The second day the team was quite different: there were me, Kate, Duncan, Claire (Duncan’s wife and artist and producer as well), Julia, Kristina, Rohanie, Harr – Joht and the poet Elisabeth Charis who was involved by Clayground Collective to responde at the experience of the day.

July 24th – July 25th | Voyage to Saltwells Nature Reserve Dalton Clay pits

Black Country Voyages in Netherton.

Black Country Voyages disembark in Birches Green Infant School in Erdington.

We spent an evening in a friendly and informal mood talking about the Black Country Voyages project, Juneau Projects’ art works and sharing our ideas.

Kate started a special workshop for Year One children by talking about canals, boats and how people used to live on them.

We spent a lovely and sunny afternoon out on the boat in and around Birmingham city centre hosting this month’s Adult Practical Workshop.

We were delighted to welcome friends of Tipton Library on board our boat. Organised as part of the community engagement work for the Black Country Echoes Festival, local historians, archivist and library staff took part in a special workshop. The group’s cruise took place along the lush green canals of Tipton.

The boat moored up in Tipton for a workshop, encouraging those to paint or draw about nature, taking inspiration from the place we were in or from the books that we had on the boat.

Between Monday 18 and Friday 22 August we were moored alongside the Red House Glass Cone, Stourbridge.

It was the first time that we had ever been part of the Brown Hills Festival and I’m delighted to say it was a huge success!

The Rushall and Tame Valley Canals just got greener and greener and more and more beautiful as we made our way from Ocker Hill to Brown Hills.

Earlier this week Giulia and I were working with the Year One children and staff from Birches Green Primary School. As part of a project about Birmingham the children have been learning about canals. Mrs Wildman invited us in to school to lead a special creative session and to talk more about our experiences of working on our boat. The children worked to produce a series of brightly-coloured designs in paper and in fabric.