THE October meeting of Storridge WI is the long awaited Member’s Evening.

This is always a super meeting when members take over the duties of the committee and also book the speaker.

Business was kept to a minimum but members were asked to consider, and share their views, on where they feel is the most appropriate place to lodge the archives for our WI. It was strongly felt that they should remain at the Heritage Room at Cradley Village Hall. In addition it was agreed that members should re-instate the practice of keeping a yearly scrapbook, including photographs etc of outings, special functions, momentous occasions and monthly reports.

The speaker for the evening was Sally Nicholls who many know as a teacher of pilates, but she was not at the meeting to put members through their paces, she was sharing with them her love of making handbags.

Sally trained in fashion and she explained the process that she uses in making one of her highly individual handbags. The start of course is the inspiration, which can come from nature, a piece of architecture, or anything else that captures her imagination. Those thoughts then have to be turned into designs and then patterns before Sally can start to translate her inspiration into a finished handbag. Each bag is totally unique and takes many hours or even weeks to complete. Sally bought some of her bags with her so that members could examine her work. She now shares her skills with other people by running workshops.

The next meeting will be held on November 12 when Mr David Bailey will be with members for a Magic Lantern Show. He promises a fun evening with audience participation! Visitors will be most welcome.

The competition is of an old family photograph, so start searching through your old albums in plenty of time!