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!

Gathering More Inspiration

I have really enjoyed taking some time out this month to play around with a few new ideas and have also been going through last years holiday photo's and been taking a look back at some of my older pieces to gather some new inspiration.

The above photos were all taken around the Dingle Peninsula in the west of Ireland. Fungie the dolphin takes centre stage of course! He is a wild bottlenose dolphin who chooses to live in Dingle Bay and has done for 30 years. We love going back to see him. 

This felt picture below is an oldie but I really like it so I'm planning a new series like this.

I have to get over to Newburgh soon to visit Twist Fibre Craft Studio and get some new felting supplies so I can bring all these ideas to life!

The photos below were all taken around the Ross of Mull and Iona.

You can see that the light is totally different here and the colours that spring out are that beautiful pale turquoise of the water, the lilac blue of the bluebells and pink of the sea thrift.

These abstracts were made using the embellisher machine and I plan to revisit this technique over the coming weeks as well.

 All this planning and forethought is of course for our upcoming Open Studios event in May. It might sound like a long way off but in reality it's only a few weeks when you break the months into creative time so I need to get cracking ! I have SO many things I want to make for this year's event.

The brochure will be out in March and we will let you all know where you can get one but you can keep up to date with it all on our Facebook page here

We are running a series of Giveaway's just now with many of our participants giving away Prints, Cards and Jewellery pieces so if you use Facebook, pop over and like our page to see how you can enter the draws.

Up for grabs this weekend is this A4 Print of 'Buttercup' by Lindsay Mathers

Following on from the needle felted peacock in my previous post, I did this bird last week as well. I've tweaked it a bit since I took this photo. Straightened the stitching on the wing and added a bit of definition around the tail feathers. I'm planning to have him printed as cards etc and the original will also be up for sale once framed.

 

So it's back to serious making next week. I have my first commission of the year to get on with and have a load of felt to make to then turn into jewellery, brooches, pictures and trinket boxes. I'm also planning a new mug design so watch this space!