A Summer of Sea Inspiration

My making over the summer has been inspired by the sea and the seaside.

The catalyst for my recent creativity was a fortnight in Fife.  Our first weekend coincided with the Largo Blue Space Festival, a two day community event celebrating coastal conservation and local marine environments around Largo Bay and the Firth of Forth.  It was hosted by local group, The Friends of Largo Bay, and my cousin Stephanie is a very active member.  

Stephanie overseeing my needle felting!

I was so pleased to be able to take part in the drop-in craft session she organised throughout the weekend, to needle felt a seascape featuring the starfish on the group's logo. 

Further along the East Neuk coast from Largo lies the pretty fishing village of Pittenweem and no visit to Fife would be complete for me without a visit to The Woolly Brew!  This beautiful ball of Rico mohair silk yarn reminded me of seashells and I knit the free scarf pattern which accompanied my purchase.  Another ethereal make inspired by the sea.

Continuing to enjoy the seaside on holiday, the Fife Coastal Path provided us with many options for our daily beach walks.

Beach walks gave me the opportunity to search for sea glass.

I took my small haul along to the sea glass art workshop at Jane Keenan Design in Maud last weekend.  It was run by Shaped By The Sea creator, Jane Crighton, and I hoped to include some of my pieces into the picture we were going to make.

I love to see everything laid out at the start of a class.  There was a box frame and laser-cut wooden heart for everyone as well as little pots of sea glass and pottery.  So much potential!

I opened up the pots I'd been given whilst Jane enlightened us about the history of sea glass.  It can take decades, and sometimes centuries, to tumble glass into the smoothed, frosted pieces in front of us and she showed us examples under UV light where additives from early glass manufacture glowed vividly!  

There were lots of extra bits and pieces on the table along with sweet treats to go with our tea.

Selecting pieces and sticking them into the heart was both absorbing and therapeutic.  

As my picture progressed, I was mindful of Jane's instruction to use finger protectors as the glue dried quickly!  It also created a shiny glaze when painted over my completed glass, pottery and shell composition.

I finished by adding some wee wooden hearts and these words - a dream is a wish your heart makes.

I'm pleased with my sea glass art and am happy I could use some I'd collected in Fife.  Displaying my picture at home will keep the happy holiday memories alive as well as reminding me of fun times by the sea.

Thanks, Jane, for a wonderful workshop!

Weaving a willow wreath

I'm unsure now how or where I first met Marguerite Fleming.  A warm spirited Irish lady, crofter and crafter, Marge is a powerhouse - one of those people you think must have 48 hours in every day!

Along with husband, Frank, she manages Westfield Croft, home to hives of bees, fields of rare breed sheep, a multitude of poultry, a large willow coppice and Marge's search and rescue dogs.  

We probably first met chatting about her wool at a local yarn show or maker's market.  I've knitted with her beautiful Blue Faced Leicester wool...

 and Spangle, our kitten, loves the cat mat Marge wove on her peg loom.

Recently I spotted an ad for an autumn wreath weaving workshop run by Marge.  I signed up right away and took my pal, Vicki, along with me.  Held locally in a former school repurposed as a community space, we were welcomed with refreshments and greeted by tables laden with dried flowers, cones and teasels, whilst additional floral art materials lined the walls.

There was lots of willow too, with different coloured stems, all grown at Westfield Croft.

As the class gathered, we had the chance to see what we were going to make by checking out Marge's sample wreaths.

To begin with, Marge showed us how to take some of the thicker willow branches and bend them by hand, one at a time, encouraging them into a circle shape.  We had to do this well away from each other so we didn't accidentally catch our classmates with any errant whippy stems!

After building up the ring until we were happy with its shape, we trimmed away unwanted leaves and ends.

Then it was time to chose our decorations.  I was drawn to the soft yellows whilst Vicki chose these muted pinks and greys.

There was wool to wind round our wreaths and wire to stabilise the delicate strawflowers.  We used florists wire to secure the cones, grasses and flowers to our designs.  They can be easily removed in future to repurpose our willow wreaths for Christmas.

In the meantime, here's how my autumn willow wreath looked at the end of the class.

The two hours had flown by in such an enjoyable way, thanks for Marge's patient tutelage, and we were soon admiring each others handiwork.  

There was just time for a class photo with Marge before Vicki and I headed out for lunch.

Once home, Vicki sent me a photo of her wreath hanging up.  It's so pretty against her painted door.

When I got home, I decided to replaced the wool wound round the top of my wreath with a bow fashioned from this rustic ribbon.

Thanks to Marge for a lovely instructive workshop with great company. 

To hear about future workshops with Westfield Croft, 

keep in touch through the website, 

FaceBook 

and Instagram.

My Very Own Yarn Shop!

Am I the only one who believes I'm a pottery expert based simply on the number of episodes of The Great Pottery Throw Down I've watched?   Terms like sprigging, coiling and raku firing just trip off my tongue!

Putting my armchair know-how into practice, I joined a ceramic clay hand-building workshop at Elevate: The Space in Stonehaven in February.  What a light, bright spacious studio to work in with a very warm welcome from Creative Director, Kate, who kept us well supplied with refreshments.

Workshop tutor, Helen, who's appropriately named business is Far From Dull Ceramics, knew arming beginners with wet clay could be challenging.  We started the day making toadstools to give us some hands-on experience of the raw material most potters use.  Mine stood up at least but were trickier to fashion than you'd imagine for their diminutive size!

Helen then handed us each a piece of leather-hard clay.  Though partially dried, it's much easier to manipulate.  You can see what we're going to be making just in front of my coffee mug.

There were lots of tools on offer to make a range of marks, textures and shapes on the clay and we were encouraged to experiment and try everything out.  As well as classic modelling tools, some impressions were made with old computer parts!

With this confidence building practice under our belts, we set about the business of the day - to make a wee hoose.  Helen is well known for her whimsical pottery and I'd seen her wee hooses at local fairs.  What fun to be able to make one of my own!

Helen cut us each a piece of extruded clay, according to our desired house height, and demonstrated how to shape the gable ends.

Then it was time to add all that lovely decoration we'd practised.  

This was so absorbing that I hardly took any photos.  By the time I did, I'd added a doorstep, fashioned a 'cat' to sit on it, textured the walls, cut out the windows and stamped some flowers to grow up the back wall.  I got carried away when I found a set of alphabet stamps and made a sign to go above the door.  Before I knew it, I'd created the happy place of my dreams - my very own yarn shop!

Helen offered us a selection of pre-prepared patterned sheets so we could make our rooves.  I chose to curl mine like an oriental pagoda once I'd secured it in place, created the roof ridge and added a chimney.  We also discussed what colour glaze we might like as Helen would add that to our wee hooses during the firing process.  I chose turquoise.

Once construction was complete, this most enjoyable workshop was at an end.  

Helen Timperley of Far from Dull Ceramics

With Helen's colourfully glazed examples for inspiration, everyone made a wee hoose very personal to them.

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A short while passed and I heard that I could collect my wee hoose from Helen as firing was complete.  I was so excited to see the finished result.

I'll never own a yarn shop - but this is the next best thing I reckon!

You can find Helen here:

Website https://www.farfromdull.co.uk/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/FarFromDullCeramics/?locale=en_GB

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/farfromdullceramics/

Keep up with the latest workshop news at Elevate: The Space

https://www.elevatehealthuk.com/what-s-on-1

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