SHERINGHAM DIARY 26 ~ This Is What Happens When A Virgin Enters Your Life

On one of our recent jaunts we stopped off in Walsingham. My memory was of a place filled with cheap tacky religious memorabilia.  Today the religious memorabilia is largely of better quality and there are fewer outlets. It also has a characterful cafe /bookshop called superbly Read & Digest, a good Farm Shop, a large Antiques warehouse, a place selling second hand religious ephemera, a home ware shop that never seems to be open, plus an underwhelming shop selling crappy craft, run by a man who talks of little else than he's a Yorkshireman and comes from Leeds.

We were both struck by the welcoming warmth of Walsingham as a village. This atmosphere is part and parcel with it being a place of religious pilgrimage. We went on a second visit, this time taking in the C of E Shrine and the Catholic Slipper Chapel. In terms of religious bling you'd expect the catholics to have this all sewn up. But the Church of England have aimed for 'high church' and clearly won it here. The Catholic Basilica is distinctly on the understated dowdy side. We are planning to come again during the Summer when one of the big pilgrimage processions happens.

Whilst being brought up a Methodist in a Protestant tradition, I was also a Church of England chorister in the Halifax Parish Church. I have history in both Christian camps. Similarly, though my disposition as a Buddhist is towards the paired back Zen aesthetic, what gets the emotions engaged is stirringly ostentatious ritual and unabashed bling. Something with a bit of theatre, prancing along the thinner edge of gay abandon. Triratna's approach, by comparison, could feel as though it was wary of even going there, and in the end, in my opinion, didn't go far enough. This reserve and imaginative ascetic meant I always felt an absence in the visual exuberance department. That I often tried to fill.

Here I am in Walsingham feeling like the cat that got the cream. Uplifted by the simple smell of church incense, the rich colours, the gilding. Walsingham has the vibe of somewhere ancient and revered, part of a much larger sacred landscape, most likely with pagan origins. The Slipper Chapel is over a mile out of town, so we walked along the Holy Way all the way there and back.  I've discovered this emotional connection with 'the holy virgin' of Our Lady of Walsingham, responding to it as a fertility compassion archetype I guess.

Though Catholic theology can be poisonous, their use of imagery is well honed and potent. It would be very easy to over think the significance of my response and sign myself up for the seminary straight away. But it does feel energising to have the freedom to go with whatever speaks to me. In the meantime I returned home with a Sensor, charcoal, a bag of Church incense, a resin version of Our Lady of Walsingham and a key ring with her picture on it. Quite a stash of religious themed goodies.

Hub cap centre cut out for a reliquary

On our return walk to Walsingham, it came to mind to create a hanging for our shrine back at home. A moment later I spotted a hub cap lying in the verge, thought it might be useful and was about to walk on when I checked myself and went back to pick it up. Since coming home I have developed a fascination with catholic monstrances and reliquaries, Walsingham is full of them. I've started a Pinterest board, and begun to think how this scruffy hub cap might be transformed into one.



Jnanasalin is still on a creative high with his sewing. He's finished his first sleeveless shirt, has made a meditation matt, stool and hand cushion and has started on the prep for a foreman style jacket for me. He is, as someone rather addicted to perfection, turning out to be rather good in the execution department.

Myself, well, I've had my days of despondency, struggling with the limitations of my own skills mainly. I keep finding myself  bogged down in trying to finish items that just wont get finished. Generally just a wee bit imaginatively peeved and dry. I decided to cheer myself up by making an art piece, a collage made out of wood offcuts, tin cans and textured clay slabs, This lifted the flagging spirits almost immediately. I flourish when I have this type of creatively unstructured space, plus it also feeds into and enables the more imaginatively constrained craft production side to be sustainable.



Cottonwood Workshop Update
To narrow down options we've undertaken occasional tours across North Norfolk, visiting places that might be suitable shop venues. Its given us a good overview of the relative health of North Norfolk towns. Previously wealthy and healthy high streets such as in Holt, appear to be on a slightly downward curve at present. Sheringham appears to be holding up quite well by comparrison. Though in the back of our minds lingers a doubt about the future of high street retailing, when even the big boys are struggling, what chance us?

We've had a further re-think of our website revamp. To step up our game and launch it as a fully operational selling website. This has required a third period of revision for our photography standard, most required better image management. It has felt lately that we've been going over and over this same ground, and have struggled with the sense of inertia this engendered. But this process, however difficult personally, has refined our finish and approach to what we are ultimately trying to achieve. Jnanasalin has done a sterling job on the new selling platform we've chosen, it looks a really professional set up.

Update On The Update
Jnanasalin and I went to a Men's License to Stitch evening at Thread Your Wings, our current favourite local Yarn and Haberdashery stores. Whilst gossipping about what's happening in local empty shop units, we mentioned we were looking for a shop ourselves. The next day when we popped in, the Manager told us there was a unit empty in The Courtyard a small mall of shops further down the main street. Though off the main drag, it does have a half decent cafe, a local brewer outlet, hairdressers, hippy shop and a paper craft shop.

The unit is small, but not minscule, and the rent is peppercorn. We think it will be a suitable start up shop for our craft ware range ~ the craft cafe idea will have to wait for now. Whilst we aren't sure Sheringham is a perfect fit for us, it should provide us with a way of testing out our products. We couldn't make quickly enough to maintain stock, so we will need to buy in, particularly items we don't currently make. We also want to buy from local and UK craft and small batch makers and make that part of our distinctive MO. The lease will initially be only for a year, plus a month rent free before that in which to set up. We are hoping to get opened before the end of May.