Fun Felt Making Workshop with Aileen Clarke Crafts

Join Me for a Fun Felt Making Workshop 

on

Saturday 14th September 10 – 3pm

at

Off the Rails Arthouse, Ladybank, Fife, KY15 7JT

Morning

In this workshop we will make a wet felted flower brooch using merino and silk fibres. Learn how to form and layer three-dimensional flower shapes and how to make a felt ball for the centre. 

Afternoon

The afternoon will be spent exploring dry needle felting techniques. You will learn how to apply your own design to a background. Either bring your own idea or use one ready prepared. We will work into these designs using fibres, hand stitching and beads. 

£50 includes all materials, tea and coffee. 

Click here to book 

December Update with Lots of Gift Ideas

Well, that's all my craft fairs and events over for 2017 and what a fantastic time I had taking my wares out and about! 

I had to expand my stall at a few of the fairs I did as I struggle to fit everything on a 6ft table now.

Below was my stall 'In The Loft' at Ardross Farm Shop on the last weekend of November. I thoroughly enjoyed being back here near Elie. Although it was an exceptionally cold weekend, lots of people turned out for the fair and the fellow artists and makers were great fun.

This month I have been making as much of my work available online as I can. Lots of photos taken and edited! My Etsy shop is stocked right up with lots of lovely gift ideas.

My lens cloths are back in stock with two new designs added.

Hare Among The Wildflowers and Drying Day at The Bothy.

At £3.50 each these make a great little gift or a treat for yourself.

I also have some new canvas prints in. Light weight and easy to post. 

All these ones measure 20 x 20 cm at £20. 

I had a few seascapes printed as well. 

I think these two go particularly well together.

 20 x 30 cm

£30

and I have a few larger ones at 35 x 35 cm 

£40.

My tea towels also make a great gift, easy to post.

£10 each, machine washable at 40ºc. I washed and ironed one just to make sure and it came out beautifully.

My little keepsake boxes have been flying off all over the world and I only have one left in this size and a couple of smaller ones at the moment.

7 x 7 x 7 cm 

£35

I'll need to make more background felt and get some more made this week or next.

I have lots of pendants and earrings available in various shops and galleries including Silver Linings in Perth, The Atholl Gallery in Dunkeld, The Rowan Tree in Falkland and Maisie and Mac in Cupar.

I am doing my best to keep my Etsy shop stocked up with them as well with more earrings being added today. 

Pendants £26, Earrings £18

I love making my leaf and bird brooches and have quite a few listed. 

Brooches £12

My next event will be Edinburgh Yarn Festival in March! It's a three day event this time from Thursday 15th to Saturday 17th March at Edinburgh Corn Exchange. The social space is being expanded and with the market place running for three days, it's set to be even bigger and better!

The Exhibitor list is available to browse on the EYF website here

 I am so excited to be there again in 2018! This is such a vibrant and inspiring event and I am already planning my wares and thinking about how best to layout my stand.

If you are planning to attend, it is best to sign up to the EYF mailing list as important ticket info is sent out in January.

I will also be taking part in Open Studios North Fife in May 2018. 

That seems like a long way away but these things have to be planned well in advance and you can take a sneaky peek at the participants list on the OSNF website here . It's quite handy having a name that starts with A. It often puts me at the top of the list! 

I'll leave you with this photo I took in Anstruther last week on a rare day off. I'm very much looking forward to some time off over the holidays, a chance to gather inspiration and recharge in readiness for a busy 2018!

A Day of Rainbows, Some New Makes and New Arrivals.

Saturday was indeed a day of rainbows in more ways than one!

I decided to take a run over to Strathearn Fleece and Fibre near Muthill in Perthshire to stock up on some lovely hand dyed fibre.

Linda rears blue faced Leicester and texel sheep on her farm and the fibre she has available as rovings and as spun yarn is just a treat for any fibre lover.

I got well stocked up with all my favourite colours and can't wait to get started with it this week.

I also popped in to see Tracy at Lagom Felt Studio in Crieff as she has very kindly asked me to be her featured artist later this year.

Tracy offers a wide range of felting fibres and materials as well as some spun yarns, drum carded batts, feting kits and various notions. She also offers tuition. You can check out her website here for more info.

I'm looking forward to exhibiting here late May and throughout June.

Last week I enjoyed working with my stash of hand dyed North Ronaldsay fibres from Orkney. These fibres give a lovely rustic look to landscape pieces and are very enjoyable to work with.

 

Having needle felted my first collie dog back in January, I had another go and set this one to guarding a little flock of sheep on the hill.

'Gaurding the Flock' 

£95

This matching piece I have just called 'Three Sheep' and priced it slightly lower at £75 as there was less work involved.

It has been a busy time preparing for Edinburgh Yarn Festival 2017 which is less than three weeks away on March 10th and 11th.

I have been hoarding my makes and not putting them on Etsy as I am running out of time to make things.

Here are some finished trinket boxes that will be coming with me to the event.

I have also had a delivery of new printed products including mugs, mouse mats, zipped pouches, notebooks and cards. These are all available on Etsy here

Some new Sheep Brooches and Pendants have also made their way onto Etsy. I probably won't be adding any more until mid March.

If you are planning on coming to Edinburgh Yarn Festival, you can see the venue layout here

You can find me on stand J6.

Looking forward to seeing some of you there.

As usual, if you have any enquiries about my work, please feel free to email me aileenclarkecrafts@yahoo.com

❤ 

Dates for your Diary 2017

2017 is shaping up to be another busy year kicking off with Edinburgh Yarn Festival on Friday 10th and Saturday 11th March. 

The festival is held at Edinburgh Corn Exchange and I will have a stand in the main exhibition hall this year which is very exciting. I have started making stock already!

Lots of Sheepy Shawl Pins, Brooches, Pendants and Earrings will be coming with me as well as new mugs, coasters, cushions, notebooks, bags, pouches and more!

Tickets go on sale soon. For more info see the EYF Website here 

New Harris Tweed and Felt Trinket Boxes are on the work table as well. 

This size measures 7 x 7 x 7 cm at £35

Other sizes include 10 x 10 x 6 cm at £40 and 12 x 12 x 7 cm at £45

I'm concentrating on my big events this Spring rather than trying to do lots of little shows in between so my next event after EYF will be Open Studios North Fife at the end of April. It's a week early this year so that it falls on the May bank holiday weekend. Brochures will be available mid to late March.

I will be at my usual venue in Ladybank and hope to have lots of new framed pieces made as well as my usual selection of jewellery and gits.

For daily updates you can find me on Facebook and Instagram

❤

A Peek Into Venue 28 during Open Studios North Fife

I can hardly believe that Open Studios North Fife is over for another year. 

If you missed it or were too far away to visit, here are some photos of my venue.

The place I have been using in Ladybank was taken over and renovated by Gillian MacIntosh of Kingdom Osteopaths last year. Gillian has made a fabulous job of redesigning the space and very generously took some days off and left me three empty rooms to exhibit in.

I transformed the main room into a display area with sales desk where visitors could browse my whole range of items and purchase if they wanted to.

The newly painted walls in a pale sage were a perfect backdrop and complimented the colours I use in my work perfectly.

An inner wall and door have been removed letting so much more light into the room.

Having such a wide range of printed goods really adds colour to the display.

My sets of four coasters were a big hit with visitors this year.

Both my big felted pictures on the wall above are away to happy new homes.

We always try to give people a nice place to sit and have a cup of tea if they have been to lots of studios and are feeling a bit tired.

Gillian's waiting room was easy to make cosy with some artwork and flowers and the shelves filled with lots of colourful items.

My new cushions nearly sold out!

Of course Open Studios is not all about selling. It's about letting people see into our creative spaces and explain a little about the processes that go into what we produce.

I always try to recreate my work space by bringing as much as I can down to the venue for the weekend.

 This year I did a bit of demonstrating with the embellisher machine and was able to show how wet felt is made as well.

Some of the materials I use in my work.

Fibres laid out ready to be wet felted.

A little shelving area with some bits and bobs and gifts from other makers. 

I find glass jars so useful for keeping oddments of wool in. You can find the scraps easily plus they add a splash of colour.

It has been a big job taking everything back home again and setting up my work space ready to start again. It's all looking spick and span though and I am raring to go!

Today had to be spent restocking my online shop. Lots of new things have been added.

You can browse my shop here

If you are new to shopping with me and have any problems, please feel free to get in touch at aileenclarkecrafts@yahoo.com

I'm looking forward to May and June being slightly less busy than March and April. It was a bit of a marathon jumping from one event to the next and having to make so much stock in between. I have plenty to be getting on with though and will keep you up to date with what's new on here, on Facebook and on Instagram.

Thank you very much to all of you who came along at the weekend. Your support for the event is much appreciated ❤

September Update

As we definitely move into Autumn here in Scotland I am working flat out to keep shops stocked, get felt made and new items thought up.

I bought this brilliant little vintage wash board in The Little Curio Shop in Dunkeld recently. Not only was it irresistibly cute but it helps me with my felt making.

The shop itself is just lovely. Full of vintage and antique finds with lovely scented candles burning. I felt like I'd stepped into the past. 

I have been working on lots of new brooches this month and have some out at a couple of new stockists.

An Cnoc in Crieff 

Room 15 in Oban

and

Studio 222 in Newburgh

My brooches have been popping up all over the internet too in various Etsy Treasuries and Folksy Features. It's great to have your work chosen for these as not only does it give extra exposure but it's heartening that out of the thousands of photos people upload every day to these sites, someone has spotted some of mine and deemed the items suitable for use in their feature.

Photography is something we all have to work on all of the time. Making and selling your work online is easy but getting your work noticed is another matter. Photography is a whole separate skill and not one that everyone finds easy to master. It has taken me about four years of trial and error to be finally taking photos that I am happier with. They are still not all good and there is always room for improvement. I don't have a great camera or a light box or even a day light bulb but I try my best with what I do have.

I entered this photo into the Craft Blog UK August Photo Competition and I'm delighted to say that I won! Along with a beautiful photo taken by Kiki's Umbrella, a wonderful maker of silver jewellery. 

Below are some more of my new textile rings.

I have some available in both my Etsy and Folksy Shops.

These are all truly Hebridean inspired with their shimmering turquoise sea colours.

I haven't forgotten our Hebridean adventure and all the inspiration gathered, I just haven't had time to do much with my ideas. I do plan on making some new seascapes but I have had commission pieces to work on as well as new stock for shops.

I do have lots of landscapes made though. None of them are available online yet but if you would like to know what's available just drop me a line

aileenclarkecrafts@yahoo.com

September Cottage

£35

And as if that's not enough to be getting on with I got my new harp strung! I sold the last one in April and couldn't get the strings on this until I had at least painted the base coat. I do plan to decorate it further but at least I can play it now the strings are on.

The harps are available from my friend Ian for £150 assembled and painted with a plain base coat. 

Regular visitors to my blog will remember Mr Fox that we found and rescued from the woods.

Well, what an adventure he has had over the summer!

He stowed away with us on holiday!

Seems like he fancied a Hebridean adventure as well. Here he is on the ferry from Mallaig with the Isle on Eigg in the background.

I have to say he was very well behaved. He made a few friends in the Tweed Shop in Tarbert.

I did have to stop him from eating all the chocolate though.

He and my little girl did a great job of looking so cute that the shop assistant actually bought them a bag of locally made tablet! Hyper children and foxes on ferries with mummies that feel seasick.....hmmm. Just as well dad has good sea legs!

When we took him back to Muddy Boots Farm Shop and Cafe for the craft fair in August, we were really sad at the thought of giving him back. However Trina and Paddy were more than delighted for my daughter to keep him as they think he has found a nice new home : )

His name is now Foxee, that's how my little girl spells Foxy. Cute.