The Touchwood Project

Two days only: the Reinvention Sewing Lounge at Orkney College Transform the clothing that’s sitting in the back of your closet, gathering dust, into stylish one-of-a-kind pieces. Join Kirsteen Stewart as she teaches you how to transform your wooly jumpers into this beautiful scarf: Or if you know how to sew and want to try a different project, we’ll have several charming project patterns you can work on… Read the rest of this article >>

It doesn’t look it yet, but below is the beginnings of the new Reinvention Sewing Lounge, one of our latest projects: Soon our tipi will be furnished with sheepskin rugs, a woodburning stove, and a cornucopia of fabrics and craft tools to transform the clothes you’ve got sitting in the back of your closet into hip bags, pillows and something new you’d love to wear. My favourite part: while… Read the rest of this article >>

Note: This is an older post I’m updating and re-posting because we decided to run the pilots this summer instead of last winter in 2009. One of the challenges in starting up a social enterprise is actually having something to show for months’ worth of effort. Since an eco-lodge will take some time to build, not to mention write a business plan, do a feasibility study, and consult with the community, we needed to… Read the rest of this article >>

In order to run all three of the pilot projects for which Touchwood has been given a grant, we need to find a volunteer to act as Project Manager for one of the three pilots. If we don’t, one won’t happen and we will need to return those funds to Awards for All. Malcolm and I are too busy working on the first two and simply don’t have the time to manage all three, so I’m posting here to see if any of you… Read the rest of this article >>

Last night I realised that our campaign to promote hitchhiking on Orkney is nothing new — it simply revives a time-honoured tradition. Yep, a kind of hitchhiking used to happen all the time on our island in the form of people stopping to give lifts to each other. Why’s the bus service so bad? Over a cup of tea, Malcolm heard the story from James Stockan, our councillor for Stromness and Hoy areas, while… Read the rest of this article >>

Hitchhiking is something I associate with grubby guys, desperate backpackers, and the occasional kidnapping or worse. I have some notion that it’s even illegal in some countries. So suffice it to say that when Malcolm approached me with the idea of hitchhiking I was skeptical — I believe my response was “No way in hell.” However, I’m rethinking my staunch opposition and am coming around to believing that… Read the rest of this article >>

We’ve done two groups of StrengthsFinder sessions and I thought I’d share the results since I’ve just finished the second and am on a real high from the energy, enthusiasm and connectedness that came from the discussion. An all-women StrengthsFinder session This second group was women-only, and after the results from this evening, I’m definitely keen to develop more sessions…. Read the rest of this article >>

We just finished a grant application to Learning Launchpad to run a pilot project aimed at young men 14 – 25 that we’ve dubbed ‘Firekeeper’. In a community, the firekeeper is responsible for the safety and well-being of all, the father of the tribe. But too often these days, we act as perpetual children, looking out only for ourselves and what we want…. Read the rest of this article >>