Imaginal Toolmaking

Notes and FAQs on my 2 1/2 -hour introductory workshop

We are all makers.    Like beavers keep chewing, we humans have to make to stay alive. We make breakfast, time for visiting, our way; we make deals, we make up and we make trouble.  We make products, our living, our families, our peace; we make friends and enemies, this and that...

Every form of making works on several levels.   There's the "practical" level.  We make things that look like other things we have and use and seem to need: knives, forks, spoons, pots, chairs, benches, beds...

My interest as a researcher, is in the"imaginal" level of making.  What "else" does something do? What does a thing mean? Or what meanings are getting mattered by these things?  On this level, humans are the ways that certain energies get themselves into the world.  Because we "make", we are a part of a intricate process... not unlike how bees pollinate flowers and make honey and, and, and

Well, no matter.  I am a very practical maker and believe and trust and know that the imaginal level of making is always happening.

So what happens in an Imaginal Toolmaking Workshop??

We make lots of different tools, practical and imaginal.  We make a mallet. We might re-handle spoons and forks; we might re-sharpen metal into knives; ... and we learn more about just what tools do.   Tools help direct our attention and our physical energy for the tasks of living... Those screwdrivers, hammers, drills all have their purposes.... and so do the sticks tipped with shells and feathers.  Wands are just tools for collecting and directing energy.  Just a specialised form of a screwdriver... (maybe a screwdriver for the soul)

What Skills? What Activities?

selecting materials, cutting, shaping, sanding, drilling, joining

What's the take-away? well, a wooden mallet and several other tools or tool-like items of your choosing.

Is this really weird?    yes and no.  It depends on how weird you are or want to be. (And the word is spelled "wyrd"...look it up!).

Some people make the mallets, spoons and knives... others see the what the wands and small sculptures are all about.  Anyway, it's only two hours.  How bad can it be?

Show me the stuff!    OK      Here's Kim Vergil's work in March-April 2008

  The Hag                                       Bird Skull                                  Hatched

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