Artograffi #135
Top 5 reasons why YOU should join Artograffi!
We are looking for new people to help write articles, draw pictures, and all that jazz. Here’s why you should be one of us.
Reason number 1:
You can let people know about what’s going on in the world – if it’s happening in Amble, or maybe on the other side of the world in Australia, we don’t mind! Whatever is happening, you could write an article about it so everyone in Amble can read about it.
Reason number 2:
You can help spread interesting facts and other cool stuff! And what you write actually gets read by people. It’s actually quite fun writing things and they don’t just have to be articles – we want your opinions on what matters to young people, or you can write stories too, like I did with Ozzy the golden retriever. Remember him?
Reason number 3:
Juice and biscuits. This reason is self-explanatory.
Reason number 4:
If you find you’re ever bored on a Monday 5pm-6.30pm, you will have something fun to do! So if you feel like you want to do something after school, give Artograffi a go. It’s nice and quiet if you don’t like sporty after school clubs, but everyone is very friendly.
Reason number 5:
Don’t worry – we don’t just write articles ALL THE TIME. We also do parties at holidays like Halloween or Christmas, where we decorate gingerbread men and play party games.
So if you are aged 9-18 why not join today? Contact Anna by email (editor@theambler.co.uk) or on Facebook if you’re interested.
By Grace
Thinking about a career..?
How about… marine biology?
Celia Fery is a marine biologist
We were very pleased to meet Celia Fery, a marine biologist who agreed to tell us all about what that involves.
Celia is a marine biologist from France. She came to the UK to improve her English so she could go to more places and save more wildlife in the ocean. Originally she wanted to be a vet but she explained to us, becoming a vet is hard in France and she didn’t get the grades she needed at school.
Celia comes from the east of France in an area known as Lorraine, where she went to school, specialising in environmental subjects. She moved to La Rochelle in the south, where she got her degree in Marine Biology, and learned about marine mammals, marine birds and oceanography.
Celia first came to Amble seven years ago. She explained why. “My English was very bad so in 2015 I came to Northumberland, to be an au pair near Amble for a year.” This is when she made lots of friends in the town and even helped out on The Ambler.
In 2016 she moved back to France, to Montpellier to do her master’s degree in ecology, mostly studying marine ecology. Then later, she moved to Greece to study Dolphins. Since then, she has worked in many places in France. Her latest job included interviewing fishermen about the bird life they encounter while out fishing. She also says that anybody who has an interest in marine life / biology should invest towards a career in marine biology because she says marine biology is the future because you can make the world better.
She also said, “Marine biology is a hard career. There are many people, but few opportunities. the pay is poor. You do this work by passion, because you want to protect. I would encourage people to do it, but they need to be realistic. For example, it’s almost impossible to work only with dolphins.”
Celia’s future plans include more travel, perhaps to volunteer in South America, Costa Rica, Mexico, or Cape Verde. Ultimately she wants to live on the Atlantic coast.
In addition, she says “I want to make people happy and be useful in life.”
Or what about… a military career?
At cadets, we do army training. Sometimes we even get to meet proper soldiers when we go on camps at places like Otterburn. My favourite part about it is shooting and I would say I am good at it as well. We often go on ranges to practice our shooting if we were ever to become snipers or something in the military. I am pretty good. I once got a (less than) 10mm group size, that basically just mean how close together the shots are, and that’s pretty good. The targets are a series of rings on a piece of paper usually A5. The target is about 5 – 10 meters away from the shooter. I came top of my group. I might pursue shooting in the military as a career.
The camps and parades are very good as well. I went on a parade in Berwick a few weeks ago (my first one ) and it was very good. The camps are also great. My favourite are the field craft ones. Field craft is basically just sleeping out in the field and learning how to survive out in the wild with minimal stuff. I don’t enjoy this that much.
By Hannah
Is this Shein’s redemption?
Shein: the fast fashion monster. They aren’t the only ones to blame, but they are well known for their quick trends, low quality, and huge waste. As a whole the fashion industry creates approximately 92 million tonnes of waste annually, and this figure keeps growing, aided by the rise in fast fashion brands such as Shein, H&M, Pretty Little Thing, and many more. It has become trendy to spend hundreds of pounds on hauls of cheap clothing, only for the clothes to be thrown away after a few wears. However, these fast fashion brands are not alone, as many luxury brands (for example Burberry) have also been caught with large amounts of waste.
Recently, Shein took a step in reducing the impact of their waste, by pledging £12 million to the Or Foundation and a further £28 million to other programmes. This will reduce their waste by transforming them into new products, a good step as there are very few landfills or incinerators, so most of the waste goes into the environment, polluting seas and wild habitats. This will also improve working conditions, specifically in Ghana; this is significant because there are many people, including children, working in difficult conditions for a criminally low wage.
However, there are many people questioning whether this move is genuine, or an attempt at greenwashing. With Shein’s value of over £80 billion, they could easily spare more money to help more programmes, reaching to improving conditions for production workers too, and becoming carbon neutral. Additionally, they need to address the overproduction and quality of their products that leads to such an excess in waste, and the robbery of ideas and designs from small businesses (a huge problem in itself).
Ava in the dress they made for prom
Overall, I think there is much, much more work that needs to be done to create a better fashion industry, and Shein needs to address all of the problems they cause. Despite this, making such a public promise may encourage other businesses to do the same, therefore it is an important step. Sustainable fashion is not always accessible, but please be conscious of your contributions and do your bit to save the world!
But how do you FIGHT fast fashion?
The most important thing is consumption and the reusing of products.
For example, instead of buying a prom dress that will only be worn once before it is thrown out, I made my own using partially secondhand materials (old curtains from a charity shop).
Obviously this is not possible for everyone, but just proof that there are sustainable options available with creativity and patience.
By Ava
Knitting’s not for nannas
We all know the knitting stereotypes- apparently it’s only for grandmas in rocking chairs sitting on their front patio. While we love the knitting grandmas, there’s also been a trend towards young people like us taking up the hobby, and it is definitely something worth doing. Here’s why you should become a knitter!
1- You get to create cool things to keep and wear, making things that fit your fashion sense, not just what’s in the shops. Have you ever found the dream jumper then seen that it’s out of stock or way too expensive? Just make your own! It’s not just for winter too- knitted vests can be even easier to make than jumpers and cardigans.
2- Knitting is very good for your mental health. It’s a form of mindfulness with the repetitive movement of each stitch (although it might not seem like it to start with when you get angry at a couple of dropped stitches!).
3- It’s so satisfying to have completed something. It might take a few hours or it might take a few months, but once you’ve finished your knitting project you’ll feel a huge sense of achievement. You can look at your knitted item and know that you made it yourself!
4- Knitting is quite easy to do. Even though it might seem daunting at first, you’ll quickly get the hang of it. There’s lots of helpful videos on YouTube which will show you the basics, like casting on your wool, as well as the more difficult things you might find later on.
5- You get to be as creative as you want, which means it’s a great way to bust boredom. There’s so many free knitting patterns online that you could use as inspiration, or you could go crazy and knit something completely on your own- it’s up to you!
By Lily
Waffling, walking and wonky houses
The best waffle
I had a very busy half term holiday. First, I did pretty much nothing, but then I went to Amsterdam with my family on a ferry. It was a fun ride, apart from the fact that the cabin was excessively hot. You would think that if you were in the middle of the ocean it would be relatively cold. But no. I would always end up sweating and never sleep with the blanket on at night or I would most likely wake up completely drenched. It was worth it though, as I finally got off the big boat and was in the Netherlands. We did some passport check stuff, and got on a bus ride towards the country’s capital – Amsterdam.
I remember I got a very nice, very large waffle covered in chocolate with whipped cream, strawberries and KitKat. It was worth remembering as well, since it was THE BEST WAFFLE I HAVE EVER TASTED. It was very nice and filling. A lot of walking later, I saw something I found extremely annoying – wonky houses. Houses that were tilting to the side instead of being straight. I know they are old, but I would hate to wake up every single day and see a house leaning slightly to the side every day. It was cool apart from that. My legs kind of hurt from walking around for AGES but it was worth the Amsterdam style McDonald’s I had.
By Grace
