Exclusively Highlands Art, Craft and Food Fair September 28th and 29th

Busy, busy week here preparing for the two day fair at Birnam Hotel this weekend.

I will have my new 2014 Calendar with me.

£10

I have also had some of the pictures from the Calendar made into cards and will have my whole range with me.

'Glencoe' Printed Card

£2.50

'Apple Tree Cottage' Printed Card

£2.50

Some new felt originals in lovely square frames will aslo be available

'Gleann Beag Cottage'

£85

'Creaggan Cottage'

£65

'An Grianan Cottage'

£65

I have made lots of pendants and earrings, mostly in blues, purples and turquoises.

 

Also some little felt heart pendants.

And I have an absolute stack of leaf shaped brooches to choose from. I also have Ivy leaf shaped ones as well.

I will also have a selection on Sheep Brooches, Pendants and Earrings available.

Brooches £18

Earrings £18

So as you can see it has been a busy time building up this stock, and I still have things to make! 

Hope to see you there.

Autumn Art, Craft and Food Fair at Birnam Hotel

Playing At Shops in a Shed

On Saturday I had the pleasure of attending at Open Day at Gillies and Mackay, makers of fine sheds and summer houses an Errol, near Perth.

The idea was to install various artists, crafters and beauticians in different sheds and summer houses to show how they could be used for more than just sitting in or for storing a few tools.

 



 

 

 

I really enjoyed playing at shops in this beautiful summer house.

There was plenty of room for a little work table as well and if I did have this one at home in the garden, there would be room for a comfy chair to relax in and plenty of shelving as well.

 

 

As you can see, it was a lovely day on Saturday. Really bright and frosty in the morning but warming as the sun came round and filled our sheds with lots of light.

This one was inhabited for the day by The Beauty Room, Errol.

 

 

This incredible structure below is a proper living space complete with wood burning stove! It would make a wonderful home office, studio, guest accomodation or therapy room. It was being used for the day by a lady offering massage, manicures and Partylite Candles.

 

 

Another of the summer houses was occupied by Sutherland based artist Catherine Mackay. Catherine also makes beautiful enamel jewellery. Her butterfly pendants are absolutely stunning!

 

 

 

 

Even the smaller of the summer houses would make a great garden studio. In fact, I rather fancied the potting shed as it had a big window, lovely long work bench and plenty of shelving.

I will carry on day dreaming though and continue to work from my little space in our cottage. It's handy as we have a wood burning stove that keeps everything toasty through the winter and I can still look out onto the garden.

 

 

Two artists I met during my visit to Perthshire Open Studios earlier in the month do work from garden studios.

 

 

Ceri White Ceramics, Dunning

and Lorna Radbourne, Catriona Glass, also at Dunning.

 

 

 

 

 

If you fancy a visit to Gillies and Mackay, they are right next to the Cairn o' Mohr winery which has a lovely cafe, wine shop and tasting room.

 

 

 

 

Don't all these bottles look lovely with the sun shining through them!

My favourites are Spring Oak leaf and Elderberry.

 

 

 

View across The Carse of Gowrie, Perthshire

 

 

I spent some time this week listing new things in my Etsy shop and spent all day yesterday making felt so look out for lots of new pictures, boxes and jewellery coming soon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Handmade Show

Thank you to everyone who stopped by the Craft Fair at Pitcairngreen Village Hall on Saturday. I think it was the busiest one ever! I certainly had a great day and really enjoyed meeting customers old and new.

I was up at 6.30 this morning making lists of everything I need to do this week in order to be ready for The Handmade Show this Sunday.

Sunday 6th November 2011

Perth Concert Hall

Mill Street 

Perth

11-5pm

Free Entry

I absolutely LOVE taking my work out to fairs and shows and because I don't do it every weekend I never get fed up with it and always get really excited about upcoming events.

The Handmade Show looks set to be an extravaganza of talented designer-makers from around Scotland and beyond with a wide range of arts and crafts on display. I have 'met' one of my fellow exhibitors via Facebook and I am really looking forward to meeting her and her work in real life.

Alison Moore hails from Orkney and brings with her a stunning array of individually handmade jewellery pieces made from copper and sterling silver.

I'll be back on here later in the week with photos of new things to tempt you along on Sunday.

Meanwhile if you are on Facebook, why not become a fan of the new Open Studios North Fife Facebook page. This will keep you up to date with local events that our participants are involved in throughout the year as well as updates on the main event as it draws nearer.

Such a Great Time

Well I feel like I've been away for a month not just eight days.
Five days on Skye and three at Glenfarg Folk Feast and I am just full to the brim with new ideas and stories to tell.
What a great time we had on Skye. Stunning weather the day we arrived with fabulous views over to the mainland with it's snow capped peaks.

We did get a couple of days of wind and rain but I didn't mind at all especially as we had not taken the tent and could listen to the howling gale from the comfort of the hostel.
It's always a good laugh staying in a hostel. I like the sociable aspect of it and enjoy meeting people from all over the world. Many a game of cards was played and the children felt totally at home and were exceptionally well behaved.

We took the opportunity to walk the Quiraing this year.
We parked at the top car park and walked all the way down through this spectacular scenery.

The path was easy going and mostly down hill. We met a few people coming at it the other way and they were pretty peched out. I'm glad we took the easier option. Our wee one got a shoulder high from Daddy most of the way (pretty impressive as he was also carrying the back pack!) and my son had to be goaded a bit here and there to carry on. They loved the little lochs on the downwards track though and spent ages throwing stones in while we spoke to a nice photographer chap.

The Quiraing itself is an amazing geological feature where the land has slipped and left a towering cliff faced ridge that runs for miles down this peninsula. Climbers and experienced hikers do all sorts of mad things up here to get on top of the ridge but we were happy to just wander through it taking in some of the best views that Skye has to offer.

The other great thing about Skye are all the fantastic galleries, studios and museums there are to visit. No matter what the weather there is something interesting to do.

The Museum at Staffin

This little museum is run by a local crofter who we had the pleasure of meeting the day we visited. The museum displays a marvelous selection of dinosaur fossils found locally here at Staffin. It's a fascinating area with a tremendous history.

One of the places I was very excited to visit was Shilasdair, The Skye Yarn company.
They dye all their own wool here with plants from Skye and around the world. There wasn't any dying going on while we were there but it was still worth the visit. The shop and workshops are situated on the Waternish peninsula which is to the north west of the Island. The area really reminded me of the Dingle peninsula in the west of Ireland with rugged headlands and open views out to sea.

Rainbow Yarns at Shilasdair

These beautiful cashmeres really caught my attention especially that gorgeous sea green one.

Sheepskin Rugs and Throws at Skye Skyns

Just down the road from Shilasdair was Skye Skyns. I'll have to write a separate blog post about here as we really enjoyed our visit. Look at that stunning view from the showroom though!

Ian Williams Ceramics

Next door to Skye Skyns is the lovely Brae Fasach Studio. We met artist and ceramist Ian Williams here and enjoyed chatting with him about his work and the area.

Heaven's Ocean Studio

One of the highlights of our visit to Skye was visiting fellow Mixed Media artist and blogger Emma Siedle-Collins at her fantastic Heaven's Ocean Studio. Again we had such a lovely time that I'll write a separate post about our visit there.

So as the sun is shining and Spring seems to finally be here I must go and tackle the gigantic laundry pile and get some of it hung out to dry. Then I might get a chance to start on some of the new ideas that are brewing after all this great inspiration.