Needle felted chicken workshop

 

Earlier this month I was once more at Loudwater Studios, near Ludlow, to hold a chicken making workshop. I enjoy coming here, as it's fairly nearby and feels like a safe, happy place. Despite only having three students, we had a very nice, chatty day (it's amazing what a variety of topics are covered).

 

As usual, I took enough wool to make several hundred chickens, in all kinds of colours (you never know if someone is going to feel inspired to make a purple hen) but my ladies decided to follow the designs of the ones I had brought along for inspiration.

I brought along pre-cut and threaded beaks, made from cocktail sticks, although this example has a woolly beak and the tiniest one on the wee chick.

It's nearly always the case that the creations made at a workshop will be larger than anything of mine that I bring along - this makes it easier for relative beginners to work with the wool, as small things can be tiresomely fiddly. Here is my little chicken in the background - and a very good larger version from the workshop in the foreground.

 

Most of the wool was merino, but I'd also brought rougher samples and nests were made. Welsh Black and Herdwick were used for quick and realistic results. Everyone said they enjoyed their day, which is for me the most important thing - as well as the reward of seeing the fabulous results.

In other news, I unearthed this trio of harlequin hares from my 'archives'. I made them in 2013, after finishing the work for my book 'Little Needle-Felt Animals' and they languished in my Etsy shop for a few years before I retired them. Happily, after showing them again on social media, they all sold as a set to the same home. Which goes to show, I think, that everything has it's time, sooner or later. 

Still here, still needle felting

Golly, I hadn't realised how long it has been since I last dusted the cobwebs off this blog. I've had to learn a few self care lessons since my 'collapse' earlier this year; I do things very slowly, but I do get them done. I have to take things at my own pace and not stress about them. Which is why I'm terrible at answering emails and updating this blog. Otherwise it would be like pouring boiling water into a cracked jug, something I've done in the past with predictable (broken) results. Nowadays I take things carefully and one step at a time, so that I don't get overwhelmed. 

One way or another, for the first time in six years since Andy and I made the disastrous decision to up roots and move - when my life and certainly his, fell apart - I feel some kind of normality and even content happiness most days, although even writing down that feels like tempting fate.

 

Consequently I've only held one workshop this season, my second of the year, returning to the friendly space of Loudwater Studios at nearby Ludlow. Christmas Cottages are an old favourite and I had a super group of women who worked hard all day and produced a lovely collection of festive mini-villages.

At the beginning of this year, which seems to have slipped by so quickly,  I had plans to bring out a new range of premium needle felt kits, but with finances being so stretched I had to put everything on hold. Happily, we are on a more even keel now and I've been able to put together two kits, 'Hatty Hare' and 'Snowball'. I've even had my first trade order, so if you're in the Cambridge area, you can get these in-store from The Cambridge Fabric Company. Or they're available for sale in the kits section of my Etsy shop. 

As for my own work - well, that's something else I've been resting, while I sorted the kits out. Designing, photographing and putting together a kit is 'left brain' stuff, not usually my strong point and creating new work is definitely a 'right brain' activity. It's sometimes hard to juggle the two to make them work in harmony. My latest little piece is another 'Little Arcadia', where I've played about with different tones of wool to reproduce the light falling over the autumn landscape. 

And finally, thanks so much to everyone who signed up for my Sleepy Squirrel online workshop. Much to my surprise and delight, an old acquaintance who has been to a couple of my workshops in the past, created a video review of her experience with it and gave my book a good plug while she was about it. I'm not very good at blowing my own trumpet, so many thanks to her for kindly taking the trouble to do so.

Toadstools and cottages

It's been a while, and life quietly ticks over. Nothing much happens and then it's winter workshop season. I held my first local standalone session last month in Shrewsbury at the Shropshire Wildlife Trust. I had booked the modest little garden room, but due to circumstances, I was upgraded to this lovely space. It was my first workshop since the summer, but the old routine kicked in as soon as I begin setting up.

The Reserve used to be part of the old Abbey and has been well restored. There is a beautiful modern stained glass window with little etched birds and animals hiding in the undergrowth. 

Everyone arrived safely and were soon at work. 

This is my favourite workshop subject to teach and a particularly enjoyable group to work with. A couple of weeks later there was an impromptu workshop held at Ferndell Bed and Breakfast again, which booked out within a few days. This time the project was a Christmas Cottage. 

As usual, there was a lovely home made lunch, with Prosecco (though sadly not for me, as I was teaching). The wood burner was kept going all day.

And later, afternoon tea with home made brownies and cream.

So two workshops down and the biggest one to follow. Which, unlike these, didn't exactly go to plan...

Polar bear bauble

This is the little polar bear bear bauble I'll be teaching at a workshop at the lovely premises of Guthrie and Ghani, in Birmingham. 

It was the third design I tried; initially I attempted needle felting a polar bear Santa around a polystyrene ball, which I've always thought was a nasty idea and found it to be so. You may ask why then I decided to try it; because making an accurate sphere is harder than it looks, and I thought it may be an easier solution for anyone who was just starting out. The wool floated around on the surface, the head barely stuck to the wool (or the polystyrene) and although it was neat, I wasn't comfortable with that way of working.

I then ploughed my way through most of an elf fox, before realising, many hours later, that it was far too ambitious, even for an all day project.  

It's quite hard to design an appealing project, that is a bit different to everything else on offer, but which can be theoretically made in a five-six hour period by people of all abilities.

But in the end, I settled on this fairly simple little bear; there are five places left on the workshop, which runs from 10.30 until 4.30 on December 10th. You can book directly from the Guthrie and Ghani website here.

If you'd like to see the fabulous studio space and my last workshop there, please see this blogpost from November last year.

Workshop updates

Just a  quick post about new workshops and a new date for a previous one. My baby hare workshop at Sticky Prints in Norfolk has been moved to June 17th - it's a long train journey from Shropshire, so do come if you're in the East and haven't been able to get to one of my other classes.

July 1st sees me at the Stoke-on-Trent Potteries Museum, home of the nation's Staffordshire ceramics collection. It's an all day workshop where you can make your own miniature needle felted Staffordshire cat. 

 

And for August, I'm booked to be in London, at the Village Haberdashery - this is a one off, where you can make the kittens featured in this month's 'Mollie Makes', using the wools shown in the original pattern. It's another all day session and my only London booking this year, so early booking is advised.

All of these workshops are subject to booking. There is a complete list on the workshops page of my website, where you will find booking links and more details. Hope to see you!

Baby hare and flying swans

In-between other things, I have been working on new designs for next year's workshops and the first is this baby hare. 

I am also holding my first local workshop, in Shrewsbury, at a fabulous venue, the Victorian home of Sarah, who runs Fern Dell bed and breakfast near Shrewsbury Abbey. We were hooked up by BBC radio Shropshire on the Jim Hawkins show, after he interviewed me one morning and I mentioned that I was looking for a suitable workshop place.  Seconds later, Sarah had contacted me on Twitter and within 24 hours we had things pretty much sorted.

 So baby hare will be tried for the first time next year on March 2nd, a Thursday. It's an all day workshop and Sarah will be providing a home cooked lunch and refreshments, all of which is included in the price. However, it has booked up pretty quickly and there are only three places left.  If you'd like to see more details, you can find them on my workshop page - booking is directly through myself.  And if you'd like to see the beautiful Fern Dell, the website is here and more lovely photos here in Sarah's Instagram feed. 

For this weekend only I am having a mini Black Friday sale on these three large, hanging  winter swans, reduced to £40 each plus postage. Each one took two days to needle felt and hangs on silver wire with suspended glass tear drop beads and a twist of silver gauze ribbon.  They are the top featured items in my Etsy shop, or direct links are underneath each picture.

 WINTER SWAN ONE HERE

WINTER SWAN TWO HERE

WINTER SWAN THREE HERE