New Tea Towels Now In!

I'm very excited to finally have my new Aileen Clarke Tea Towels in stock! I started the process for this idea on September 1st. I have wanted to have them made for years and finally found a UK company to work with.

The original artwork was made using traditional felt making techniques including needle felting with hand stitching and embroidered details. The image has then been professionally printed onto 100% cotton.

Measures 48 x 80 cm 18 x 31 inches. Machine washable at 30°

£10.50 plus p+p

I have them neatly wrapped in cellophane sleeves ready to ship. Makes a great gift and can even be framed!

The tea towels are available on Etsy here or from me at my upcoming events.

I will be at Perth Concert Hall on Sunday 19th November.

And on

Saturday 25th & Sunday 26th November - The Loft at Ardross Farm Shop, Elie, East Neuk of Fife - 9 - 5 pm Free Entry

I'll be very busy over the next two weeks making stock for these events. Other new printed items include these two coo cushions.

Cushions £40

I also have some bags with a few different designs on them. They are polyester and fold away into a pocket or handbag. Make great project bags too!

Bag £19.95

This week has been spent making lots of keepsake boxes in various sizes.

Harris Tweed and Felt Keepsake Box

£45

£35

I also have lots of my textile and resin jewellery available both online and from me at the events mentioned above.

You can also find this jewellery in The Rowan Tree gift shop in Falkland, Maisie and Mac in Cupar, The Atholl Gallery in Dunkeld and Hecla Gallery at Cockenzie House and Gardens.

Upcoming Falkland Craft Market Saturday 11th July

The next Falkland Craft Market is on Saturday 11th July 2015.

The market is held in the Community Hall off Back Wynd, KY15 7BX and is always packed with great stalls featuring lots of local makers and their wonderful wares.

I've been working hard to build up a good choice of items across my range including these Harris Tweed and Textile Trinket Boxes in all four sizes.

Prices range from £28 to £45

Some are available online here

I'm hoping to have a few more pictures ready as well.

This one is new.

'Meall Fraoch' meaning Rounded Heather Hills measures 15 x 15 cm in a 30 x 30 cm frame.

'Meall Fraoch' £95

I will have lots of textile jewellery with me including this new shape of pendant.

The square earrings go nicely with these pendants.

My 2016 Calendar will also be available.

Here is how one of the images from the calendar looks framed.

With 12 images in the calendar to choose from and the calendar only £10 that works out at less than £1 a print!

Falkland is such a charming village to visit for a day out. 

Lots of little cottages line the streets with a few of them turned into beautiful shops and cafe's.

There is the palace and gardens as well and lots of lovely walks out on the palace estate.

Sharps Close above.

The Rowan Tree Gift Shop below.

So that's where you will find me on Saturday 11th July. My online shop will be closed for a couple of weeks afterwards. Feel free to contact me though as I will still be answering emails.

aileenclarkecrafts@yahoo.com

Edinburgh Yarn Festival 14th and 15th March 2015

You can find me at Edinburgh Yarn Festival on Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th March

Edinburgh Corn Exchange

10 Newmarket Road

Edinburgh

EH14 1RJ

10 - 5.30 pm Saturday

10 - 5 pm Sunday

I will have my full range of felt goodies with me including some new Trinket Boxes and Landscapes.

Maybe see you there!

New For September

New cards are back in stock in both my Etsy and Folksy shops.

 

 

There are many designs to choose from including this new Apple Tree and Sheep design.

 



All cards are £2.50 each with a discount on the sets of  four or six.

 

 

Also new this week are these two landscape pieces.

They both come framed at £55

 



 

Although these pieces feature the same little cottage, the difference is in the background felt. I have added a lot more texture and different fibres into the landscape making each piece even more unique.

 



 

Both are available in my Etsy shop now.

 

I have also listed a few new boxes on Etsy.

This little box features beautiful purple Harris Tweed that I bought straight from the weavers shed on Lewis. It is such a gorgeous colour. I have complimented it with my own handmade felt in toning shades.

 

 

Also new are these two little sheep boxes.

 

 

 

All the wee boxes are £25 and can be found here.

 

 

And as the season turns, I thought I'd add a few more apple trees to the collection.

 

 

Sheep Pendants £20 including Gift Box

Some Colour To Brighten Up These Dull Days

It's the height of summer and yet could it be any darker in my kitchen?

It's north facing and doesn't get much sun at the best of times but there are south facing windows on the other side of the room and yet it is still so dark.

Grey skies, continuous rain, cool temperatures, it all adds up to too much time spent indoors so I put up some bunting to cheer us all up.

I have been working on lots of colourful wrist cuffs for my stall at The Big Tent Festival and they are cheering me up enormously.

These are great fun to make. For some I have used denim from old jeans as the base fabric and recycled sari silk ribbon for the coloured strip. The leaf motif is made from my own handmade felt. I have lots of different colour combinations going on so it never gets boring making these. It's also good fun getting all the buttons out and choosing just the right one for each cuff.

 

I fancied a frayed edge on a few of the denim cuffs and found it very satisfying tearing the jeans into strips. Rrrrrrrrip! I hope that doesn't reveal anything peculiar about me through psycho analysis!

Another blog that I enjoy reading is Heather's Woollove- Functional Fiberart blog.

Heather recently attended a felt makers workshop in Portugal which looked absolutely fantastic. You can see lots of photos from her trip on her blog. Not just of the felt projects but of the place, the food and the people she met.

I liked Heather's photo of a bowl of hard boiled eggs garnished with pink geranium flowers and it inspired me to make stuffed eggs for some visitors we had at the weekend.

It's such a simple recipe.

Hard boil some free range eggs and let them cool in cold water.

To get the yolks in the centre of the egg rather than at the side, gently turn the eggs regularly during boiling.

Cut them in half length ways and scoop the yolks into a bowl taking care not to damage the whites.

Mash up the yolks with a little mayonnaise or salad cream, a wee bit of grated cheese, salt, pepper and paprika.

Spoon the mixture back into the egg whites and arrange on a bed of shredded lettuce.

Garnish with parsley, basil, geraniums or whatever you want really.

Nasturtiums would be pretty too.

Excuse my old chipped bowl but it was gift from a friend when we were at college. It came from a shop called Ware On Earth and I love it.

The tutor on Heather's Portugal Workshop was Nicola Brown from Ireland. I have been a fan of Nicola's work since I first 'met' her through Flicker back in 2009. As she was taking part in a Masterclass Workshop here in Scotland last week at Big Cat Textiles in Newburgh, she invited my friend Kirsty and I along to say hello one evening. It's always so nice to meet people you have known through the Internet in person plus we had the added bonus of meeting in such an incredibly inspirational place!

Take a look round Big Cat Textiles here

And visit Nicola's blog here

For the Love of Tweed

As much as we are trying to hold on to summer here in Scotland, there is no denying that Autumn is just around the corner. I usually try not to mention the next season before it starts but I just had to make something with all the glorious Harris Tweed I brought back from our recent trip to the Outer Hebrides and the stash includes lots of lovely Autumn shades.

I have been making leaf shaped brooches for a while now but not usually in leafy colours.

Here are some beech leaves I picked this morning so I can share with you where the inspiration comes from.

I used to love keeping sketch books and making samples as a form of inspiration gathering but time just does not allow for that any more. The ideas go straight from my mind to the finished piece these days then off out to stockists and craft fairs or into my online shops.

My petunias have been a great asset to my photography this summer and now it's time for my little nasturtiums to shine.

The brooches below are a combination of tweed and handmade felt. The felt is embellished with little foil sprinkles which catch the light without being over 'blingy'.

These earthy tweeds are so full of colour when you see them up close. They reflect the landscape of where they are made perfectly.

This bright orange is incredible! I only have a little bit of it, probably enough for two brooches so once they're gone, they're gone.

This rusty brown felt matches the hawthorn berries that are now hanging in abundance from the bushes up and down our farm track.


Talking of tweed matching the landscape I must share a link to this wonderful exhibition.
FROM  THE LAND COMES THE CLOTH 

The exhibition is a display of photographs by Ian Lawson that are to be published as a book next Spring. The exhibition is on at An Lanntair in Stornoway until September the 4th 2011. 
You can enjoy a virtual look around it here.

Wildfire

At this time of year our hillsides and roadsides here in Scotland are swathed with Rosebay Willowherb making beautiful patches of pink everywhere we look. I can see lots of it from my window here in the cottage.  

 

This little cottage sits at the end of our track and looks adorable no matter what the season. I day dream about doing it up as a craft bothy.

I have used it loosely as inspiration for this piece below.

 

Willowherb Cottage £30

Available in my Etsy Shop now

I thought it would be nice to feature some items from other crafters inspired by Rosebay Willowherb so I put together this Treasury on Etsy.

At first I struggled to find items by other people until I found out that Willowherb is called Fireweed in the USA. We call it Wildfire here in Scotland.
It turns out it grows in abundance in Alaska and I found this great shop making all sorts of interesting things with it including tea and jam!
Salmonberry Origins


I also listed these two new pieces featuring a similar shade of pink to Wildfire.

Textile Leaf Pendant £20

Textile Leaf Brooch £12

And talking of Wildfire, doesn't this look like fire in the sky!

 

Don't forget that you can find me and my work at Muddy Boots Farm Shop and Cafe on Saturday 20th August. Scroll to the bottom of my last post for a map. Muddy Boots is located on the main road at Balmalcolm.