Sussex scenery is hardly unusual fodder for a charity calendar - until you add in the naked bodies of the East Sussex Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers.

With their strategically-placed spinning wheels and wool yarns, the ten women have become the latest to follow in the footsteps of Women's Institute members who stripped for a charity calendar.

The efforts of Rylstone WI in Yorkshire, who were raising money for Leukaemia Research, have now been immortalised in the film Calendar Girls, starring Helen Mirren and Julie Walters.

Their story has inspired hundreds of other women around the country to come up with weird and wonderful ideas for fund-raising calendars on a similar theme.

For her project, called Spin and Bare It, spinner Joan Kendall, from Uckfield, persuaded ten colleagues aged between 40 and 80 to pose naked against a backdrop of some of the county's most beautiful scenery.

They agreed to bare all to raise money for the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, which works to protect rare farm animals.

Ms Kendall said: "When I initially proposed the idea there was horror, shock and amazement. They simply could not comprehend doing such a thing."

Ms Kendall feared her dream would never become a reality until Frances Fuller, 53, agreed to pose.

Gradually, other women also changed their minds.

Selmeston photographer Margaret Weller was enlisted to take the pictures at locations across Sussex over a six-month period. The final photo shoot was on August 30 on Rottingdean beach.

Other settings were Plashett Wood, near Uckfield, Atlantic Alpacas in Glyndebourne, Bluebell Wood, near Arlington Reservoir and the Harvey's brewery in Lewes Ms Kendall said: "When it came to taking our clothes off, it was unreal. We all stood in position with our clothes on, then took them off there and then for the picture.

"I was very nervous but when it came to doing it none of us were embarrassed, because we know each other very well.

"We are not models - we come in all different shapes and sizes - but that should not matter."

Mrs Fuller, from Ringmer, volunteered because she has experience posing for artists.

She said: "When Joan suggested the idea I thought it would be great fun.

"Some of the shoots were in public places so we had to explain to passers-by what we were doing and most of them had a laugh and left us alone.

"My husband has seen the photographs of me and he is quite happy about them."

The calendar will go on sale in October, priced £8.50. Copies can be booked at www.spinandbareit.co.uk