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

Three Trees in a Row

 Craft workshops appear to be like buses - none for ages then three come along at once!

This is Tanya - also known in woolly circles as TJ Frog or The Button Lady - who runs a creative business focused on Dorset Buttons from her home on Skye.  We first met a few years ago at a yarn show, and we're pictured here at last August's Wool At Portsoy event.  Though I've been at gatherings where Tanya's been teaching the heritage craft of making Dorset Buttons, I've never been quick enough to secure a place.  They're so popular!  

When I learned a few months ago that Tanya was running a virtual Dorset Button Tree Brooch workshop on Zoom this spring, I signed up right away.  

A comprehensive pack of all the materials I'd need landed in my post box ahead of the class.  It included everything, right down to a sewing needle and thread!  Most of the class participants hailed from the US, but one or two other ladies from the UK had signed up too.  We were quite a jolly band as we listened along to Tanya's patient instructions and followed her fully illustrated guidebook.

Using the wool and base provided, we worked through the processes of casting, slicking, laying and rounding.  Honestly - it's a whole new language but what I'm actually doing is covering the ring and fashioning a tree shape.

Quite pleased mine looked like Tanya's one in the picture.

I opted for a mixed kit to enable me to make a spring inspired pink blossom tree as well as an autumnal one.  It was the latter I concentrated on during the class, adding lots of French knots in browns, golds and yellows then I stitched on tiny seed beads from the kit in complimentary sparkly shades.

I think my finished brooch will look great on my hand knit cardigan.

Though I've enough materials to make several more brooches, my next workshop was only three days later and I was soon immersed in felt making.  Now, if you've read my blog before, you'll know I've made felt before on several occasions - so why would I go on a wet felting course?

The most obvious answer I suppose, is to learn something new.  I've done more needle felting than felt making so I jumped at the chance to take a wet felting class with Léla of The Green Boat when I learned she was going to be hosting a workshop near me at Cookston Crafts Studio.  I probably have all the materials at home, and potentially could've spent Saturday afternoon making felt but the bottom line is, I probably wouldn't.  Enjoying a course away from the house, and the pressure of household chores, encourages creativity I believe, as well as providing the opportunity to meet new people and make new friends.

Or it would if I hadn't walked in and immediately discovered that my old friend, Jo, had enrolled on the same course!  So companionable.  Everything we were going to need was neatly laid out in front of us and we got to work creating a base square from carded white wool, some soap, water and a bit of elbow grease.

Encouraged to choose from the wide range of coloured wool tops and yarns available to create our designs, I (rather predictably) gravitated towards the turquoises and greens.

I love the eclectic array of materials required to make felt other than the yarn - there's net curtain to protect the loose fibres while they're still flyaway, bubble wrap to provide texture, and insulation foam to roll out the felt.  Liberal sprinklings of water from the adorable watering can, more bar soap and plenty of rubbing by hand, soon make the fibres stick together and shrink to create a tight weave fabric.  Towelling underneath absorbs excess damp and a waterproof cover beneath that protects the table!  

Léla encouraged us all to incorporate undyed natural silky fibres into our piece and I added some to my horizon.  The lustrous texture following the felting process was unexpectedly beautiful.  Always something new to learn.

What might have been a seascape turned into a landscape with a feature tree as I let myself be guided by our encouraging tutor and my chosen palette.

The joy of working alongside others at a well run workshop is that we all have the potential to create the same thing, yet we all make something very different, reflecting our own colour choices and creativity.  

The boot was on the other foot at my third workshop in a week as I was the tutor!  

Michelle from Kemnay Library asked if I'd run a short class there during the Aberdeenshire Wellbeing Festival.  I'd only an hour so opted to show the participants how to needle felt this wee cherry tree. 

I had to make a practice one beforehand to familiarise myself with what to do but was able to finish mine in 30 minutes, giving me confidence that the ladies could make theirs in an hour.

What a pleasant way to spend an afternoon  - seven participants, a table strewn with tactile textiles, welcome refreshments from the lovely library staff and plenty of chatter.  We were also treated to the delightful sound of the Spectrum Singers, performing in the library as part of the festival, as we gently overran our allotted hour.  No one seemed to mind.

Just look at the lovely trees the ladies created.  

It's a joy to be able to share my love of craft with others and I was especially impressed with this needle felted forest as most of the class had not done this before.

Whilst the proximity of these workshops is not the norm for me, it is possible that the choice of subject matter, all these trees, may have been in part governed by attending three classes in one week!

And I can thoroughly recommend TJ Frog and The Green Boat if you fancy a workshop too.

Sea Treasure

Who can resist picking up shells and pebbles during a bracing beach walk?

The Dhorlin (causeway), Davaar Island, Mull of Kintyre

Certain beaches, though, yield more than just sand and seaweed.  Tumbled and tossed in the waves, smoothed by abrasion with the rocks, bottles and jars cast into the sea as trash end up on the beach, smoothed by time and frosted by salt, as the treasure known to beachcombers worldwide as sea-glass.  

When I spotted on social media that artist Shelagh Swanson was holding a workshop to create mosaics from sea-glass and sea plastic in Fittie Community Hall recently, I couldn't wait to sign up and my pal, Carol, decided to join me.

I had taken along some sea-glass I'd collected myself from Davaar Island causeway and Stonehaven beach.  My husband thoughtfully found some sea-glass for me on Crail seashore in Fife on our most recent holiday.  I wanted to incorporate that too if I could.

After Shelagh welcomed us to the class, a large tub of sea-glass, sea pottery and pebbles was tipped out for us.  What fun to scrabble through and select our precious pieces. 

Though this tub of sea plastic looks appealingly colourful, it was sad to learn how little time it had taken Shelagh to collect it from her local beach.  That, too, was provided for us to add to our pictures.

After selecting a frame and removing the back, Shelagh suggested we sketched a design on paper and laid our sea treasure on top before gluing it directly onto the glass.  I took some clipart images I'd printed with me for inspiration as I wanted to create a tree with sea-glass leaves. 

This piece of salvaged rope untwisted cooperatively into branches and roots for my tree and I selected tiny fragments of lime plastic and wee bits of green sea-glass for my leaves.  

Gluing the pieces into place was pleasantly therapeutic.  I snipped the threads of yellow rope and used them to augment the tree roots.

I kept dipping back into the tub of sea treasure until I'd found all the bits I needed.

Shelagh was always on hand to encourage us and finesse our designs.  You can see Carol's picture in the background beside mine.  Her sea pottery vase of sea plastic flowers was taking shape as she worked beside me.  Once our compositions were all stuck down, Shelagh glued our frames into place for us and our art works were complete.

It's always a joy when the class shares its artwork and everyone admires what everyone else has made.  They all kindly allowed me to take a photo of their picture.  Some people painted on their glass.  Many had nautical themes.  All are unique and wonderful.

Carol and I, very happy at the end of the class 

Here's my finished tree in the Community Hall propped against its soothing blue walls.

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Whilst I was at the workshop, I remembered having fun during a crafty morning spent with my cousin, Stephanie, last February at her home in Fife.  

She and her family have turned beachcombing into an art form! 

Selecting pretty pieces from their extensive trove of sea pottery and sea-glass, we both created pictures.  I made a wee bird whilst Stephanie created a lovely vase of flowers.

I might just have been influenced by the flock of pretty birdies in Stephanie's house.

But I never framed my sea pottery bird when I got home.  When I looked at it, it always felt unfinished.  Incomplete.   

So I took it to pieces, soaked off the old glue and decided to re-make it, just as we had at Shelagh's workshop.  

I attached the pottery directly onto the glass with clear adhesive and added a wee twig for my bird to sit on.  A few sea-glass leaves completed my composition.

I'm much happier with my sea pottery bird now, seen here with my glass cooker splashback behind it.

And he can join my tree in my personal gallery of sea treasure!