So, the Clay and Garden Days have drawn to a close and the dust has begun to settle. Over the week, more than forty volunteers from far and wide passed through Makvärket to roll up their sleeves and lend a hand.
As the name suggests, the focus of the week has been on two of the ongoing projects at the factory, namely finishing plastering the seminar room and turning our newly-inherited horse field into a flourishing garden.
To help with the plastering we invited friend and mason Martin Vollmer to give a series of workshops on the art of clay plastering. We met our goal of finishing the walls of the seminar room and used the rest of the time to prime the neighbouring corridor and sleeping rooms for plastering at a later date.
Meanwhile in the garden, we got to work building a new raised bed and a base for the geodesic greenhouse.
To make the raised bed, we took advantage of the wealth of recyclable materials in the area, forming a base out of two layers of concrete tiles to isolate the soil from the unfortunately polluted ground. The sides we made from everything from tree stumps, roof tiles, earth-filled tires and more concrete tiles.
After filling the bed with clean soil and planting out onions, garlic, squashes and herbs, we laid old flax and hemp insulation down as a mulch. The surplus of concrete tiles we put to work to make another bed around the greenhouse itself.
Down in the wood workshop, a masterclass on the maintenance and usage of the scythe was delivered by neighbour and Makvärket regular Henrik, after which we made ourselves useful clearing an overgrown area of weeds that we hope will one day become the forest garden.
In the meantime, the neighbouring outbuilding received some much-needed love in the form of a new set of roofing tiles.
When it came time to lay down our tools, we were lucky enough to have a talented bunch of musicians and performers standing by to keep us entertained. Wednesday night saw poetry and keys from Oscar Gilbert Jespersen and Claus Høxbroe, while on Friday night Orkestar King Mustafa and Atta Be had us dancing our little legs clean down to the knees.
Thanks to everyone who came out during the week and made it what it was; it wouldn’t have been the same without you. And for those of you who couldn’t make it, well, you know where to find us.
One last appeal. If you’d like to support the project, please consider whether you could afford 100kr (€13) a month to help with our running costs. The more support we get in covering our overheads like food, water and electricity, the more funding we can put directly into the construction work.
Right now we have 13 people giving 100kr a month. This makes a big difference, but if we could double that to 25 or 30 people, it would mean that we could have a positive running economy.
If you feel this is something you could help with, feel free to set up a transfer to the following account:
Registration: 8401
Account: 1129719
Well, that’s it for now. Stay tuned, thanks again and see you all around.
Til next time!
– Makvärket