If you have been reading my blog for a while you will notice every now and then I have mentioned a few crowd funding projects that I have pledged to. Crowd funding is a great way to help someone to fulfill their dreams and give them the chance to act on their ideas and inspiration without breaking your personal bank...you only pledge what you can afford...if many pledge just a couple dollars a project that was out of the financial reach of the artist can often be achieved. There are many projects to choose from...I of course like to support the arts as it is so difficult for the majority of artists to access money to fund their ideas. Artists pretty much worldwide are one of the lowest paid career choices and yet life without them I cannot bear to contemplate. Crowd funding platforms offer a chance to do this within a price range that suits....you can support many projects for as little as $1...and many will offer you some tangible thanks via a reward process.
Last night I had the pleasure to meet one of the project creators I pledged to. Australian Artist Emma Lindsay is here in Iceland on an Artist Residency facilitated by the Bær Art Centre just outside of Hofsós.
A postcard from Emma of one of her bird paintings
Emma who lives in Queensland set about funding part of her travel in Iceland via the Australian crowdfunding platform Pozible. So it was impozible (sorry couldn't resist) for me to pass up the opportunity to assist in a small way this fellow Australian artist who's Iceland Dream Project was to take place only a half hour drive from Sauðárkrókur. Last night was also the first opportunity for me to visit the Bær Art Centre and meet Steinunn Jónsdóttir the Directer who has created this outstanding facility. The centre has five single studio apartments which comprise of bedroom, bathroom and large studio space with a communal kitchen and lounge area. The centre is modern, light and airy with spectacular uninterrupted views.
view of the common room and the spectacular scenery
I suggest to any of my artist friends in Australia looking for an overseas residency to check out the application details on the Bær website...you never never know if you don't give it ago. Emma like me has fallen in love with Iceland and you can read more about her Icelandic experience here.
Emma Lindsay and I at Bær
Over recent months I have had the pleasure to receive a few other rewards for my pledges on the Kickstarter American crowd funding site.
The Veterans Book Project was one that left a lasting impression and a continuing project that hopefully offers a healing path for war veterans who return to civilian life traumatised by what they have been through. I was sent a poem by returned soldier Nathan Lewis you can read his story online here.
Born From Earth a project by Kat Kiernan who was completing her BFA in Photography sent me a 7x7" limited edition photographic book of her thesis Between Earth and Water. Kat needed funding for a plane ticket to Iceland to complete her thesis.
A project which peaked my interest through my love of maps, geocaching and bookbinding was a story by Suw Charman-Anderson...Argleton: A story of maps, maths and motorways. This little tale was inspired by Argleton a phantom town that has mysteriously appeared on google maps but which actually does not exist. A couple of weeks ago I received my hand bound copy of this great little read.
There are quite a few crowdfunding platforms around now besides Kickstarter and Pozible
RocketHub, IndieGoGo, FansNextdoor to name just a few and they are not all just for creative artsy projects...some are there to help businesses get off the ground, develop open source software and product ideas...you will find links to many more here. If you have an idea that you want to develop maybe one of these platforms will help materialise your dream...however be prepared for a lot of online networking to promote your project.
If you are supporter to any of these crowd funding sites be aware that you may have to sit tight for any rewards coming your way...artistic ventures usually take time to bring to fruition...but they are worth waiting for and this is a great affordable way to support the arts or any other area that interests you.
Saturday I introduced some friends to the art of geocaching. Iceland is a pretty cool place (no pun intended) to geocache as the scenery is breath taking and terrain and difficulty ratings are usually around at least 3 out of 5....which means you get a fairly good workout. Before we headed off in search of caches we called into the local farmers event that was on in the outskirts of town...pretty much like the good old Aussie Agriculture Field Days.
Plenty of farm machinery to look at if you're into that sort of thing!
Lots of animals,
fabulous looking cow,
check out those horns!
A few horses
and goats.
This little piggy could sleep all the way home!
Plenty of opportunities to get up close and personal.
There were even dogs on show!
Plus plenty of crafts and demonstrations of traditional skills such as spinning, butter churning and cream making.
From here we went in pursuit of our goals for the rest of the day...find a few caches, mark coordinates of a few spots for new caches to place and end the day with a swim in the fabulous Hofsós pool. Having said this we did not start out till 2 in the afternoon, firstly we took the coords for a couple of contender places for future caches to place.
One being near the ferryman.
Ferjumaðurinn Jón Ósmann who use to ferry people and goods across the river...
his view.
And another at Garðsvatn Lake, a particularly good bird watching spot.
Then we ventured to Kolkous, down a gravel road to our first cache find for the day, it was amazing that the Bjarki and Patricia's little car was still in one piece as that gravel road vibrated the hell out of it and us. But we found the cache which was where a large health spa was planned to be built to cater for the Japanese tourist market...but alas after the 2008 crash it did not eventuate. This place has also just recently been excavated by archaeology students.
Bjarki with his very first cache find and Annabelle looking on.
From here we travelled towards Hofsós firstly to checkout Patricia and Bjarki's potato patch.
Many Icelanders plant potatoes every summer and there are many communal plots like this around.
All the plots of potatoes were thriving....
all except one!
I wonder who that belongs to?
Hmm...Bjarki´s and Patricia's potato patch was a little sad to say the least...especially for a couple of food scientists....we all had a good laugh!
We then ventured on to find the Hofsós Cliff cache that has eluded me twice before. To get to the cache we had to climb along a narrow ledge of Basalt rocks about 26m above the sea below....a little scary...I have scrambled along here twice before, never finding the cache which is hidden on the upper edge of a large rock....damn it...they're all large rocks...but this time we went a little higher and I just happened to sit on the right damn rock...it was a clever little hide. So Dizzy Dames and Bern and Gill who were with me on the two previous searches...I finally have been able to log a find on this one.
View down from cache location!
Unfortunately we took just a bit too long and the pool was closing as we entered which was a shame as we were really ready to soak our bodies and soak up the fabulous view from this spot.
Definitely will come back to the Hofsós pool for a swim sometime soon!
We were told of another pool that was open until 8pm...not the same views but still a lovely warm soak. I have forgotten the name of the location but it was pretty much halfway between Hofsós and Siglufjörður. So after our swim we decided to go through to Siglufjörður for dinner. Bjarki connected his blackberry to the Geocaching site and found a couple of caches for us to do while there. One had just been published so we were hoping for a FTF (first to find). We found the first one relatively easy and knocked that off before dinner.
Bjarki and Patricia wanted to go to this restaurant that they had been to before which apparently is excellent...so excellent in fact that they were totally booked out when we arrived and we couldn't get a table.
Beer garden out the front of the restaurant we could not get into.
These two chaps were also waiting for a table!
impressive scrap wood sculptures
Siglufjörður township
So we ended up at a little place that specialised in pizza and it was pretty good. After our tummy's were happy we went off to find this just published cache. Once we found the parking area we realised that this was not going to be a quick grab. It was pretty much straight up a mountain and you had a choice to climb the 300 odd metres up from the carpark which looked pretty near impossible to us...or take the longer at least 2km's but not quite as steep route...following a path around and up the mountain. It probably took us at least 45mins to walk up and about 30mins to come down.
This path went around and up the other side of the mountain and acts as a bit of a barrier for avalanches as the side had been excavated straight down into the rock.
View of Siglufjörður as we ascend.
We got to the top around 10pm and it was getting dark, visibility poor, the coords were telling us to cross the river which Annabelle...the most nimble of us all decided to give it a go and with GPS jumped from rock to rock to the other side but to no avail she could not find the cache...I then double checked the coords and realised I had punched in the wrong seconds and without to much a do Annabelle found it on this side of the river and Bjarki and Patricia claimed with Annabelle's help their very first FTF on their very first day of geocaching...Bjarki is definitely hooked!
This is a very gloomy/shadowy pic (night time remember) of the steel railings up on the mountain which help to stop snow avalanches sliding down onto the township below.
It was very dark as we made our way back down the mountain to the car.
View of Siglufjörður as we descend!
It was a good hours drive back to Sauðárkrókur and I got in at midnight and still needed to take Perla for a walk as she had been cooped up inside for most of the day. I certainly have had my workout for the day month.
Thanks to Bjarki, Patricia and Annabelle for a great afternoon/night out.
3 lovely Aussie ladies came to stay for a week, they call themselves the Three Dizzy Dames, Leith, Laraine and Kate all belong to a Perth chapter of the Red Hat Society which is the largest women's social group in the world, only rules are that you must be at least 50 years old and at all Red Hat events you wear purple and of course a red hat....which pretty much rules me out ever joining!!! However the 3 Red Hat Dizzy Dames are game for pretty much anything and visit me on the tail end of a 160 day world trip.
Kate, Laraine and Leith on the steps of the Old Post Office
just before they departed Sauðárkrókur.
The ladies decided to stay a little longer than originally planned to catch their breath, relax a little and what better place to do that than in the stunning and serene setting that is Iceland.
My itinerary for tourists was once again given a tick of approval from the Dizzy Dames who seem to thoroughly enjoy the places we visited in the Skagafjördur region. I will try and only post images of these places that are a little different from previous posts. First stop during the week was once again Glaumbær where I think every tourist who ventures north visits to see this lovely restored turf farmhouse and of course coffee and cake at Áskaffi. Askaffi also has a historic display upstairs and after our tummy's were full we spent sometime perusing these.
I just love the old boxes and carved bits of wood
We timed our visit to the local tannery the next day to coincide with the tour of their factory. We saw all areas of the leather processes including some
experimental stuff such as parchment, bird wings and a couple of
cats...these of course are found carcasses...no kitty cats harmed in the process. I was fascinated by these experimental things and a few potential art projects whizzed around my head. For some reason I was too busy
looking and not clicking with the camera...so sorry no pics, however I did find a great little video of the actual tannery here in town created for a BBC documentary and this really is similar to the tour we did...but only shows the fish leather process...whereas we also got to see the lamb, cow and horse tannery processes.
The next day the weather was glorious, the top of my head even got a little burnt would you believe it got to a sizzling 19c...proof below.
So during this heat wave we spent much of the afternoon at the very pretty township in Hofsós
where we explored a couple of the museums. Each time I go I visit a different museum...one more lot of visitors and I will have seen all 3.
The girls taking a closer look at the Basalt rock formations.
On the way back to Sauðárkrókur, we stopped off at Hólar and took a stroll around the University grounds
The bell tower
more turf houses
A view over the student accomodation area
Replica building of the original bishops office using the same tools, materials and building methods.
Of course I happened to mention Geocaching to the girls who became very interested to know more so this is Leith finding their very first cache.
When we were at the tannery we were told about a handcraft festival that was happening just outside of Akuyreri on the coming Fri-Sun, so we earmarked Fri for that event. The closer we got to Akuyreri the colder and wetter it became but as we approached the festival the rain subsided and we had a great day. Once again I have very few photos to share...far too busy looking.
It was an excellent opportunity for me to talk and get contact details of several fabulous artisans who are producing quality Icelandic Arts and Crafts and I will contact them hopefully in the near future when I am about to open a retail/gallery venture in the Old Post Office.
Lots of overhead cloud and low lying fog as we entered the carpark...it was quite a chilly day.
But the children don't care as they swim in the outdoor heated pool, rain, hail, snow or shine.
Most of the handicrafts were indoors, it was very crowded and sellers expected it to be even more so over the weekend. It is a bit hard to go to something like this and not spend a little money, Laraine bought a lovely felted wool and silk scarf...I was tempted. Kate bought some herbal hand creme and Leith was strong and able to resist temptation.
Laraine's lovely scarf.
I fell in love and went home with a folky ceramic piece and a little miniature bird woodcarving.
I think I have a little birdy thing going on at the moment!!!
On Sunday we visited Grettislaug and I think this for my visitors rated best place to experience in this area...I know Gill and Bern also loved it. Click on the link above and check out this 360 degree panorama view...it's pretty cool. For 500 kronurs approx $4 AUD each you can soak as long as you wish in the hot pots surrounded by magnificent countryside with a great view of Drangey.
Drangey
Kate, Leith and Laraine very much enjoying their soak.
Laraine not wanting to be outdone by the young ones went for the triple...ie from hot pot to icy cold North Atlantic ocean and then back to hot pot. You can see the relief on her face as she once again felt the lovely warmth of the natural hot water thawing her body.
Laraine all rugged up as we looked for the cache here at Grettislaug.
Sprinkler watering a roof top lawn
We stopped and waved to a group on a horse riding tour on the way back.
Last day Monday was mainly spent at the hairdressers. The girls decided that they all needed a bit of a spruce up before continuing on their journey.
Would you believe that in this small town there are 9 hairdressing businesses. I booked them into Móðins hárstofa where I go and they were all really happy with the results and the price which is a lot cheaper than most places in Perth.
After the hairdressers and a bit of a late lunch they took photos of the town from the graveyard and then came back to the Old Post Office for a little craft lesson before dinner in felting soap.
Kate, Leith and Laraine.
The girls left on Tuesday morning to drive the Golden Circle route back to Reykjavik where there is so much more to see before they fly out on Friday morning to Edinburgh. All in all it was a pretty full week for me, I thoroughly enjoyed the company of these Red Hat ladies and look forward to catching up with them again sometime in the future.
P.S.
I just had a bit of a chat to Leith on Skype and apparently they had a
sensational trip around the east coast and saw amazing glaciers,
icebergs and water falls to name just a few...girls I look forward to your blog update of this.
