Finished Well Dressing

I'm changing the picture that I originally put up for the finished well dressing.
After a week of intense work the Well Dressing is finally up.
It is extremely heavy and took 5 men to lift the centre plinth into place.
Disaster struck as the weight proved to much for one of the lifters as he fell over, but managed to twist his body and missed falling on it by millimeteres!!!
I enclose a piece written by Mja Mihajlovic the well dressing designer.

I chose this subject for our well-dressing mainly for familiarity - familiarity with the parable, but also because it is a rural agricultural scene that relates well to the farmland setting of Bakewell, to the efforts of many of us to grow our own food, and our relationship with nature.

Many peoples' generous time and efforts go into the organising, making and installation of these well-dressings, and they will not continue to happen without the reliable and skilled efforts of all these men, women and children who take part, who give their time and space, ideas and energy for free. I want to express my deep appreciation to all of them, those we learn from, and those who help us.


It is an attempt to maintain a tradition that is specific to Derbyshire, that might seem absurd when you think that all that effort is washed away by the wind and rain, cracked and broken by the sun over the five days of its display.

But it is a performance, it is putting on a show, and all shows are time-limited. Anyone who has been involved in a performance knows that these events have a value that goes beyond material or financial value, and that delights the very many people that share in it, whether as makers or spectators."

Maja Mihajlovic, well-dressing designer for the Parish Church, Bakewell
With thanks to Pat Bryant, well-dressing organiser for the Parish Church, Bakewell

Materials on our board:

The Sower ? chrysanthemum trousers, silver-weed gaiters, delphinium shirt,
dried hydrangea for his sack, his hat and his boots, dried cicely seeds for the shadow of the brim of his hat, sand for his face and hands, dried sweetcorn for his seeds.
Outlines - black wool
Field - Alder cones, dried lilac flowers,
Thistles - cypressa tree cones, petals of the pink flower
Crows - coal and silver-weed
Rocks - gravel
Trees - moss and rhubarb seeds and alchemilla / lady's mantle.
Sun and clouds - Marigold, sweet william, carnation.
Sky - hydrangea and philadelphus / mock orange, and crysanthemum petals
Lettering - alchemilla / lady's mantle, white gravel
Birds in the sky - black wool