Archive for March 2014

"If I had a Hammer" - March Workshop - Bricklaying

Sunday 16 March 2014 § 0

Bricklaying is probably one of our more unconventional workshops and probably not one that you would imagine as a typical WI activity, but our ladies and honoury gentleman (yes men are allowed at our workshops although not at our meetings) had a great time learning this classic skill.


We learned all about how to measure if our mortar and bricks were at the right height.


We then learnt how to manipulate the mortar and "butter" a brick (not much different to putting butter cream on a cake!)




It's very important to make sure that your wall is level and we used a spirit level to check.





Some intense concentration on brick laying!

 

 Some of our ladies looking very proud with their excellent walls!

The end of the workshop culminated in judging of each walls on how level they were, number of bricks laid, finish (had it been pointed well) and how accurate the spacing was by laying a flat surface along the edge of the wall and seeing if it touched every brick.  



And so who was the winner?  It was our honoury gent who received the brief moment of glory to hold the "Golden Trowel"



For more information and for a great place to learn bricklaying and a number of other DIY skills, please visit Build Skills Academy

February Meeting - Dr Bones

Wednesday 12 March 2014 § 0

For February’s meeting we were joined by the lovely Dr Janet Fletcher, an osteoarcheologist at Sheffield University who is a specialist in neonatal and perinatal remains.  




Janet treated the group to a fascinating talk about the Chapel Wood Ritual Landscape site. Janet even let the group get up close and personal with some human remains including two skulls! 



The Roses were then taken through some of the basics of identifying individuals from their bones as well as teaching us about the site as a whole. Overall, it was a good evening for all.