Updated New Photographs taken during Photography Sessions on Lancaster Market

Photography Sessions on Lancaster Market!

Unfortunately and to the dismay of Lancaster's Residents and stall holders, the local market is due to close in March. It has long been, as in many towns, the hub of activity where all generations and cultures group together to promote and sell goods that may not be as easy to find in large chains.
 Memories of the market and it's history have beeen a hot topic here at The Helm lately and this has sparked discussions surrounding Lancaster's roots and Maritime history. We decided it would a wonderful opportunity to take it apon ourselves to document it all through the medium of photography and capture it before it disappears!
We'll be holding an exhibition in a few months once the photographs have been framed up at a gallery in Lancaster. We are hoping to have a little film show also at the opening event including 20 years of lancaster market footage filmed by a local man!
Following are a few examples of the photographs taken during the sessions!

Christmas Craft Fair

The Christmas Craft Fair was an exciting event enjoyed by everyone who was involved. We had a couple of homemade soups on the go , our famous Spicy Parsnip and also Leek & Potato for sale as well as a selection of cakes, mince pies and toasties in the cafe and of course not forgetting an enourmous display of homemade crafts for sale made by the talented people who access our centre. We had a bric a brac room full of donated items and a childrens room where there were regular christmassy puppet shows, badge making, card making and a lucky dip! This proved to be very popular and everyone got involved. A special thank you to Laurie and Alan for running the activities in this room all day!





Beautiful Hearts made at the centre on the sewing machine
to be used for Christmas wall decorations.






Badge making was kindly run by Alan with a
badge making kit
 kindly
donated to us earlier in the year by Asda!

 
We raised around two hundred pounds at our Christmas Craft Fair thanks to all the help and contributions made by service users and staff towards the event!

Our next project will be working towards a Photography exhibition on Lancaster Indoor Market which is due to close in June this year. We will be documenting it's history in verbal and visual form through photography and recordings over a period of six weeks!

So watch this space!

A massive thank you to Dawn for being a one woman wonder! She created lots of beautiful crafts to sell at The Adult College Craft Fair and The Helm Craft Fair within the space of a few weeks of each other! She is an inspiration to all of us!

The Helm's Christmas Craft Fair

After the previous successes of our Easter Craft Fair and Art Exhibition we held to celebrate World Mental Health Week, we have been working towards our Christmas Craft Fair which is taking place Tuesday 20th December from 11am to 3pm. Free Admission to all! 

There will be beautiful handmade Arts and Crafts for sale including textiles, paintings, jewellery and christmas decorations! There will also be bric a brac and childrens activities as well as hot homemade food and beverages, a selection of cakes and mince pies served from our cafe!   

Everybody has been busily creating all sorts of magical christmassy items to sell to raise money for The Helm. They will be affordable prices for very high quality artistry and worth a look so come along! 

We have taken the pictures with our new camera that we bought with the proceeds of the last Easter Craft fair earlier this year which was very successful!                             





Christmas Card designed during Art Session

 

Mixed Media Collage by Alex






Decorative Heart by Rosie

 


Oversized Shopping bag by Dawn





Fabric Heart Decorations by Dawn

  

Strawberry Pincushions Made by Dawn




Mixed media piece made by everyone at The Helm

Morecambe by Alan

Explosion by Dave

Cards made during art session

  

The Dukes Theatre Art Exhibition to celebrate World Mental Health Week

 

Zebra by Alan Crawshaw

Sold for £20

The Exhibition that we had spent weeks planning towards was a great success and ran from the 26th September till 4th October was also incorporated in the "Wired in"monthly event that is run at the Dukes at their request.

 Artwork from other local projects including the Hearing Voices group, the Adult College and Peer Support were included in the exhibition as well as work by local artists linked to The Helm.
We had live music spanish gypsy folk style and drinks to create a wonderful lively atmostphere and sold our artwork through a silent bidding system which worked very well and meant that people were free to bid on pictures to the value of what they thought they were worth!
This was the first exhibition we have held and it gave service users a massive boost as to our possibilites for future exhibitions and events.

Blue Guitar by Louis Barthein
sold for £40




Cupcake purse by Vicky Shepherd
Sold for £6



African Lady by Alan Crawshaw
Sold for £35

Vincent Van Gogh
Still for Sale

The Exhibition opening on 26th September at The Dukes Gallery
was a great event enjoyed by everyone who attended!
We raised around £300 through silent bidding over the week.





Mixed Media piece created by service users and staff at The Helm