Makers Market at The Steeple, Newburgh, Fife Saturday 9th June

You can find me and my work at

The Makers Market

The Steeple

Newburgh

Fife

Saturday 9th June 2012

10 - 4.30 pm

Hope to see you there!

I have been so busy making new work for this event and for stockists that I really have not had time to share anything new on the blog. Hoping to remedy that next week with some photos from our recent camping trip to the west coast. Thankfully we had beautiful weather unlike the constant driech we have had since we got back.

Here are a couple of snaps taken on Kerrera Island.

Tune in next week for a more detailed installment!

:)

New Sheep Brooches and Other News

Been very busy since the Open Studios weekend fulfilling orders and commissions and coming up with some new ideas.

I'm delighted to be able to share this commission piece with my customer's permission.

I was sent photos of this beautiful crofters cottage on North Uist and asked to make a felt picture featuring the cottage, a rainbow disappearing into the sea, some wee sheep and a bit of artistic license with the background and sea.

Struan Cottage

I'm delighted with how it turned out and so is my customer and the recipient.

The cottage has been in my customers family for years and she feels that this piece will become a real family heir loom.

This is one of the photos I worked from. The cottage is available to rent for holidays and I really hope to go their maybe next year. After our visit to Harris last summer, we are really hankering to visit the Uists and to stay somewhere like this would be amazing! Beats a tent any day!

As well as working on commissions I have been rebuilding my stock after a very busy time at Open Studios. The sheep pendants continue to be popular and I have made a few more available in my Etsy Shop. There is a whole section there for Sheep Jewellery.

 

I often get asked if I make the sheep pendants as brooches and I'm pleased to say that now I do! More shapes and sizes coming soon but these are the first designs hot off the work table.

The Orkney fibres in this one above make the landscape look like a wild Scottish mountain covered in heather.

 

Sheep Brooches £15

3.5cm in diameter

 

So as well as new brooches, I have some new card designs in the pipeline and hope to get some framed pieces photographed and listed later today.

 

If you are in the Angus area this weekend, look out for Open Studio signs all over the place as Angus Open Studios runs from today Thursday 24th to Monday 28th May 2012.

We have planned a route and hope to visit some potters, jewellers, textile artists and other designers. Looking forward to visiting this collaboration of three artists who have set up a rather splendid tent in a garden on Dishlandtown Street in Arbroath! Makes me think of a make believe land from a children's story book!

 

 

Makers Market Saturday 9th June

 This is the next event I will be exhibiting at. Hoping to have a few new things ready as well as a selection of Pictures, Cards, Felt and Textile Jewellery and Tweed and Felt Boxes.

Open Studios 2012-A Great Weekend!

Open Studios 2012 was a huge success! We had such a busy weekend and enjoyed every minute of it.

We had over 400 visitors to the studio over the weekend. Thank you to everyone who came along.

Here are a few photos of our studio space for those who were too far away to visit.

Many people ask me why I don't use this as a studio throughout the year and the simple answer is that it just isn't practical. I enjoyworking from my cottage and do a lot of work in the evenings sometimes and with children to look after a nice garden to go out into, I just prefer working from home.

We have access to this space whenever we need it though and although it was a bit of an upheaval moving production from home to here, it was enormously beneficial for an event like this and really nice to be able to display all my work to it's best advantage.

 

As well as the main room with my work space set up and most of my work on display, I used a secondary room as a Seascapes Gallery.

We had the sound of the sea on CD playing in the background and we served tea and coffee in here.

We also left a weekend newspaper for the men folk that weren't that interested in textile art and craft and nick named this room the 'Man Creche'.

It was so busy on Sunday afternoon that it was like a cafe in here with standing room only!

The response to my work was wonderful and it was nice to share some ideas and techniques with other fibre art enthusiasts as well as give demonstrations to other interested visitors.

So now it's back to work replenishing stock and fulfilling orders and commissions.

 

My online shop has reopened today and I will be adding new pieces over the next week or so. A great way to keep up with what's new from me is via facebook so if you are new to my website here and are a facebook user, do come over and say hi!

Also Open Studios North Fife is not finished yet. Many of the studios are open for a second weekend on 12th and 13th May. Look for the little orange 2  on the brochure entries. www.openstudiosfife.co.uk

I won't be open myself but you can check my events listings on the right hand side of the page here to see where I will be exhibiting next.

Open Studios North Fife 2012

Open Studios North Fife 2012

takes place on

Saturday 5th, Sunday 6th and Monday 7th May

10-6pm each day.

I'm really busy preparing for my second year participating in this event.

Here is just a selection of what will be on display at my studio this year.

New Sheep Pendants in different designs

Sheep Earrings

Textile and Glass Pendants and Earrings

Harbour Cottage and Boat Pictures

Framed Felt Landscapes

Printed Cards Featuring Felt Landscapes

You can scroll through some of my other blog posts to see what else I will be displaying.

All my work is for sale.

I will also be demonstrating with the fabulous embellisher machine throughout Open Studios and sharing how to make a simple brooch.

You can keep up to date with what's new from me on Facebook Here

and with our Open Studios event Here

You can also see a full list of participants with maps and photos on the website at

www.openstudiosfife.co.uk

You'll be guarenteed a warm welcome at all the studios this year so hope to see some of you there.

My studio number this year is 24 and you can find me at

64 Commercial Road

Ladybank

KY15 7JS

We are on the corner of the main street through Ladybank and Church Street. Look for the white Open Studio boards. There are seven participating studios in Ladybank alone so well worth a visit!

Refreshments available free of charge.

Wintertime Spring and a Radio Interview!

"Never cast a cloot, until the May is oot!"

Never a truer word was spoken! This old Scottish saying basically means that as Spring teases us with warmer weather, don't be putting all your Winter clothes away or stop wearing your vest and layers until the May flower, or Hawthorn is in bloom.

We were soaking up sun in the garden all last week then woke up to this on Tuesday morning!

Back on with the layers of leggings, long skirts, vests and polo necks!

This is a colour photo by the way, not black and white!

Thankfully it has nearly all melted but what a shame for my children who are all excited about their new trampoline. Even now that it is dry enough to bounce on, their feet are freezing!

Thankfully the snow came after our visit to Glasgow on Sunday.

I was the guest of DJ Ciaran Dorris on his Sunday Sessions Show on Celtic Music Radio.

Ciaran has been asking me to be on his show for ages but I never felt brave enough. He offered me the slot on Sunday though and said I could plug our upcoming Open Studios event so I said yes.

I actually really enjoyed it! We had great fun as you can see from these photos my

husband took.

We were joking around, taking turns to see who looked daftest in the big earphones.

I think my son won that one!

 

Ciaran usually interviews a musician, singer, artist or writer on his show and it goes out live online between 5 and 7pm every Sunday and he has a loyal following all over the world who join in the chat and banter via Ciaran's facebook page and email.

We heard from folks in Nashville, Texas, New York, Arkansas, Denmark, Ireland, The Netherlands and France as well as here in Scotland.

As Ciaran's guest I was 'Castaway' to a ficticious Hebridean Island for a week and had to share with the listeners what items of choice I would take with me.

A Book

A DVD

Four Music Tracks

A Luxury Item

A Guest for an evening

And something to throw in the Island Incinerator

(Something I feel the World would be better off without)

I chose

The Tenth Gift by Jane Johnson

(I like a book with a good story that also tells you something about another country and culture. This one starts off in Cornwall and ends up in Morocco)

The Blues Brothers or Hairspray (couldn't get it down to one!)

Beeswing by Alistair Ogilvy

Leave a Light on For You by Edwina Hayes

The Lock Keeper by Tommy Carew

Morning Nightcap (a tune) by Lunasa

Garlic Pepper (because I dislike bland food and assumed I'd be stuck with boiled spuds and fish for a week!)

For my guest I'd be happy with anyone who can sing and play guitar and who'd be up for singing songs all night round a fire.

And for the Incinerator I'd throw in Greed. The world be a much better place if nobody was greedy. If the multi national companies actually worked with the land and people to produce what we need rather than doing everything for profit and power.

I can't believe how quickly the two hours went by! I thought I'd be lost for words but Ciaran makes a brilliant host and it was all very relaxed and enjoyable.

If you fancy listening in to Celtic Music Radio sometime you can find them online here

Summertime Spring

Haven't we been having the most glorious summerlike days!

I swept out the summer shed earlier this month thinking that really I was a bit ahead of myself but we have been basking in there this week whenever we've had a chance. Just wonderful and so relaxing.

We were gifted this pretty blue and white china by friends who moved into a new house. The previous owners had just left it. I love to display flowers in jugs and teapots so we have given this china a nice new home and thanks to all this sunshine, we have an abundance of daffodils, flowering current and lenten roses to pick.

I know it's a bit early for lupins but I couldn't resist putting a few in this new landscape piece.

Below is a 'sketch' for a bigger piece I hope to make in time for Open Studios in May.

 I have also been working on a few more little boxes to add to the collection. These are just 5cm x 5cm and are made with genuine Harris Tweed.

And here is Foxee showing off our beautiful new brochure for this years Open Studio event.

You can pick one up in most public places around Fife, Edinburgh, Lothian, Perth, Tayside, Dundee and Angus. You can also download one at www.openstudiosfife.co.uk

Only 5 weeks to go!

To read about how Foxee became a beloved member of our family go here and here.

Seaweed Abstracts in Textile

Following on from Sunday's experiments with a whole heap of naturally dyed fibres, I continued to experiment with more fibres and yarns and the embellisher machine.

I also intorduced some free machine embroidery and shibori into the mix along with some hand stitch and here are the results.

The shibori piece here is inspired by the suckers found on the roots of bull kelp.

It's usually a greeny yellowy brown colour but a bit of artistic license lets me make mine teal and purple.

Aquatic Roots (1)

The background fibres in the piece above are hand dyed in Orkney.

The fibres in the background below are all handspun and were bought on the Isle of Skye.

Aquatic Roots (2)

The hand dyed nature of the fibres lends itself well to art pieces inspired by nature.

I really love drift wood as well and always pick up a few bits when we find ourselves by the sea. I made a point of collecting some tiny bits last time we were at the beach in Elie a few miles away on the Fife coast.

I have looped some faded pink chiffon around a piece here as it reminds me of the way seaweed drapes itself on pieces left on the shore.

The background here is a wet felted fusion of hand dyed fibres, silk flibres, Wensleydale locks, hessian fibres and hand dyed scrim.

Drift (1)

I've had this triple apperture frame for a while but couldn't decide what to put in it. This tryptich of felted fibres suits it well I think.

Abstract Seaweed Tryptich

More dfrift wood, a few shells and some beach glass have been incorporated into this piece below.

Shoreline Finds

I have enjoyed using all these natural shades in my work and have had some of these ideas floating around in my head for over a year! I would love to push the ideas further to see what would develop but it's back to landscapes this weekend and onto jewellery after that.

I did have time to make this box though.

I have enough of the felt left to make another tiny box and might possibly make some more to make a treasure chest shaped box. The ideas are flowing already! Oh for more hours in the day.

I have some printed cards available featuring landscapes made using the naturally dyed fibres.

You can find them in my Etsy shop here

Our Open Studios event here in North Fife is on Saturday 5th, Sunday 6th and Monday 7th May 2012. We are working hard to get our beautiful brochures distributed far and wide all across Scotland so look out for one in a gallery, library, gift shop, cafe or business near you.

The brochures are free and also available to view and download online.

www.openstudiosfife.co.uk

You can also keep up to date with us on Facebook 

Even if you are too far away to attend our event, by becoming a fan of our page, you can help us to spread the word.

Thank you!