Makers Market at The Steeple, Newburgh

I had a lovely day on Saturday at The Makers Market in Newburgh. It was gloriously sunny and warm so I felt really privileged to have a stall outside for a change, especially one as fab as this! 

The stall was hand built by local artist/blacksmith and fellow Open Studios participant, Jim Shears. He plans to make another and they will be available to hire from Twist Fibre Crafts Studio.

It was fabulous to have so much space on the stand and plenty of room behind my shelf unit for packing sold items.

Here is Jim at his portable forge during the market.

My Mum popped along to see me and bought us coffee's and delicious lemon meringue Tiffin from Hatter's and Co's pop up cafe in the courtyard. 

Next to me on the other side were Rustic Simplicity with their gorgeous oak barrel furniture and cupboards.

Below is Newburgh based Jason Shearer playing his Tank Drum or Yantra as he calls it. I loved the sounds this instrument makes and asked Jason about it. Turns out he makes them from old gas bottles! If you fancy one, Jason will make you one for £150.

Contact jason.shearer@rocketmail.com

There was a great atmosphere at the Market with local session musicians playing tunes throughout the afternoon. These guys can be found regularly at The Stag Inn in Falkland every Wednesday evening from 8pm.

Today has been spent tidying up the work space and organising my stock. Lots of new pieces have been listed on Etsy.

Pendants £22

Bothan Ruadh

£35

Candlewick Cottage

£65

Now it's back to the felt making to build up a stock of new Trinket Boxes and start on my pictures for next year's calendar. 

Hope everyone is having a productive month. June can be such a lovely time of year with everything being so lush and a bit warmer at last! Hoping to do plenty of sewing outside soon.

And The Sun Shone!

After a sun shiny three day break up to Gairloch last month, we did not expect to be heading west for another short break this month but with a Monday holiday on the 3rd June and a school inservice day on Tuesday we took a mad notion to go camping on Mull!

We headed straight for Fhionnphort and a mile and a bit along the road to the campsite at Fidden. We have been here before a few times and managed to even get the same spot beside the beach that we got the first time we ever went!

This was the view from the door of our tent.

And by some miracle the sun shone and it wasn't even that windy! Considering the last time we were here it rained so hard we couldn't hear ourselves speak inside the tent, we considered this to be fabulous weather, even though we still needed warm clothes.

Our neighbours included Oyster Catchers, Shelducks, Cuckoos and sheep.

The sea thrift was also out in abundance and to our astonishment, the whole of Mull was swathed in Bluebells!

I take back all my grumblings and groanings about the late Spring as if it had been a normal one, we'd have missed these by a good three weeks. The perfume in the air was glorious and I loved how they grew right down by the sea.

A day trip to Iona was a must as it's six years since we've been here and the North Beach is one of my favourite places ever!

The day dawned misty but it cleared to a glorious blue sky making the walk to the north end of the Island all the more enjoyable, listening to Corncrakes in the long grass as we went.

Another beach we visited back on Mull was this hidden beach at Knockvologan. We'd been here before as well but not since our honeymoon back in 2003. We had to goad our 8 year old daughter along as she couldn't understand why we didn't stop at the first beach or the second beach but we knew that the hike over to the third beach would be worth it and it was. When she saw the expanse of sand, off came the socks and shoes and she was away.

This abandoned boat was at the bottom of the path down to Knockvologan from the farm.

 Back at the campsite we enjoyed lovely clear evenings and a little fire on the beach.

On Monday night the sky turned the same colour as the heart of the fire!

 So it has been a busy week since we got back and I have been trying to get a few things finished for the Makers Market this Saturday at The Steeple in Newburgh. 

The Steeple is located at 67 High Street, Newburgh, directly across the road from Twist Fibre Craft Studio. The entrance is to the right of the clock tower, up the lane and the door is up the lane on the left.

Hope to see some of you there. I will have all my usual items with me including the new mugs and this new felt picture called 'Candlewick Cottage'.

Lots of Sheep Jewellery too.

And a selection of items shown in my previous blog post (just scroll down if you'd like to see).

May Makes

I had a lovely time with the ladies of the AWA (American Women's Association of Aberdeen) on Monday. I might be going back later in the year so I'll keep you all informed about that.

My next event is the Makers Market at The Steeple in Newburgh on Saturday June 8th

This week sees me getting all my available work photographed and listed

 in my Etsy Shop as well as working on commission pieces and other bits and pieces.

This Textile Trinket Box with Sea Shells is now available here

£32

I made quite a few little Harris tweed and felt boxes for Open Studios and only have two left!

Thankfully I have plenty of Tweed though so more of these coming soon.

Boxes £30

My Ivy Leaf Brooch Pins are proving to be very popular with all the purple ones sold out already. These gorgeous greens are still available though at £12 each.

More brooch pins. All of these brooches have an extra long brooch pin on them to allow them to be used as shawl pins or to keep draped cardigans closed at the front. They also look lovely on a lapel or hand bag and some of my customers tell me they wear them on their hat!

Harris Tweed and Felt Bird Brooch Pin

£12

All brooches available here

I have a few new Textile Jewellery pieces available as well.

I get asked a lot what these pendant and earring pieces are made from because people sometimes think they are fused glass.

When I used to make a lot of textile art cards and pictures, I loved the effect of the layered shimmery fabrics together and set about finding a way to make them wearable but durable. I came up with this idea to set the fabrics into pendant trays behind either resin or glass.

Pendants £22

These heart shaped earrings feature solid silver handmade ear wires by local jeweller 

Anne Miller.

 Heart Shaped Earrings with Handmade Ear Wires 

£18

Circle and Square Earrings from £15

For Open Studios this year I had a lot of my original felt pictures professionally framed.

This is 'Island Cottage and Boat' in it's beautiful frame from Robertson Fine Art in Glenrothes.

Island Cottage and Boat 

£195

Available here

I'm planning to make more pictures this size over the coming months and to make them available to be shipped worldwide in their lovely frames.

I also have one unframed piece available at the moment.

Harris Beach

£85

More of these coming soon as well.

So although we have had an extended winter and are still waiting for the warmer weather to arrive, I have been finding the temperatures soaring out in my wee shed!

It got up to 24 degrees in here the other day! SUN TRAP! So that's where I have been doing all my needle felting and hand sewing.

My new business cards also arrived last week. These grape hyacinth and primula have the sweetest scent an are so cheerful in my Lochbroom Pottery jug.

I will be continuing to list new items online this week and will hopefully get some more felt pictures finished really soon.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog.

Aileen.