Hi folks,
This year’s unusual long summer seems to have finally departed. We will be pulling out the fast hardener for glue jobs and cursing about humidity in the boatyard over the coming months, but honestly, the region badly needs the rain. Our neighbor, who has lived on the same street her entire life (and she must be in her 80s), cannot remember a year so dry in decades.
We have a lot to keep us busy and working up a sweat over the cooler months, though, with a large donation of overstock hardwood to sort through, cut, plane and assign to new projects on the boat — like Sapelli for the beams!; taking our citizen science art exhibition ‘The Table of Curiosity’ to the UK; and donning the gumboots to keep mapping Bad Boats rotting in our estuaries and harbors.
I’m welcoming a slower pace, however, as summer was (frankly) quite nuts! If you’ve noticed we’ve been a bit quiet on social media, mostly due to the following reasons:
1. my smart phone died a month ago, and I’m really enjoying the exploration of what happens to one’s mental state and nervous system WITHOUT one;
2. I have been battling an illness (nothing major, yet not something to ignore), which has kept me out of the boatyard for weeks, though Remy has been slogging away every weekend;
3. I have been doing a LOT of deskwork — applying for new grant calls, writing reports (our ReTISS Impact Assessment Report is now published on AquaDocs and Zenodo repositories), building sponsorship and partnership decks, and restructuring our communications.
With this restructure comes the birth of an idea I had for years since we dreamed up the Floating Stories Lab: snail mail.
Coming from a print media background, I cut my teeth in the professional surf magazine industry in Japan before becoming a travel editor, producer, and later a filmmaker, writing for print publications all over the world. I love tangible texts — real books, magazines, newsletters, notebooks to scribble thoughts and ideas in. When I first left Australia barely 21 years old (a couple of decades ago, but don’t do the math please!) and moved to Japan, I loved writing letters on beautiful stationery and sending home to friends and relatives. Postcards, too, were a delight to pick up on my travels and send home. Not having a phone has revived these practices.
I am thus excited to share that I have created the first SLOW Footprints SNAPSHOT postal package for members.
Each envelope, delivered to your door, holds:
A double-sided A4 newsletter sent from Breton coast, with a personal version of what’s happening here and field and boatyard notes from the ground;
A riso-printed collectible postcard, with a custom stamp drawn by an artist from our residency;
A small sheet of custom-made stickers.
The Snapshot is our thank-you to members at the €50 and €150 tiers. The first issue goes out this autumn. But first, some house keeping!
Already a member at €50 or €150?
We only have your email address*, so we need your postal address to send you the Snapshot. It takes one minute:
*Please use the same email address you used when you became a member, so we can match you to your membership.
Not a member yet?
Join at the €50 or €150 tier (via our Membership page on the website or by upgrading your Substack subscription) and your first Snapshot will be on its way:
The beating heart of FSL is our membership community of volunteers, collaborators, advisors, and ocean-loving sea people. We call this a ‘relational network’ and welcome all folks wanting to get involved.
Boat Build Residency Spring 2027 — Save the Date!
Our workshop doors are open all year: anyone can drop in and volunteer on the build. The Boat Build Residencies are the deeper dive.
Following the success of this year’s residency, we are planning our second Boat Build Residency to take place in the French spring of 2027.
For 1-2 weeks, a small crew of 4-5 residents will work alongside us everyday on our 41ft Polynesian-inspired catamaran, the future home of the Floating Stories Lab.
The residency will open for members only, and members will be the first to hear when applications open.
