Â鶹ԼÅÄ

Not so long ago Clare Newton won the Designer of the Year award for a coffee cup she invented.Ìý Now she's turned her creativity to a photography and graphics project she aims to get displayed for the London Olympics.Ìý It will depict aspects of East London history, and involves a number of complex reconstructions.Ìý Here she writes about the project, provides us with a glimpse of what it will look like, and appeals for volunteers for her next reconstruction in Havering later this year.

The Eureka Moment, by Clare Newton.

You know how it is... a life chapter finishes and there¹s a horrible void.Ìý An empty feeling that needs filling with another eureka moment of inspiration.Ìý

Clare Newton, organising a river reconstruction

I'm like any other - I have my moments of flash-bang-wallop ideas. This particular one was born out of the feeling that London is loosing its heritage identity, and fast.Ìý Georgians and Victorians fought hard to create extraordinary buildings lavishly crafted, right down to the uppermost servant's window in the back bedroom, and they're disappearing.

The horrific fight that Spitalfields market endured to save itself against the mighty corporate giants, hungry for its land, gave way to non-heritage architecture. A sense of loss came over me.Ìý Will my child ever look up and see exquisitely carved brick windows and Corinthian columns?Ìý Or watch a sail-maker craft beautiful sails for Thames barges, not as a tourist attraction but as an original thriving business for living vessels?

I dug my heels in - deciding that I CAN do something about it!Ìý Not politically, but practically by using my graphic creativity to capture all that I can and to create a picture story that conjures and describes the magic of our history in London.

I hate words, dyslexia has been the bane of my childhood - when teachers thought I was stupid rather than address the problem of word-blindness. But now I intend to put my dyslexia to good use, by creating a language-free story.

I set about photographing areas around the Olympic site before it was redeveloped. I had no real aim, just to document it before it all disappeared. But the more I photographed the more I asked questions; What's this lump of Rock? What's this wooden jutting out thingy we all pass blindly by?

An example of the montage technique Clare uses.

It wasn't long before I started to focus and put meaning into the images I was shooting. My break through, was photographing the Ragged School Museum in Mile End. The initial image of an empty room didn't say anything, but to show it as a working room, watching a Victorian teacher relate to Victorian children, in a way that I wasn't used to, struck home.Ìý This is what the project is going to capture - living history.

Although this is unknown territory for me, I have an insatiable appetite to learn: new subjects, new careers, new business skills. And this project was going to require every bit of it.

The ringers of Bell Bows from above.

First I had to overcome the rolling of eye balls as I described the project.Ìý Then I had to conquer the family's attitude: 'How can a women of your age, who has never photographed before, possibly shoot in such dangerous places as the top of a Belfry, standing on an 18 inch wooden platform with nothing but a pigeon guard between you and a 200 foot drop?' (That was to capture 12 two-ton bells chiming at a total of 372 decibels).

Apart from clambering around among the bells, I have shot pictures in the massive print-works in Wapping and I've staged a reconstruction on the Thames with the police.Ìý I've been down sewers and into tunnels few Londoners know exist.ÌýÌý The adventures and the people I have met over the last year have been so exciting and so interesting that I have been keeping a diary (for fear of loosing the information gathered) and writing poems.

Police uniforms from an earlier reconstruction

My next hurdle was to organise how I would deliver so many stories that belong to the heart of East Londoners.Ìý Being most definitely an unregistered unemployed didn't stop me (ooh though it would be so nice to have new clothes not from the charity shop).Ìý I wasn't put off by having no money and an agitated husband ('You can't go round employing people, what are you going to pay them with?').Ìý

This led to my next Eureka ! moment. I thought it would be a good to present the project to the Museum of London as they like heritage, but the opening came with a second introduction to a volunteers consultant called Hayley. Of course... volunteers!.

"On 7th October I will be casting at the Whitworth Centre, Harold Hill, Romford.Ìý If you can come please email Brandsell@equinoxpartners.co.uk"

Clare Newton, photographer.

Years ago I was lucky enough to win an award for my invention - but what really picked me up out of the doldrums was that the judges recognised an older person can have talent and that they too need nurturing. This is what I want to do for the volunteers I work with now.Ìý I want to give older generations an opportunity to shine and be valued, and give younger generations something they can treasure too.Ìý Most importantly, the information older generations hold mustn't be lost and that's why I really need their input.

I'm developing a new chapter as I write. I want to re-create a Victorian scene about weights and measures and need some enthusiastic volunteers to enjoy being part of this re-enactment.Ìý Could you be interested in finding Victorian clothes and dressing up as a Victorian servant, market-trader or house-keeper?Ìý Or could you dress your children in Victorian pinafores, slacks, waist coats and caps and come to a sweet shop?

On Tuesday 7th October between 10am and 6pm I will be casting at the Whitworth Centre at Noak Hill Road, Harold Hill, Romford.Ìý If you can come please drop me a line, my email address is Brandsell@equinoxpartners.co.uk

Bingo players, some of Clare's volunteers.

I am also busy negotiating my way around various bureaucracies to find an outdoor venue suitable for this huge artwork in 2012. My dream is to make it freely accessible to everyone.ÌýÌý Next I have to tackle The Money - H-E-L-P!!Ìý How on earth am I going to find sponsorship, let alone learn about raising and managing and pleasing contributors?Ìý Clearly it's time to embark on another of my quests to acquire new skills.Ìý

Don't believe otherwise, my work really is 1% inspiration 99% perspiration.Ìý It's hard to sing my own praises or even to analyse what I have achieved so far, but I'm comforted to know that I have the support of around 40 volunteers, dignitaries, councilors and MP's.Ìý Judge for yourself from these pages, and if you like what you see, it would be wonderful if you could join in too.