Purple Kite reaches new heights

Here you can see the progress of The Purple Kite from scraps of plywood pulled out of a skip, to the proud craft bobbing down the river below.

Like many projects, it's the result of a random turn in a conversation. Simon was talking about beavers and streams, then someone said it would be great if we had an inflatable canoe for surveying wildlife in ponds and rivers. After that someone came up with a challenge: to make our own boat in one day using only recycled materials and anything we could find in the office and then row it across the River Medina and back.

We set to work in our small inventions workshop in East Cowes which SEEDA let us use specifically for making interesting and unlikely creations.

Well, we failed to make it in a day and cheated by buying a box of screws, but as it took shape over the next week our confidence grew that it really would stay afloat with us in it. It started to feel more and more like a proper boat.

The more organic lines can be explained by the fact that there weren't any plans and there wasn't a lot of measuring either.

This picture shows Simon ceremonially rubbing down the boat in whiskey prior to painting.

There are two port-holes in the bottom for observing fish, rocks, seaweed and submarines passing beneath us.

At this point the boat had no name, but by means of a democratic process, we arrived at The Purple Kite. The Island 2000 logo is of course a purple kite and it is also, by sheer coincidence, the rarest species of sea-bird to be found in the British Isles, never having been observed or recorded.

Launch day - a last minute attack of responsibility makes us leave behind our recycled life-jackets and ask Offshore Challenges next door if they can lend us something more reliable. They hand us two very swanky-looking flotation devices which, we understand, deploy automatically as soon as they get a whiff of sea-water. Simon instructs us that if it looks like we're going down, we're to throw them back onto the land to avoid the punitive cost of recharging the gas canisters.

Luckily, this isn't necessary as it turns out to be the driest rowing boat we've been in. We launch from the slipway just next to the car ferry, waved off in a cloud of sherbet by well-wishers and curious staff from Red Funnel. The oars are on the long side for such a small boat, but The Purple Kite is easy to row and very manoeuvrable, sitting surprisingly high in the water.
If you'd like to see the cross-Medina escapade for yourself, take a look at the Youtube video below.

We're now planning to produce some commentaries on the wildlife of the Isle of Wight's rivers, viewed and recorded from the water. The Purple Kite is available for other water-borne tasks or challenges. Any suggestions?

Basket Cases

The Arts Team asked local basket maker and artist Tim Johnson to give I2k staff an expert guide round the fabulous 'East Weaves West' exhibition at Quay Arts last week. This was an incredibly inspiring and rich exhibition showcasing Basketry from Japan and Britain and it has been received with great enthusiasm from gallery goers on the Island. A whole spectrum of basketry was on show, from the strong and functional to the decorative and fragile and all things in between. We wanted to look at the show in relation to the variety of work we do at the Trust. In particular we realised that the natural materials that are cleared in some of our conservation work could be channeled back into arts and making projects and that our fledgling 'scrapstore' we are developing should have a 'natural scrap' section too.

The picture to the left shows Danny and Ian modeling (Chinese and Dutch respectively) woven shoes. Warm, comfy and good for sliding across galleries apparently but very creaky.

A Gift from the Slow Worms

Whilst out checking a fairly remote spot for its likely reptile habitats I came across this wonderful hat. It seemed to have been there for a long time. It has 'Happy Birthday' written across it and some candles on top and since it is nearly my birthday I took it as a sign to pick it up wear it.
I believe it may have been left there quite deliberately by a reptile community grateful for the time and effort we spend on their behalf. After all (and with apologies to Eddie Izzard) if bees can make honey why shouldn't slow worms make hats?
If I look quite emotional it's at the thought of animals with no hands struggling to make hats.

Dan making an exhibition of himself

Dan is on a creative trip to Sweden, and has just emailed in some pictures. I was particularly taken with this one, where he has decided to turn himself into an art installation, carrying the simple title "warmth".

Still life with legs

Is it art? This question is now faced by Island 2000 tea drinkers on a daily basis. Opinion is divided. If only we had that Nicholas Serota automaton to resolve the matter.

http://www.timhunkin.com/76_isitartcollecting_box.htm

Go with the floe

What's this? A demonstration of how life in East Cowes could be if polar ice-caps continue to melt? A budget reproduction of 'Titanic'? No - it's the next stage in the East Cowes
No Barriers project taking shape. Look out for these forms fixed to the blue hoardings in coming weeks (possibly not Jo and Hannah).

Eclipse

This remarkable photograph was taken at 14.51 on Tuesday 11th September. The complete and unpredicted solar eclipse was visible only from within the lift at Venture Quays, East Cowes.

Sam snipping sofa

Our recently installed grass sofa at Merstone Station has had something of a growth spurt, so required a trim. Sam is pictured here using blunt shears to finish off what she started in more unusual fashion earlier in the day.... Recent dry weather has taken its toll on a couple of patches, but we hope to restart our watering programme soon to help things along. If you want to read more, and find out Sam's secret trimming technique, take a look at the Gift to Nature blog.

BEAUTIFUL NEW CHAIR (WITH SQUIRREL FREAK)

We have a truly magnificent new blue chair. It's made from corrugated cardboard and papier-mache but is really strong and very comfortable. It was made by a student from Ryde High School and now has pride of place in tea-break-corner. We're thinking of it as a slick management incentive: if you're really good (i.e don't lose the digital camera, wash up the cups, secure £1Million contract etc) then you get to sit in the Blue Sky Chair. If you've been really bad you have to sit in the bin. If you're really really good you get to wear the Magic Squirrel Head and sit in Blue Sky Chair. This is likely to be an extremely rare event however.The person opposite has been used purely for display purposes. He is actually not much good at all.