I can make myself flowers

My path first crossed with Katie at NEOS 2022.  North East Open Studios is a nine day event held each year in September showcasing makers and artists in the North East of Scotland and allowing them to fling open the doors of their making spaces and welcome the world!  In Katie's covetable garden room studio, I particularly admired her flowery mosaic table tops.

This year Katie has realised a dream and opened her very own studio in the Aberdeenshire village of Durno allowing her to manage her craft business close to her home.  MAKE Craft and Design Studio is now open for craft workshops.  I was thrilled to be invited to the very first one.  

Katie has created a bright, inviting space in the former vintage shop premises of Louis Little Haven (which has now relocated to Insch).  As a textile lover, I was immediately drawn to the bright cubbies of wool Katie is using to make her vibrant floral tufted rug seen here in the background on its frame.  

Centre stage though, amid a felt fabric rainbow, was a vase of fabulous felt flowers - and that's what I'd come to make, along with three other participants.  The table was laid out with individual workstations with everything at hand and plenty of space.  It all looked so appealing, I couldn't wait to get going.

First up was this rose made from circles cut with precision snips following Katie's card template and her gentle guidance.  I went a bit rogue with my colour choice and produced a blue rose!

Next we made forget-me-nots.  My centres look suspiciously like Liquorice Allsorts but adding the petals made a recognisable bloom.  The florist wire stalks twisted easily to make a pretty spray.

Following Katie's clear instructions I managed to make a couple of daisies in yellow and white to add to my growing bouquet.  Still drawn to the blues I then added a couple of pale turquoise flowers.

Key to our successful flower construction was this funky hot-glue gun.  I'd never come across a rechargeable one before but Katie had a bank of them for us to use which meant we never got tangled in cables and never ran out of charge.  What a game changer when multiple glue-guns are in use!

As we became more competent at cutting and gluing, Katie showed us how to create a stem of lavender as well as some foliage.

She then produced this sweetie-jar of felt balls she'd made.  

They look adorable altogether but Katie suggested we incorporate them into our bouquets.  After completing a few more leafy stems, we placed our finished floral sprays together to be admired.  

Here's the beautiful work of tutor, Katie, and the other attendees, Jade, Joanne and Ethmay.  Everyone's work was so impressive.  We'd enjoyed a relaxing day of craft at Katie's MAKE - Craft and Design Studio and all made something lovely to take home.

I was delighted with my wee posy and can't thank Katie enough for inviting me along.

Katie and I posing with our posies!

My flowers enjoying their new home on my kitchen window ledge

Find out more about future workshops at MAKE - Craft and Design Studio

or by contacting Katie directly at make.craft.design@gmail.com