Now on Etsy

Those of you who also read Crafty Green Poet will know that I've set up a shop on Etsy. It's unsurprisingly called craftygreenpoet. 

The shop will ultimately focus on crafting supplies, but there will be some items handmade from re-purposed and up-cycled materials and the occasional vintage item. So far, to give a flavour of the range, I've listed: a vintage African print dress; some vintage floral fabric; a beautiful piece of sea glass ideal for making into a pendant and a handmade chopstick bag. Today I added these stunning Uzbek trousers! You can see them all if you visit the shop!

I'll be slowly adding more items to the shop over the next week or so, so do pop over very so often to see what's new!

Read me while you can at 24project

I'm delighted to have a poem at the 24project, a wonderful 'pop-up' literary magazine. It's being edited today (starting from midnight last night until midnight tonight) and will be online for one week only after that. There's a wonderful selection of poetry, fiction and photos on there already and you can see my poem here.

As ever, coloured text contains hyperlinks that take you to other websites where you can find out more

DJ Physics

When you go to a Science Festival, maybe your first thought isn't that you'll end up dancing! However that has been one of my strong reactions to this years events at Edinburgh International Science Festival! I've already reviewed Emotion in Motion and last night I went along to DJ Physics.

I used to go clubbing regularly and was always fascinated by what the DJs were doing with the music but never enough to actually think about it too much, all my attention being given to dancing. So I was fascinated to finally get a chance to see what does go on in the DJ booth, both in terms of the practicalities and the science.

Martin Archer is a DJ and academic physicist who promised to make us all into expert DJs by the end of his presentation. I doubt I could now take over in my favourite club, but it certainly was a very entertaining event. There was lots of music to demonstrate how to skillfully move from one track into the next (and demonstrations on how not to do it). There was also a demonstration of how sound moving through a gas filled tube can cause flames to dance to the music, which was probably the highlight of an excellent event.


Martin Archer claims that DJs are puppet masters, manipulating the crowd to enjoy themselves, keep the dance-floor filled and the atmosphere upbeat. He shared his secrets of how all this works, though I'm guessing there would be more to it than that, to really become a successful club DJ.

Disclaimer: Clicket gave me the ticket for this event.

As ever, coloured text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.

Emotion in Motion

I'm just back from a lively session on dance and psychology at the Edinburgh International Science Festival. If you read my Crafty Green Poet blog regularly you'll know that I'll be blogging the festival for Clicket on their blog. I'm also blogging about selected events on my own blogs. You can for instance read about Saturday's Edinburgh Enlightenment Exchange here and here and also about the Science on a Plate exhibition organised by the Edible Gardening Project at the Royal Botanic Gardens, here.

Today's session featured dance psychologist Dr Peter Lovatt and choreographer Ruth Mills with the members of the Dance House Community Company from Glasgow. Using a mixture of video, live dance and audience participation they explored the ability of dance to communicate emotions. A very lively event that had all the audience dancing!