Squirrels at the Queen's Head

My second workshop last month was a smaller all day session at the Queen's Head, Eynsham - one of my previous students returned, which was very nice. And rather wonderfully, a blog friend, Vikki Rose, whom I have never met but have *known* for several years. She reminded me that she had  bought 'Minxie', my devilish little cat from my first year of needle felting (2008). Anyhow, settled down with home made shortbread (thanks Vikki!) and tea, they got started and worked hard all morning, earning a delicious lunch made, as usual, by Jackie the landlady.

Salmon en Croute, pesto mange tout and new potatoes. Followed by sticky toffee pudding and caramel ice cream. Or melon for the virtuous.

 

Then, somewhat stuffed, we returned to needle felting. It was a big ask, to get them to attempt an entire squirrel in five hours.

Another tea break was needed, with Jackie's home made scones, clotted cream and jam.

Despite all this feasting, by the end of the day, they had made amazing progress and two squirrels were even finished. Three of my students had never tried needle felting before, which makes the results even more impressive.

And Vikki Rose made the day even more special by bringing me some of her 'girls' eggs and one of her sweet care-chickens. She also wrote a super write up of the day on her blog, 'Back to the Castle' which includes a photo of me on a bad hair day and showing most of my tattoos. Irresistible!

If you'd like to be participate in the next workshop at the Queen's Head, sample Jackie's lovely food and see my tattoos,  drop me an email and I'll contact you when the date is confirmed. Next one is scheduled for some time in February or March 2014. Price for the whole day, including all food, is £55. Bit of a bargain, really.

Queen's Head workshop

Last week I held an all day workshop in Eynsham, one of our old home villages, at the Queen's Head pub. My favourite pub ever, but today we were not here for beer, but to make little houses. There was plenty of chat as the work began, fueled by home made shortbread.

Breaking at one for lunch, Jackie the landlady had laid on little homebaked  tartlets and salad, as the day was so hot.

 

Lovely Alice brought us cones of fresh mango sorbet.

 

And then back to work for a while...

...until afternoon tea, which naturally was scones with jam and cream. Or fruit, if you preferred.

It may sound as if we spent the entire day scoffing, but by the end of a five hour class, every one had made a super house and someone had even made a Christmas pudding. I'm planning a similar workshop at the Queen's Head in September, so if you are interested in pre-booking a place, drop me an email and I'll contact you when the date if confirmed,

Cinderhill Farm workshop

My first workshop of the year, held at  Cinderhill Farm at the beginning of March. Fully booked and raring to go. We started off by making chickens.

Outside, the farm chickens clucked indignantly. No punk hairstyles on these ladies.

 

The morning session was sustained with copious tea, homemade shortbread and flapjacks.

  

After lunch (home farmed pork casserole with herby rice) people worked on their own designs - or in this case, followed my 'bunny brooch' pattern from  issue 24 of  'Mollie Makes'.  

 

Then another break for a special farmhouse high tea - all freshly baked in the farmhouse kitchen by Debs, our hostess. Two types of cake, jam tarts, rich scones with butter, cream and jam.

 

 

  It is always so rewarding to see finished designs as the day draws to a close.

 The traditional Grand Parade  - the lovely results of a very creative day - didn't they do well?

 I believe the next workshop (scheduled for early summer) is already fully booked, but if you would like to be informed of spare places or book in advance for a late summer workshop, please contact Debs via the Cinderhill Farm website or message her through the official Facebook page.

And breathe...

So, my first workshop seemed to go well. I arrived with enough time to have potter round Bath - (didn't do the Roman Baths, as too expensive for me, at nearly £13 entrance fee). I did enjoy the spectacular Regency streets and people watching.

Found a little market shop with, oh, look, ribbons! (Well, of course I bought one or two little bits...)

I stayed in a lovely house with super hosts - Lynne and Michael, who make exquisite collectors dolls - and was given the top room with views over the city - that large lit up building is Bath Abbey.

The view in the morning - Bath Abbey just viewable to the left above the foliage, if you right click. (Need I add that in a house filled wonderful toys, old and new, I was in my element!)

We travelled to another house for the actual workshop. I had nine well experienced crafters to oversee - they are all highly competent in their own fields, so didn't need bottle feeding. However, just to get them warmed up, I did set them my elementary challenge, which was to make a sphere - more difficult that it seems. Biscuits were necessary. Only one or two needles were broken.

After that, although I had my ducky design ready for anyone who wanted to try it, nearly everyone was keen to do their own ideas - something I very much encouraged, as I wanted them to discover their own needle felting 'voice', rather than simply copy something of mine. And by mid morning, a happy silence had descended, broken only by the sound of a multitude of needles poking wool.

The view from the room we were working in was incredible - with a canal and a train track disappearing into the distance. Somewhere in the distance, the Westbury white horse is visible but my camera couldn't quite pick it out. (Nor could my bad eyes!)

I prowled around, on hand if anyone needed help. But on the whole, everyone was in their own happy little needle felting world.

One thing which was noticeable was the dawning realisation that it is a v.e.r.y s.l.o.w process. It can literally take hours for a small piece, depending on how finished the artist wants it. I did have a little 'welcome to my world' moment. But, by the end of the first day, many had finished their projects.

Here we are on the second day and my toys have been joined by a wonderful dodo. Meggy goose looks somewhat startled, Kitty Blue is leaning closer to get a better look, and Mrs Mouse is so flustered by all the excitement that she has decided to concentrate on mixing up her cake.

Sally, who kindly hosted the workshop is the dodo creator and her second piece was to be an elephant. During our lunch break, she showed us videos of her charity in Zimbabwe - who's vision is, to quote - "to prove that wildlife can live in harmony with people in communal farming areas. In doing so we want to improve, through wildlife conservation and tourism, their impoverished life of subsistence farming".

Once a year the camp holds an 'eco- education camp' for the best achieving school children from the four schools that they are involved with - one of the most cherished prizes is a book. Watching the joy and reverence of the lucky prize winner, as they looked through their book, brought tears to my eyes - a salutory reminder of how lucky we in the western world are, no matter how poor we think ourselves. I was very glad that some of the proceeds of our workshop went to this charity and will be keeping my eye open for the official website - meanwhile, even basic school equipment such as a jiffy bag of pencils, pens, erasers, rulers, geometry equipment etc, are in short supply and are always welcome. (If you'd like to send something directly please contact me. I will definitely be sending something out.

Carolyn here is making a giraffe and was a very fast worker - by the end of the day she'd almost finished and got a nice, smooth finish.

On the second day, Heather volunteered to try my duckling. Heather is a highly skilled professional beader and bought some of her intricate, beautiful work to show us - she also writes books about beading and has a lovely site selling kits, beads, her books and news of workshops, which can be found here. And she has a blog too, always nice to meet another blogger in person.

It was, all in all, a lovely two day session. As will happen when you get several women together, we put the world to rights several times and there was a pleasant buzz of conversation, much laughter and the occasional intense debate - no wonder quilters call them 'bees', with the hum of chat and industrious hands.

Between the two host's houses, there were nine cats, and everyone was a cat lover. Here is Merlin, a noble Abyssinian, inspecting Meggy goose and investigating biscuit plates.

'Class of January 2012' with their work - didn't they do well?

I was so proud of them all. Even those who had started off with little or no needle felting experience had created their own design, a little wool sculpture unique to them and everything looking recognisable - even two little duckys in there.

I had marvellous time and was treated superbly, but I have to admit that I am a homebody and it was wonderful to be picked up from the train station and whisked back home to our small but tidy cottage, (well done Andy!) dozing cats, the woodburner toasty hot and my favourite meal ready for me, with a bottle of chilled cider. There is nowhere quite like home, is there?

See you ducky!

January seems to have been sucked into a black hole - as I write, I am finally organised for my first (two day) needle felting workshop in Bath and will be away for three days; I'm feeling homesick already. As the trip must be done by bus and train, I am packing two rucksacks full of supplies and hoping it won't be too heavy. My nine pupils will spend the first day making this little duck, designed especially for the session, and I am expecting them to bring some prep work for their own designs, which I'll be helping them with - should they need help - on the second day. It will be a learning curve for all of us, and hopefully jolly good fun. See you on the other side, duckies!

Out, about & inside

I love this time of year - everything goes back to normal and my world can putter on, but with a whole shiny new year to get things done in. We don't really go in for Christmas - Andy has to work (even on Boxing Day this year) and I prefer to work - but we took a couple of days off at New Year and drove out and about in the comfort of The Wheels. Had a quiet lunch at the Farmer's Arms, a great family pub in Guiting Power.

It is a rare thing in the upmarket Cotswolds - a normal, nice pub with a comfy atmosphere. No posh gastro-anything, no minor celeb chef serving pickled pheasant with pineapple. We like it. And it serves great local Donnington beer - for me the passenger that is, the driver had a nice ginger beer. (A tip for tourists in the Cotswolds looking for a traditional pub - find a Donnington Brewery one, all the ones we have been to are excellent)

It's all a bit dull, blustery and rainy here at the moment, so I have been driven around and parked about, so that I could do some (very) rubbishy landscape sketching. Snowshill is a favourite area for big fields and lowering skies.

Despite the gloom, the landscape is still stunning, especially over the Wiltshire Pewsey Downs. Sweeping and mystically atmospheric in all weathers, even on a murky day.

My favourite clump of trees; I can see it from all angles on our summer circular walk.

Spot the Wiltshire White Horse winter sleeping on the hillside.

Silbury Hill manages to camouflage itself very snugly into the surrounding countryside. To get an idea of how big this amazing prehistoric man-made mound is, the tiny little light to the middle left is a car headlight, on the road which runs past it.

As is tradition, I had a big studio tidy, ready for the new year. I have another full order sheet and am ploughing my way through a big list which includes some very remorseful and late emails to friends around the world and explaining why I didn't do a Christmas card this year. I don't deserve you, I really don't.

Updating my website is proving to be several days worth of work in itself; I'd rather be needle felting, but I can't punt for new illustration work without a decent website. Oh dear me, it is a very dull job indeed. By the way, a little tip; if you are like me and have several piles of *stuff* taking up floor space, simply amalgamate them into taller piles! I am quietly proud of this flash of genius.

What isn't dull at all is organising my first needle felting workshop which is happening later this month - two days of private tuition down in Bath with nine people. I have never been to Bath before, so it will be a very big adventure.