Bears and hares

At last, I've finalised the project for my Oxford workshop at Hill End Nature Centre which I visited recently. As it's an all day workshop, I decided to go for something a little larger than normal, so the project is to be stumpy bears.

 

It's not a difficult pattern, but it will need the whole day and there is a choice of making a brown bear or a polar bear. As with all my workshops, the price per person is all inclusive of materials and use of tools. Details can be found on my workshops page. As I'm organising this all on my own (which feels a bit scary) I'm the contact for everything.

My new running hare design from my line of 'Flights of Fancy' range went to a new home last month.

 And now I've finished another - a white hare with violet grey Siamese points.

This one is adorned with twisted silver wire, natural pearls and smoky quartz teardrop beads and is on sale in my Etsy shop.

My Manchester Spring Bunnies workshop is at the end of the month, and we are almost full - just two places left! If you'd like to come to this one, please book directly through the Make It shop site here. They may look small and simple, but each one takes me about four - five hours to make. All that smoothing.

Now I've got to crack on with my April newsletter - if you'd like to see any of my previous newsletters, without subscribing, they can be found archived here. 

Oxford July workshop announcement

While I was down in Oxfordshire holding my last workshop, I visited a potential new workshop space. This is in an area just three miles outside of Oxford itself and somewhere I been past countless times over the years I was living here. But never ventured inside.

This is the little lane which leads to Hill End nature reserve and activity centre. It's been here for decades, educating and encouraging children (and adults)  to enjoy and appreciate the great outdoors. 

I was met by my contact, dosed with coffee and then shown my potential workshop spaces. First was this nice fat barn. 

It was very spacious and light, and I did consider using the cosier overhead gallery. But decided that it was just a tad too big for my needs.  

Next was another nice conversion, again with lots of light flooding in and it was almost right...but not quite.

We walked a little further, past some Hill End sheep. Hill End is situated on the edge of Wytham Woods, which has been shown many a time on the Inspector Morse and Lewis series. 

Did you spot the giant wire toadstool in the background? No? Look - 

It was here that I found my new workshop space, a little cottage which has been converted into a study and classroom area. As there was a group already inside, I could only take a photo of the outside, but I have been assured that it is quite light and comfortable. And it does look delightful. 

So I took a deep breath and booked it. This is the first workshop I've organised entirely on my own and it's a bit of a gamble. I am not sure yet what we'll be making. However, it is going to be an all day workshop, costing £55. There is no cafe on site, so it will be a 'bring your own' lunch affair, which if the weather is fine, can be eaten al fresco. I will endeavour to supply cake and there are drink making facilities.  

As I'm yet to decide on the subject matter, it isn't up on my website yet, but please contact me at gretelparker@yahoo.co.uk if you'd like to book early. One space is taken already! Oh and the date of course - July 9th 10.00 am until 4.30pm. So you get plenty of teaching and making time.

If you're too far northwards to consider Oxford, there are still a couple of spaces left on my Spring Bunnies course, on April 30th - click here for more details. 

Running hare with amber chips on Etsy

The delightful online style magazine Bibelot have interviewed me - most of the questions were of a needle felting nature and I found several old archive photos of old work and of more recent designs such as my hare and amber dangle. But a couple of questions were a little more personal. You can read all about it on their blog here.