New for November

Here we are, first of November already! It has been a busy few weeks for me with school holidays, events and new makes.

Earlier last month I was asked if I could make my Sheep Brooches as actual Shawl Pins so I sourced some suitable pins and got to work on these right away.

The pins measure 8cm long with the sheepie bit measuring 2.5cm in diameter. They are great for keeping thick layers of knitwear together be it shawls, scarves, cardigans, cloaks or cowls and as a few have pointed out, they can be used as stitch markers as well.

Sheepie Shawl Pins

£18

I tried my hand at my first big felt picture a few weeks ago. It's quite big for me anyway as I am used to working small scale but I wanted to have a go at a larger piece.

I got a fabulous carded batt from Clive at Gongcrafts when we were at Perth Festival of Yarn. The fibre was perfect for making an aurora picture, with strands of angelina and bright lime greens. I added shiny silver dots to the sky for stars and iridescent accents to the sea which reflect the light quite magnificently. The picture measures 80 x 50 cm and was quite tough on the arms to roll! I have it in my Etsy shop now here

Aurora Borealis Over Islands

£345

I've also been working on some smaller framed pieces at 15 x 15 cm in 30 x 30 cm frames.

Sunflower Cottage

£95

Flower Lea Cottage 

£95

and Little Tree Cottage 

£95

These can all be found in my Etsy shop or from me at upcoming events.

My multipurpose pouches are back in stock in all three designs. Useful for so many things! I keep crochet hooks in one and my sunglasses in another.

Pouches £7.95

So you can find me this Saturday at Falkland Craft Market. Free entry. This market supports local artists and makers with stall fees going toward the upkeep of the community hall.

Falkland is such a lovely place to visit with beautiful gift shops, tea rooms, cafes and walks as well of course as the palace and gardens.

The Handmade Show is a real highlight of my year as not only do I get to take my work to my home town of Perth and sell at this fabulous event but I get to meet up with other fantastic artists and makers whose work I admire greatly.

Check out the exhibitors list here 

My boxes have been selling like hot cakes over the last few weeks so I am doing my best to make more for my Etsy shop and for my events.

These two are hot off the work table this week.

Harris Tweed and Felt Box

7 x 7 x 7 cm 

£35

10 x 10 x 6 cm £40

So hopefully I'll see some of you at one of the events in the next few weeks. My last event of the year is at The Loft, Ardross Farm Shop, Elie. This is a lovely two day event of Saturday 26th & Sunday 27th November 9 - 5pm

Autumn Fairs in Fife and Perthshire

I had a brilliant start to my Autumn events season on the first weekend in October. It was lovely to be back in Falkland on the Saturday and Perth Festival of Yarn on the Sunday was a great success! It was heartening to know that many visitors came because they had seen the events advertised online so here is an update about more to come.

I will be at the Pitcairngreen Green Village Hall Annual Fair on Saturday 22nd October, 10 - 3.30pm.

 This is a lovely event with tea, coffee and home baking as well as a good variety of stalls. I have been exhibiting at this fair for over 10 years and it's always nice to go back and see familiar faces.

I've been busy restocking my Etsy shop as well with new makes.

Brooches £12

Next up after Pitcairngreen is Falkland Craft Market again on Saturday 5th November.

I will have my full range of items with me and hopefully some new framed pictures as well.

Sheep Earrings £18

Sheep Brooches £18

Sheep Pendants £24

My 7 x 7 x 7 cm Boxes are very popular so I have been making more of them. Made with my own felt and lovely Harris Tweed, this size is £35.

Later in November on Sunday 20th, I will be at The Handmade Show in Perth Concert Hall.

This year's show is shaping up to be excellent with new makers exhibiting along side some firm favourites.

My new coasters have been a big hit both online and offline. I got little boxes for them making them an ideal gift, especially easy to post!

Coasters £14.95

Later in November I'll be In The Loft at Ardross Farm Shop near Elie on Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th 9 - 5 each day. This is a lovely two day event, up above the farm shop and well worth a visit if you are in the East Neuk that weekend.

So it's a busy time keeping up with everything. 

Please feel free to get in touch with any questions you may have about my work or any of the upcoming events.

aileenclarkecrafts@yahoo.com

Saturday 1st October Falkland Craft Market and Sunday 2nd October Perth Festival of Yarn

Events season is upon me and it all kicks off this weekend with Falkland Craft Market this Saturday and Perth Festival of Yarn on Sunday

Falkland Craft Market is a great place to shop local here in North Fife with a wide variety of local artists and makers exhibiting their work. It's the perfect opportunity to see what's new from me as this is my first event since August and I have been very busy.

Perth Festival of Yarn in The Salutation Hotel, South St, Perth on Sunday is shaping up to be a great day out for all fibre and knitting enthusiasts.

The complete line up of vendors is 

Gongcrafts 
The Border Tart / Blue Moon Indigo 
Mothy and the Squid
My Mama Knits
ThisBoy
Eva Christie Hand Knitting
Melted Moglet Dyeworks
Moulin Yarns
Aileen Clarke Crafts
Capercaillie Kilts
Proggy and Tweed
Lagom Felt Studio
The Haberdashery Project
Rosedean Ryelands
Ewenique Fibres
Wee County Yarns

£3 entry

I have a new set of four coasters just in this week. I have chosen to mix the designs in the set up a bit to include my new hare picture and the dragonflies which have been so popular.

I still have some calendars available and will have them at both events.

And I have been busy making new textile and resin jewellery pieces including pendants, earrings and bracelets.

Hope to see some of you there and I will post some photos here next week. 

Upcoming Events for Autumn 2016 plus New Cards and Cushions

After a long summer break from making and blogging, it's back to work now with preparations for all my upcoming events this Autumn!

I had this idea for a felted hare picture back in June and finally got time to make it once our schools went back mid August.

The original measures 20 x 20 cm and comes complete with mount and frame. The outer edge of the frame measures 36 x 36 cm.

Hare Among the Wildflowers

£145

One of the reasons for making the picture was to have it printed into cards and notebooks.

Cards £2.50

Notebooks £5.95

I also had it printed onto cushions!

Cushions £40

Other new cushion designs include Gardener's Cottage and Drying Day at The Bothy.

The originals of both of these pictures are still available in my Etsy shop here 

Other new card designs include Gardener's Cottage

Aurora and Stars

Dragonflies and Seathrift

Drying Day at The Bothy

and Winter's Garden.

The cards measure 12.5 x 12.5 cm and are all available individually at £2.50 each or as a set of six at £12 

Click here to see the card section of my shop.

My cards and jewellery are also available at The Rowan Tree Gift Shop in Falkland, right on the main street, opposite the palace.

Staring on Saturday 1st October, I have six events lined up for Autumn so far.

Saturday 1st October 2016 10 - 4pm - Falkland Craft Market, Falkland Village Hall, Back Wynd, Falkland, KY15 7BX. Free entry

Sunday 2nd october 2016 11 - 5pm - Perth Festival of Yarn, Moncrieffe suite, Salutation Hotel. South Street, Perth Entry £3

Saturday 22nd October 2016 10.30 - 3.30pm - Pitcairngreen Village Hall Craft Fair, by Almondbank, Perth Entry £3.50 includes refreshments and home baking.

Saturday 5th November 2016 10 - 4pm - Falkland Craft Market, Falkland Village Hall, Back Wynd, Falkland, KY15 7BX. Free entry

Sunday 20th November 2016 10.30 - 4.30pm - The Handmade Show, Perth Concert Hall, Mill Street, Perth. Free Entry

Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th November 9 - 5pm- The Loft at Ardross farm Shop, Elie. Free Entry

I'm particularly looking forward to Perth Festival of Yarn on Sunday 2nd October.

Other vendors include

Gongrafts,

Blue Moon Indigo/The Border Tart,

Mothy and the Squid,

My Mama Knits,

ThisBoy,

Eva Christie Hand Knitting,

Moulin Yarns,

The Queen of Purls

To keep up to date with this event, see the Facebook page here

So I have been busy building up my stock of Felt Sheep Jewellery and Textile Trinket Boxes.

I also have my 2017 Calendar out.

The calendar features 12 different images, one for each month plus a whole calendar page per month to write on.

£10 each 

For daily updates on new makes etc from me, I am now using Instagram more often. I am @aileenclarkecrafts

I'll leave you with a nice sunset we enjoyed while on holiday in Ireland in July. The photo is taken from the very end of the Dingle peninsula, Co Kerry. This is one of my most favourite places to be!

Some Beautiful Days in June

We have kicked off the summer season with a long weekend camping at Gairloch! Our schools always get a Monday holiday at the start of June and we often try and fit in a short break, a trial run camping in preparation for the summer holidays. This year we really had our hearts set on going back to Gairloch. We spent a few nights there three years ago at the Myrtle Bank Hotel for our anniversary but really wanted to go back and camp at Big Sand. It was all touch and go right up to the last minute as our car had to go into the garage but we got it back just in time, threw everything in the boot and off we went.

Evening at Big Sand beach, Gairloch.

The weather here in Fife had been stunning all week but we hit rain half way up the A9 and it was a bit cloudy when we got to Gairloch. We could see the sun shining brightly on the Isle of Skye showing up the contours of The Quiraing and the Cuillin. 

Zooming in on The Quiraing

The campsite was great! We got a lovely spot over looking the bay with the Skye in the distance and the beach just over the dunes. My favourite kind of camping.

The weather turned out to be absolutely stunning, such a rare thing when camping! It wasn't even windy! We spent the days beach combing and found lots of starfish.

Just half an hour up the road from Gairloch is this spectacular beach at Mellon Udrigle. So perfect with white sand, turquoise water and the mountains of Assynt to the north.

Perfect picnic spot.

Another stunning beach just south of Gairloch is Red Point. I thought I had been to Red Point before but it was windy and raining and we didn't explore very far. There is a beach just down from the car park but if you walk across the sheep fields through the farm you come to this beach below.

This is where the film 'What We Did on Our Holiday' was filmed. Such an interesting beach with dunes behind, those wonderful views of the Torridon mountains and Skye beyond and that wonderfully clear blue water. We spent hours looking for treasures among the stones and shells and rock pools out round the islets. 

More starfish and this crazy monstrous thing!

We are so thankful that got such lovely weather to enjoy such a special place.

We spent our evenings back at the beach by the campsite enjoying beautiful sunsets with views out to Harris and Lewis and the Isle of Skye.

A wee fire helped keep the midgies away.

I do love a fire on the beach!

So a busy month ahead preparing for my stall at Limekilns River Festival on Saturday 2nd July and Aberfeldy Highland games on Saturday 13th August. Got a few things to make for both of those and I want to work on some new seascapes having soaked up lots of inspiration!

My Etsy shop is open as always but may be closed for a few weeks in July.