentioned.

Now, if someone could tell me where best to leave a book called Help! I’m a stepmother…