Puffin spotting, sampler stitching - and how to be a little bit more Orcadian

Story Street #32

Welcome to Story Street – a monthly newsletter from children’s author and illustrator Jane Porter. Read on for ramblings about my life as a picture book maker, community artist, comic diarist and under-confident fiddle player.

May is always my favourite month of the year - and this time I’ve spent most of it at northerly latitudes, sneaking in a few last woolly-hat-and-jumper days before summer starts in earnest. In this issue of Story Street: bridge pigment, embroidery and banners, puffins and folk music, Be Bold Bob crosses the Atlantic, a beautiful book about a Black Tudor Trumpeter - and why reading is so important for children.

Bridge pigment

I took part in a lovely project led and devised by Edinburgh-based artist Annie Lord. Annie was artist in residence as part of the celebrations last year of the 400th anniversary of Berwick upon Tweed’s oldest bridge. She created paint from some of the sandstone dust left as restorers worked on the bridge, and set it into tiny palettes made from shells.

Here’s the paint, beautifully presented in a wool-lined origami box, which immediately reminded me of something:

I nearly rosined my bow with it a few times!

Everyone who signed up to take part was given a box of paint, with the name of a person who worked on making the original bridge. We then gathered with Annie to make drawings of the bridge, using the pigment. Here’s my painting - the character I chose was a carpenter, so I added a frame of 17th century wood-working tools.

And here’s the bridge in real life - framed by the adjacent 1920s road bridge.

Bob takes a bow across the Atlantic

June 3rd is US publication day for Be Bold Bob, written by me and illustrated by Jenni Desmond. Here’s one of Jenni’s glorious pictures showing Bob feeling very unsure about performing in a show… if you know any shy children, this could be the perfect gift for them.

Be Bold Bob is published in the US by Candlewick Press - click the button below for details.

Celebrating John Blanke

A stunning book arrived in the post for me recently - ‘Who Is John Blanke? Historians and Artists Reimagine the Black Tudor Trumpeter’, edited by Michael I. Ohajuru.

The book is the beautifully-produced record of an exhibition that has toured from London to Liverpool and New York, honouring the first person of African descent in British history for whom there exists an image and a record.

John Blanke is shown on the Great Tournament Roll of Westminster playing trumpet - and it was this image that inspired Michael to invite over 100 artists and historians to create art and poetry inspired by this musician in the courts of Henry VII and Henry VIII.

I met Michael many years ago when I created a set of ‘postage stamps’ as part of a schools project for Sutton House in Hackney - including one showing John Blanke. And I was very honoured when Michael invited me to be part of the project, and to have my stamp in this book. You can find out more here:

Sewing, samplers…and sewage

I am completely incapable of resisting a new hobby, so when I spotted a ‘freeform embroidery workshop’ poster recently, I signed up on the spot. It was at Jennie’s Wool Shop in Berwick upon Tweed. Appropriately enough, we stitched our designs onto a plaid tweed - much less daunting than pristine calico. I was quickly hooked.

A few years ago I had a fad of decoupaging every piece of furniture I could get my hands on. I had a lot of fun sticking speech bubbles from The Beano onto pictures of Bob Dylan or Elvis and then slapping on 15 layers of varnish.

I think I might go the same way with embroidery, minus the Beano and the varnish… any piece of fabric is now in my sights. My first target is a second-hand denim jacket that is crying out for some grasses and seed-heads to sprawl all over the back. Watch this space. In the meantime, here’s my tweedy sampler.

In other sewing news, there’s nothing I love more than making a banner. So when I heard that there was to be an event in Berwick as part of Surfers Against Sewage’s Big Paddle Out, I got my sewing machine out. I couldn’t resist adding a little trim of waves at the bottom…

And here’s another banner I made 18 months ago - and I am very sorry that it’s still needed:

More island adventures

If you’ve been reading Story Street for a while you might remember a trip I made to Orkney two summers ago. Well I’ve been back, and this time I spotted a puffin! The huge wide skies, wildlife and empty beaches of Orkney were magnificent.

One of the things I loved most of all was a sequence of 12 paintings, made over 40 years ago by 13 year-olds on the Isle of Arran as a gift to St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall. Those children brought such quiet dignity to this gruesome murder:

The main focus of the visit was Orkney Folk Festival, which showcased so many marvellous musicians that I am still processing all the delights. If you want a taster, here are some of my favourites: Gnoss, Fara, The Maes, Malin Lewis, Frigg, The Chair - but there were many, many more.

I learned a couple of Finnish fiddle tunes in a workshop with Frigg, then plucked up the courage to join one of the many sessions held around Stromness. Two years ago I went to an Orkney Weekender in London, and one of the musicians there said:

“If you learn to play ‘Gairsay’, you’ll be 10% Orcadian, and if you keep playing it you’ll be 30% Orcadian.”

Needless to say I have been working hard on that tune (I did find myself wishing my schooldays had been spent at Kirkwall Grammar School where fiddle playing is on the curriculum). And when Kristan Harvey from Fara led a session with ‘Gairsay’ and I JOINED IN actually in Orkney, it made my day! If you’d like to learn it too, here’s a lovely video of Kristan playing the tune:

Reading Rights and the benefits of books

In May, Booktrust launched a report called ‘Reading Rights: Books Build A Brighter Future’. It’s an excellent report, which I read in full and I recommend that you do too:

“For too long, the life-changing benefits of children’s reading have not been taken seriously. And now – as our children face an unknown future – we risk losing a generation unless we act.” – Frank Cottrell-Boyce

The report is a very thorough look at exactly how and why reading/being read to is so important for children, backed up with science showing how a child’s heartbeat slows down and goes in synch with a parent or carer when being read to.

If you’re lucky enough to have small children in your life, read to them whenever you can. Here’s a drawing by me celebrating reading, from an idea I’m developing at the moment - I wanted the artwork to be as UN-digital as possible.

I’m aiming for it to feel loose, scratchy and REAL, prompted in part by despair at the relentless, unchecked plundering and regurgitation of artwork by AI firms - encouraged by the UK government who don’t seem at all interested in protecting the rights of creatives.

If you are interested in updates on this, check Against the Box for very thorough, regular updates.

Illustrators’ retreat

I was joined in Berwick at the beginning of May by six illustrator friends - we had a lovely time making tea on the beach, sketching and plotting stories. But since I have run out of space in this newsletter, and Momoko Abe has written about our weekend so nicely, I’m going to give you this link to find out more!

That’s all for now. I’ll write again on July 1st. Don’t forget to subscribe (for free) and share with friends if you have enjoyed reading this issue of Story Street.