Moving into March

I always assume that I will have lots of time to play and experiment with new ideas throughout January and February but things have remained really busy here for me so far this year with commissioned pictures and requests for various other items.

 I'm trying my best to make plenty of original felt landscape pictures available but so far only have one up for sale.

Aubrieta Cottage came from inspiration gathered last summer. A cottage behind a wall that I saw on Kerrera combined with cascades of aubrieta along a wall I saw in Dunkeld. 

I have always loved the sight of aubrieta tumbling down a dry stone wall so here is my first attempt to depict it in felt.

Aubrieta Cottage

£85

Measures 19 x 21 cm and comes with 32.5 x 34 cm Mount, Wrapped in Cellophane

Available here

I took a mad notion to move my whole work space to a completely different part of the cottage last week. My efforts to contain my sprawling piles of felt and boxes of fibre, fabric, wool, tweed etc etc to one corner of our open plan kitchen/sitting room were in vain so I moved the lot to another room.

This room was originally a smiddy many moons ago but had already been converted into a spacious room before we moved in. We have used it as a sitting room in the summer in the past but as we had no summer to speak of last year, we just stayed through in the warm by the fire and hardly used this area so I've taken it over for now.

 

I must say I am loving having all this space! I've been working here for a week now and have even managed to keep it tidy.

The best thing is that the area I used to work in is so tidy now and I have my favourite windowsill back.

I have since hung a beautiful trailing ivy up here and rearranged the bits and pieces. I think it will change according to the season and what happens to be my favourite object at any given time.

 Another fantastic advantage of moving room is that I can now see right out into the garden and watch the birds at the feeders.

We have a pair of woodpeckers frequenting the nuts and hope that they will produce young ones as they did last year. They give me a little 7.15 am alarm call each morning with one drumming and the other responding. It's just so great to glance up and see their black and white plumage and that flash of red among the branches.

I bought these wee heart peg clips up in Perth at Whispers of The Past, a gift shop on George Street. This card is by Carolyn Saxby and won't be alone on the string for long as the 'to do' lists will be going up beside it!

This is not where I will be doing Open Studios North Fife from. I will move everything down to Ladybank for that weekend only. The premises I use in Ladybank is owned by family and I could use it all the time if I wanted to but I much prefer working from home. There is much more light and I like being able to work in the evenings as well as do other jobs around the house throughout the day 

This week also sees a batch of Sheep Brooches and Earrings going off to a new stockist in America! Lupine Blossoms Fiber Arts in Center Sandwich, New Hampshire already use my cards as Gift Certificates and one of my little felt landscapes as the business logo. 

It's lovely to have a stockist overseas and this little flock will be available there as of next week.

A new batch of stock will also be heading off to Room 15 in Oban soon but in the meantime you can find Sheep Jewellery and other items available in mt Etsy Shop

 The Notebooks, Sketchbooks and Prints are also available in my Folksy Shop

Guest checkout is available with Folksy and remember that I am always happy to send direct to the recipient if your item is a gift and will include a little card with a note from you at no extra cost.

 Notebooks £5.95 Sketchbooks £8.95

Sets of Six Cards £12

Small Prints £12

Brooches £12

A Wintry Week

 Brrrrr...it's been a chilly time here in Fife over the last week or so. We love a bit of snow up here as it's so pretty but it came in as sleet on a fierce east wind to start with and we didn't get any of those glorious blue sky days when all is bright and beautiful. 

We were lost in the mist last Wednesday.

We've had a wonderful variety of birds pecking around the garden including this wee fat partridge.

 Unfortunately my husband and two children have all been unwell with a flu type thing so it's just been a case of keeping everyone warm and looked after which hasn't left much time for making anything.

Some folk say they can smell snow in the air and I think that's true. I also believe my Granny's old way of telling if it's on it's way. She always said blue flames in the fire meant snow was imminent and we have had plenty of  those. When I rake the hot coals there's a pink glow and flashes of purple too! I've never seen that before.

This wee cottage is slowly but surely loosing it's roof tile by tile. I still day dream of renovating it into a Craft Bothy but it's just a dream.

Snow is possibly the only thing that can make trampoline netting look vaguely interesting too!

The only new thing I have managed to make this week is this oval Sheep Pendant.

It has sold already but there will be plenty more in stock in various colours soon.

 This brooch is still available though

Brooch £15

Available Here 

I do have plenty of cards in stock including this set of six for £12

Set of Six Cards £12 here

I have also been playing around a bit on Pinterest recently and found this idea for a Cable Cuff. I happened to have this wrist cuff bracelet made from a batch I made from old denim jeans last year. It wraps around the cable and the handle of the iron, keeping it nice and tidy when it's stored in the cupboard! Genius! Very easy to make with a bit of fabric and button or a bit of crochet or knitting. Mine just happens to match the iron and ironing board.

 So a very slow start to the year here creatively speaking.

Our brochure for Open Studios North Fife should be ready soon. You can keep up to date with Open Studios news on our Facebook page here

Falkland Street Fair 2012

You can find me and my work at Falkland Festival Street Fair tomorrow,

Saturday 23rd June, 11-3pm.

We had a great time last year and hope to have an even better time this year!

I will be sharing a stand with Kirsty again who will be doing on the spot Soap Rock Workshops.

Some new makes from me include this felt Box and Notebook.

 The felt was a bit of an experiment. I tried Nuno felting onto some polyester chiffon.

I had bought the chiffon for a different project but it turned out to be the wrong kind for what I wanted it for. No matter how much I tried hand felting it, the fibres just didn't want to cling to the chiffon. Turns out it's the wrong kind of chiffon for Nuno felting as well! So I threw the whole thing in the washing machine and this was how it came out. A happy accident indeed : )

In order to retain the lovely double sided nature of the nuno felt

I decided to make a wee box with matching notebook but didn't line either so that the loopy texture of the chiffon side can still be seen. Quite a soft and squishy box but the notebook fits snug inside helping it keep it's shape.

 I will also have a few Sheep In Boxes with me.

 Knitted felted sheep by Lynne Seaton at My Baboo

Along with some new Sheep pendants.



And one or two new felt pictures.



 Lupins by The Stream

£45

Wee Hoose In The Heather

£30

Cosy Cottage Among The Heather

£35

I've also been a bit distracted this week watching these Woodpeckers in the Rown Tree just outside the window.

The baby one wasn't managing to cling to the feeder so the adult male was feeding it on the branch.

The photo is slightly out of focus but it's so hard to get a decent photo of them as they fly away at the slightest movement.

I had to perform stealth moves up to the window to get this one plus it was windy outside and everything was moving about.

 

Turns out there is a third bird aswell. A slightly older juvenile. It's a bit of a bully though and tends to chase the smaller birds away from the tree.

In the few days that I've been watching, this young one has learned to feed itself though and now clings happily to the feeder.

 

 

 

 

October Makes

It's the October school holidays here in Scotland and I cannot believe how quickly they have come around. Seems like no time at all since the children were heading back to school after the summer! It's always difficult to fit crafting time in around holidays so I was delighted when my Mum said she would take my children for a few days to let me get on with some work. They all had a great time and I put all my child free hours to good use.

I've been making some small felt landscapes ready for my upcoming fairs.

(See Upcoming Events on the right hand side of the page for details)

This vibrant piece below is available in my Folksy shop and has been featured on Folksy's front page this week.

These little snowy scenes below have been a delight to make. I had one go off to Alaska last week and had a nice email from the customer to say she loves it and that she hopes to visit Scotland some day and trace some of her ancestry. Coincidently, I happen to have family with the same surname as hers so who knows, we might be distantly related! I love the connections we can make across oceans and continents via the internet.

Snowy Cottage and Sheep £35

In keeping with the season I've spent hours making lots of leaf shaped brooches this week. Here's a sneak peak at the cut felt pieces waiting to be stitched.

These leaves are not just cut from ready made felt. I use the finest hand dyed merino and silk fibres to make the felt then cut and match each piece, making each one different. The hand dyed fibres add to the uniqueness of the finished brooches.

These mauve and green shades are so pleasant together.

You can find these for sale in both my Etsy and Folksy shops as well as at Studio 222 in Newburgh, An Cnoc in Crieff, Zigzags in Dunkeld and Room 15 in Oban.

If there is a colour you would particularly like, just ask and I can list one especially for you

aileenclarkecrafts@yahoo.com

The birds are all made with Harris Tweed that I brought back from our summer holiday in the Outer Hebrides.

The wing pieces are handmade felt to add contrast and texture.

Brooches are all £12

I'm really looking forward to my upcoming fairs. I've got a new card stand for my stall and can't wait to see how it looks.

Right now I have to go and bake cakes. Flap jacks and fairy cakes I think.......and a big apple crumble! 

A Bird In The Hand

This week I'm working on some more new brooches. I've always liked bird shaped brooches and have made many over the years. 

The garden flowers I'm using as props are being very obliging with their matching colours.

I really enjoyed sitting in the shed doing a little sewing at the weekend. I'm delighted that these Vintage Table Linens have found a perfect home. Don't the colours go so well!

I find it very time consuming hand stitching beads and brooch bars but it is also very enjoyable when I can do it sitting in my little garden hideaway. 

 

Here are some finished leaf brooches. I have some listed in both my Online Shops.

 

I'm very careful when I'm sewing outside not to let any bits of thread fly off in the wind. I found this little fellow stuck in a Cypress tree and couldn't really understand why. I had to get a chair and a broom and very carefully pull the branch down low enough to see how I could help. Turned out there was a fine thread tangled in the tree and caught round the birds ankle. I managed to free him easily enough and snip the thread off without harm to the bird. It wasn't a sewing thread, more like a string fibre or something but even so, I'll keep a little bin beside me while I work for all those snippets of thread and wool.

There are a whole gang of Goldfinch enjoying all the wild thistle seed at the side of the farm track near our cottage. It's lovely to see them flit from stem to stem, bush to bush then fly off in a flock over the field.

 

Snowed In

I have to say that we are thoroughly enjoying the deep snow that has fallen over our part of the world over the last week or so.
Last Wednesday we got officially snowed in with both roads in and out of our pocket of Fife blocked and iced over. There was nothing to be done except stoke up the wood burner, rustle up a pot of soup and go for a lovely walk in what felt like a different world.

Our Cottage.

The View East.

Hazy Sun on the Horizon.

Spanish Oak on the Lane.

And just when we thought we couldn't get any more snow......we got another four inches last night and woke up to this today.

Rowan Tree

The Rowan tree above is where I hang the bird feeders and it is a hive of activity at the moment. There are robins, sparrows, great tits, blue tits, dunnocks, black birds, bullfinch, wrens and a woodpecker having a real feeding frenzy out there. I was shocked to see a Sparrow Hawk swoop in the other day and pin down a wee birdie but it escaped unharmed. We also had a family of long tailed tits for a while last year and there are a pair of Jays that make an appearance every so often.
It's a wonderful place to live and a real inspiration for my felted landscapes.

I haven't been able to get to the studio over the past week but I'm hoping to be there on Thursday the 31st Dec. So if you are passing please pop in between 10 and 4. I'll be working on some new felt landscapes and I also have a new toy to play with. It's an inflatable ball for making felt vessels. I'm very excited to try it out. It looks for all the world like a bouncy foot ball made out of bubble gum! Photos to follow.

Hope everyone is well and enjoying the winter holidays as much as we are.