Luminarium: A Wonderous Kaleidoscope

When I broke up for Summer last Friday, I vowed that The Boy and I would do a lot of fun things this summer and so far, I don't think I've done too badly. Last weekend we went to Cadbury's World and West Midlands Safari Park (where we had a little tweet-up), earlier in the week we met up with friends and had a fantastic picnic in a beautiful park in Cardiff, we had friends over and have visited others. Today, we were lucky enough to be invited to attend the Luminarium at Taurus Crafts, Lydney.

Taurus Crafts, in the Forest of Dean is not only a craft centre, but also a social enterprise. Elizabeth, the lovely manager, explained to us that this meant they worked along local businesses and artisans to provide products and crafts that were locally sourced. In addition to this, Taurus also work with local care agencies and schools to provide real-life and relevant work experience developing life-skills for people with learning difficulties whose needs are not well met through mainstream education and training. To support this brilliant and worthwhile enterprise, there are 15 craft businesses, a cafe, gift shop and local food shop and deli, which all supply amazing products and unique crafts that are out of the ordinary.

The Boy and me (ha, see what I did there?) arrived a little after the agreed meeting time of 11am (sorry Mummy Mishaps and Would Like to be a Yummy Mummy). Mainly because when I sat down in my car and programmed in the GPS I had a little fit that a journey that was only 40 miles was going to take an hour and a half. It was 10.20! That combined with the oh-so-convenient fire in the Brynglas tunnel in Newport meant that I was late. No surprise there, I'm always 10 (or so) minutes late. I think of time, like Dr. Who (DT not MS) says, as more of a wiggly-wavy thing meant to be bent.

And so to the Luminarium. What is it?

The best explanation that I have seen so far of a Luminarium is in this video, where it is explained that the original creator started designing them over twenty years ago and came up with the idea of "inverting a bouncy castle." See! I wasn't so far off the mark when I said about being inside a bouncy castle! Incidentally, I spoke to a member of Architects of Air afterwards who told me that the first one was designed as a stage for a play performed by children with special educational needs. That is completely understandable because the whole experience is visual, auditory and kinaesthetic.

With something this difficult to explain, you just need to be in it. And if you can't be in it, then here's a video to show you what it's like.

We received free entry into the Luminarium. I was not asked to blog about this but have chosen to, because I think it's a fabulous thing to experience.