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. 

Spring snippets

I do love  good municipal park, especially on a warm spring day.

Wide open spaces and well planted trees.

 With areas of interest and intriguing paths to explore.

And picturesque steps.

Which seem to go on for a very long time.

It's lovely to reach the top and find a flat, wide promenade. The Victorians really knew how to design public places. 

And if you look closely, you may find an iron dog or two, accentuating a bench handle, where you have gratefully plonked yourself after your step-climbing exertions.

There are grand old houses that look like wedding cakes.

And fierce, exotic creatures.

Sadly, the sweet shop was closed. 

And I could have scoffed a whole bag of lemon bonbons. 

But there was the treat of afternoon tea at Patisserie Valerie, as a reward for all those steps. 

The Cake of Doom

This is the story of the Cake of Doom. It's a reply to Lin's kind comment in my last post, 'What do you do poorly?'. Cake decorating Lin, it's cake decorating. And when I popped over to her blog, I found a gorgeous lamb cake, a delightful confection that I could only dream of creating. Here is my public shame. Because I'm not completely perfect.

Last time I stayed with Joe, there was a birthday and so there was to be a birthday cake. I don't often cook plain sponge cakes, but I found a recipe and made two acceptable square layers. They were nice and neat and tidy. I used an entire pot of Betty Crocker vanilla icing to sandwich them together, which may have been a bit too much.  Then I decided to cut the edges off, to neaten the sides up. As you can see, this didn't happen and the results were raggedy, to say the least. At this point, I poured a large glass of wine to steady my nerves. 

I then tried to rescue matters by slathering it in apricot jam...

...and trying to stick the trimmings back on. Of course, it was pretty difficult to find their points of origin, so it was all rather haphazard. But it held together, with a bit of firm squidging.  

There was no way on this planet that I was going to make my own fondant icing, so I had bought a lump of ready-made. At this point, I should have taken the cake off the crumby paper, but at the time, I was beyond reason as I had a gut feeling it was going to end badly. Did I mention that I hate cake decorating?

I managed to get the icing rolled out and onto the cake, without major mishap, apart from the inevitable crumbs sticking to it. I hadn't bargained for corner flaps and had to do some quick Googling to find a solution. Which was basically to cut them off. By now I was frazzled, so I bunged it all in a tupperware tub and came back to it the next day.

It seemed ok in the morning, as most things do. The icing was holding the lumpy trimmings in, though it wasn't the pristine snow-smooth surface I had hoped for. Clean paper underneath helped. But the worst part was yet to come. Joe had requested a 'KISS' cake, with cut-out images of every single band member. His favourite band. To be rendered in black icing, from his own artworks, with each image resized to a 10cm square. That's less than 4 inches. 

I'm afraid that's where this sorry saga ends, as I DID try thinly rolling out ready-made black icing. I DID get a sharp knife and endeavour to cut out tracings of the boys. But when I picked my first (and last) effort up, it was warm and soggy and fell apart in my hands. I dumped the mess on the kitchen side, took a deep breath and walked away. So it was a big birthday cake fail on my part, and to be honest, the cake itself was sickly beyond belief with all that fondant icing and buttercream. We have agreed that next year, we'll make alternative arrangements.

Silly bunny scribble

It's been nearly four years since I last did any watercolour painting.  Last time I looked, my trusty collection of tubes, which I'd collected over many years at some expense, were in a sorry state and many old friends had dried up. Unable to afford to replace them, I looked around for a cheap way to get going again. 

And I found these nice little sets - Koh-I-Noor palettes. They are dry blocks, which I haven't used since college. I subsequently began using good quality wet tube paints, which I found better for large washes. Like my old college paints, they are a bit chalky. But this set of 36 colours cost very little, the pigments are reasonably bright and they stack oh-so conveniently. Thankfully my brushes had not deteriorated.

I bought a cheap A6 sketchbook, so that it didn't matter what went in it. And after much anxiety and procrastination (really) I did eventually get started. I knew it was going to be a bit rubbish, but I did get my painting brain ticking again. 

Admittedly, it wasn't the best paper for washes, but it was less scary than stretching out a sheet of the HP Arches I usually use. And after all, it's just to get me going again.

So I painted one of my bunnies, miraculously remembered my old techniques and finished it off with a sense of relief. One down, many to go.

The bunnies didn't say anything. They just gazed with their little beady eyes. 

They were obviously reserving judgement. 

BOBTAIL BUNNIES FOR SALE ON ETSY

In revenge, I am selling them via my Etsy shop. So if you want your own silent bunny, they are £30/$43 each, with free shipping anywhere. Yes, anywhere. 

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.

Chickens not almonds

Last July I was introduced to whittling - a craft which I was somewhat apprehensive of. Especially as it involved using an electric saw to cut out the basic shape. I came away with a stick of lime wood. It was put on the kitchen side, gathered dust, was moved around quite a lot over the months and never got used. Because I don't have an electric saw and although Brian next door gave me a little coping saw, my history of hand cutting wood is not one upon which I wish to dwell. 

However, when I was back in the Cotswolds, running my last workshop, I stayed with some old and dear friends, one of whom is an antiques restorer. And he has tools. And a big electric cutting saw thing. I had brought my stick with me, in the hopes that he would help me cut some whittling shapes out.

And bless him, he did. We went to his workshop, which is just a little paradise. 

Full of jobs in progress and treasures he has collected over the years. 

Not to mention an immaculately tidy workbench. I do like a good work bench.  

As it happened, I didn't have to get to grips with the large band saw, for which I was grateful. 

He kindly cut out all my little chickens for me. Yes, they are all the same shape; my theory is, that if I practise on the same thing a few times, I may eventually learn something. And yes, to answer another question, they ARE chickens. Really. 

I have finally started one off, with the nice and ever so ouch-sharp Swedish whittling knife which Joe bought me for my last birthday. I can't say as my skills have matured since my last attempt, but let's celebrate the lows with the highs. 

If I sound a little defensive about them being chickens, it may be because 'someone' (Joe) said they look like almonds. Or livers. I think they are patently chickens. Because look;

Many fat chickens do look somewhat almond shaped, do they not?

Well I think so anyway. I'm sure once I've got the eyes on, it will (sort of) resemble one of these. Or maybe not. Wood carving is not something which comes naturally to me, and yet I feel strangely drawn to persevere with it. Because I love using tools and more importantly, I won't be beat.