The Creativity Conference
I am one of the speakers at this year’s Creativity Conference,
“Expect to be brought to a deeper understanding of your own creative process. The Creativity Conference is an annual pilgrimage for creative minds of all kinds, whether you are a business leader, performance poet, or photographer. ” (from the CC website)
2022: training days: nothing is planned just yet – if you are interested in a toad session, get in touch for a chat: creepingtoad@btinternet.com
Courses are aimed at teachers, rangers, environmental education specialists and playworkers and, really, anyone who is looking for activities to deliver to a group of children (or families) along creative environmental themes
Workshops aim to offer participants the chance to experiment, to experience activities for themselves and to talk about resources, workshop patterns and the tricks that make for effective delivery
If you want to find out more about the content of a workshop, you are welcome to contact me, (creepingtoad@btinternet.com) if you want to book or make a booking enquiry, please contact the organisers
Autumn adventures
public events, 2022
Details for 2022 events will follow….it’s often easier to keep track of these:
- on my facebook page: @creepingtoad
- or through twitter: @creepingtoad
- or my blog: http://creepingtoad.blogspot.com/
Families: unless otherwise stated, these events are aimed at family groups – stray adults are welcome to come and join us, too: to listen laugh and make things as suits.
Appropriate ages: If you are 7 years old or less, can you please bring a grown-up with you and don’t lose them during the session.
Stern word: I try to keep things as relaxed and cheerful as possible during sessions but I do reserve the right to ask people to leave if their behaviour disrupts the rest of the group and I generally recommend getting to a drop-in event at least 40 minutes before the scheduled end of the event as I often have to pack up and move somewhere else quite quickly!
Last minute bookings: I still have odd days here and there (some are very strange!) if you would like a session for your site or your own group. Contact me at creepingtoad@btinternet.com or 07791 096857 to find out more
EVENTS BELOW ARE FROM 2018 – LEAVING THEM IN JUST NOW TO GIVE YOU A SENSE FO WHAT MIGHT BE HAPPENING!
October
Light up the woods
Saturday 15th
Plas Power Woods, Wrexham
Mixing lanterns, with woodland storytelling, campfire warmth and the thrill of wandering through a wood at night. You will find me deep in the woods, on a log by a stream telling stories of enchanted owls, tree-magic and occasional bears. This event is becoming a hugely popular annual event. Tickets are limited and advance booking is needed!
Follow the link for more information
https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/get-involved/events/15-october-2016-lanterns-plas-power/
Sunday 16th
Apple Day
Dove Valley Centre
Another regular feature and another annual delight. Join us for an afternoon of delicious apples, orchards, stories, art, and baking apples and potatoes in the fire. Bring your own apples and you can scrunch them into the juice – bring your own chutneys and swap them or their recipes. I am here to tell stories and lead some Museum moments: we’re collecting apple thoughts and orchard stories.
12 – 4pm
Free.
Just come and enjoy an afternoon deep in the dale
Dove Valley Centre, Under Whitle, SK17 0PR (between Longnor and Sheen)
An event for Buxton Museum’s Collections in the Landscape project
Drawing Steam
Monday 24 October, 11am-3pm
The Gothic Warehouse, Cromford Wharf, DE4 3RP
Get inspired by the landscape of Cromford Mills and High Peak Junction and sketch, scribble or draw your favourite bits onto our big drawing. Using a variety of materials, we’ll work together to create an amazing picture, 20 metres or more long, that tells the story of this special place: the birthplace of the factory system in the valley that changed the world. Part of Derwent Valley Mills Discovery Days.
An event for the Big Draw
An event for Buxton Museum’s Collections in the Landscape project
Tuesday 25th
Calacas: make your own tiny Day of the Dead characters
In the final days before Hallowe’en, join me for an afternoon with tiny skeletal people. Inspired by Mexican Day of the Dead ideas, we’ll make little skeletal people doing everyday thigns…there may be skeleton footballers, musicians, ladies in ball gowns, gentlemen in tophats and tails – or ladies in tophats and gentlemen in ballgowns…who knows what way the bones will inspire us!
Green Man Gallery, Buxton (Hardwick Square south, , SK17 6PY
https://www.facebook.com/TheGreenManGallery/
Booking needed.
Cost £6.00 (accompanying adult free – but adults could always book a place and make their own Calacas!)
Drop in in person, or call: 01298 937375 (card payment).
And if you survive that, you might like to call in for
Boggarts and Freetings: spooky stories for Hallowe’en week
Still at the Green Man Gallery, between 5 and 6pm (more or less), £3 a ticket and stories for laughter, shock, delight and dismay and a nice shiver or two for the arrival of winter!
Wednesday 26th October
Bone Detectives
Explore the secrets of the skulls, learn to read the clues hidden in eyesockets, teeth and the bony curves of zygomatic arches and sagittal crests. Meet some skulls, draw some bones, take your own bone-folder home. (Bring your own mystery bones with you, if you like to baffle us – only nothing too drippy and messy, thank you!)
Buxton Museum’s Pop-up Museum will be there to, so come and see some of the Treasures of the Peak and talk to museum experts…
I’ll be there at the bony end of things!
A free family day
National Trust, Ilam
11am – 3pm. Free event but car parking charges may apply
No booking needed – just turn up and join in
An event for Buxton Museum’s Collections in the Landscape project
Pavilion Pictures
Thursday 27 October, 11am-3pm
Pavilion Gardens, Buxton SK17 6BE
Draw, colour, collage, etch and sketch your way around Pavilion Gardens as we celebrate the Big Draw in Buxton. Collect some materials from us by the Pavilion, then get exploring around the gardens and see what inspires your artwork. If it’s raining, there’s plenty to do and draw inside – from the wonderful winter garden to the bustle of the cafe and gallery.
An event for Buxton Museum’s Collections in the Landscape project
BOOKING YOUR OWN EVENT
Creeping Toad activities are tailored to suit your individual needs rather than chosen from a set menu of options. But, here are some examples of recent (2013 – 2015) creative adventures that might whet your appetite and give you some suggestions to shout at the Toad about…
pirates: environmentally-inspired pirates, 
finding nature’s treasures, writing pirate books, making maps, giant lantern pirate ships, parrots, puppets and lots of wildness: the Tiny! Pirates have appeared several times (working with Buxton community group Stone and Water), a judging panel of mermaids supervised sailing in Mottram St Andrew, pirate treasures inspired new stories… More pirate workshops »
challenging assumptions: ethics in environmental education session at Losehill Hall, Peak National Park
some fishy moments: in 2014 and 2015, with musician Steve Brown, I worked on a whole series of lovely river sessions with schools involved in the Ribble Rivers Trust’s “River in the Classroom” project, hatching trout for release back into local rivers. In September 2015, I was busy making pop-up rivers and finger-puppet river creatures at Scotland’s Salmon Festival
Festival of Outdoor Learning, Hollowford, Castleton: and msot eyars I’ll be at this lively weekend doing workshops that might be anything from making tiny books to spinning stories out of weather and wood..
homes: living in caves and castles: working with props, drama and sheer imagination: cave people in search of new homes, Stone Age lives, spooky houses and mysterious castles as part of the Summer Reading Challenge in 2013
adventures everywhere: using the school for inspiration to build a class adventure, finding stories everywhere, anywhere, out of anything
touring Scotland: I’m usually up in the Highlands twice a year, telling stories, making puppets, and enjoying the wild ideas and wonderful imaginations of children in schools and everyone on public events
