Crafts at the Tower

It was lovely weather for most of the day and we had a good steady stream of visitors to the fair. I even sold some things!

It is early days but people are gradually beginning to realise that the fairs will be a regular event. In fact one of my customers had returned especially to buy from my stall, which was lovely!

There is even a website for our group now and you can find out about all the other sellers here. There are ceramic artists, textile designers, jewellery designers, photographers and mixed media artists!


The next few dates for Crafts at the Tower.

28/29 August (2 day event) TBC

25 Sep

23 Oct

27 Nov

17/18 Dec (Christmas Fa

Square Tower, Old Portsmouth

I am part of the Crafts in the Tower Group, which have recently joined Southsea Art and Design group to run joint craft fairs in the Square Tower Old Portsmouth. It is lots of fun and I am making lots of new art and craft friends! There is a brilliant tea room in the tower with gorgeous home made cakes and tea , all served on an eclectic mix of vintage tea cups and saucers. We will be running fairs on the last Sunday of every month. There is a fair this Sunday from 11a.m.to 4 p.m. It is well worth a visit, even if you just want a cup of tea. Of course, we hope people will also be interested in our stalls!!

 View along the hot walls next to the Tower, overlooking the sea.

Stall holders getting set up.

Fishy things

My latest work features glass fish. I haven't decided what to do with them all yet. Maybe I will hang some in a group or put waves of glass behind them. Not sure really. Sometimes I get a good idea and then I get afraid of the next step in case I mess it up or it isn't as I had imagined it. I should have more confidence in my own ideas. Time to experiment is another factor that I never seem to manage.

Here are some fishy things from folksy. Hope you enjoy looking at them. Click on the photo for the link.

Mangle prints are a favourite of mine. Everything is so gorgeous. You must have a look!

                                    Inspired scilly above used wire to make this fabulous item.

                                   Coastal collections used ceramic and metal for this design.It is so full of life!

Cutie pies have some funky jewellery made from polymer clay. Neat work!

Cheery deary have a number of mixed media paintings like this. I love the fish poking their heads out of the waves.

Do you have a favourite choice from my collection? Do let me know.

Catching up

Finally, my head is above water again and I can return to things that I love, like blogging. I have been so bogged down that I forgot to take my camera to Glastonbury even! So no pictures of the mud and me. I fell over 3 times in one evening and was absolutely covered in it! I had a good time but came home early because I couldn't do without sleep! I wasn't as well prepared as I might have been either. Never mind.

Day 2 summer sampler

My wire birds! I made these!! I'm so chuffed! Drawing with wire was such amazing fun
After selecting a bird to copy, we had to draw the outline in wire.

 Next you join the wires using a binding action to hold each piece in place.

Legs are made separately form one piece of wire. Unfortunately I didn't cut off a long enough piece so later I modified the back claws to overcome this problem.

To attach the legs to the body, I had to use some thinner wire, binding it either side of the legs, to the body, checking that they were the right height and position with the original photo of the bird. It already looks bird like by now though it is a bit unstable. The head kept plonking onto the table as if it were inebriated!

 Long swooping side lines make the bird take on 3D qualities now. I added a few more lines to give it a more substantial look before choosing some scraps of fabric to bind together leaving a length of wire to attach it to the inside of the bird. I was so excited that I started a second bird which I later completed at home.

Cathy was such a delightful tutor, encouraging and helpful. I thoroughly enjoyed this workshop and intend to make many more things from wire.

My final workshop was making this bag. I will add my photos of each stage another time, but here is the finished article.I might be making some of these for my girls at Christmas time. Shhh! Don't tell them!

I can't make up my mind whether people would want to see the different stages of making on my blog or not. Let me know what you think.

day 1 summer sampler

 The grounds at West Dean are so beautiful. Ox eye daisies bob in the breeze amongst the tall grasses.

What a grand entrance. Below is the view from the doorway! There is a haha which keeps the sheep away from the main house.

What a fabulous setting for a weekend course! The summer sampler offered 4 workshops out of 8. I chose printmaking and silver jewellery for today. Tomorrow I am doing wire sculpture in the morning and making a fabric bag in the afternoon. It is quite intensive as you only have 3 and 1/2 hours to complete each task, so no time to dither or be precious about your work, which is good! It is too easy to spend time worrying about whether or not your idea is the best you can do and sometimes just going for it is liberating!

Jane Stobart, the printmaking tutor, got everyone cutting the lino within about 20 minutes! I had a photo from my holiday in France, of dandelions which I liked, so that is what I settled on. She showed us how to ink up and then we were away! I added more lines after proof number 1 and then experimented with several colours on the plate. I quite like the black version and the final blue and brown version was pleasing.

We had barely got into the swing of things before it was time for lunch. Jane was fantastic during the critique at the end. She left eveyone feeling that they had achieved something special. More please!

Although I have made rings before with Sarah Macrae, I had lots of fun making this ring by using 2 stamps to decorate the surface. Each time I do it I learn more and it has made me keen to get back on the jewellery course in September. What a great feeling to come away with about 10 prints and a silver ring from one day's work!

Of course I had to go into the shop and buy some books! I chose Printmaking for Beginners by Jane Stobart, and Sculpting in Wire, by Cathy Miles. Only thing is, I will wear myself out looking at the books and planning a million projects, only to find I will have run out of time!

dragonflies

 

Dragonflies ready to be fired above. Below was one I made earlier, in true Blue Peter tradition!

As part of the Havant Arts Trail, Making Space had some open access workshops available, so I took the opportunity to go along and use the time in the studio to make some more glass panels and coasters. It was fairly quiet as the weather was still a bit dull and windy, which allowed me to get on with making!

I have always been fascinated by the iridescent quality of dragonfly wings and love the way they dance and hover over our pond. My birds seem to have worked quite well so I decided to try dragonflies.

I had made a couple, the week before and was happily planning the next pair when a visitor came into the studio and asked to buy one I had already made. Exciting! But I hadn't thought about how much to ask so I guessed a price and she was happy with that. I find pricing very difficult. I hadn't expected to sell at all as I was just making for the day.

My husband is always nagging me to work out how much each thing costs to make, against how much I have spent on glass etc but I keep avoiding it because I know it will prove that it is very difficult for me to make money. At the moment I am just thrilled that anyone wants to buy my work.

steep learning curve

Coasters ready for firing

This weekend has been really busy. After a tiring half term, I was looking forward to a craft fair on the Saturday. My first outdoor event!

Apart from the diabolical wind, the organisers (a group of students), were not ready for over an hour after arrival time. They had promised a marquee, which turned out to be only the roof section, so no protection from the wind! Anyway, I thought lets give it a go so I bravely tied everything down that I could and began to set up shop.

Several other stall holders had given up already and there were mumblings about the impossibility of selling in such conditions.

The lady next to me gave up after her photographs dispersed themselves across the lawns! Then I noticed that, after carefully displaying what looked like lovely bags and textile items on a nearby stall, the whole lot had been blown onto the grass. Disaster! It wasn't long before she had packed up too.

With rapidly dwindling numbers of craft stalls, it seemed unlikely that I was going to make any sales on that occasion. I finally admitted defeat and gradually packed up my stock. I felt terrible, like a rat leaving the sinking ship, and I hope not to have to go through too many more days like this. I'm sure those of you with more experience might have decided not to go in the first place!

family past

After visiting the sculpture park at Goodwood, mum was telling me all about it and decided to put it up on the computer to show me a particularly peculiar sculpture of a creature riding a bicycle. I suddenly noticed her screen saver and asked who the people were. She said they were relatives, from her fathers family. What fabulous pictures they are. I wish that I could have met them. My grandmother married a man 35 years older than her so my grandad died when I was 3 and I never got to meet him because we were not living in this country until after he died. He sounded very eccentric and was certainly a character I should have enjoyed chatting to.

Families are strange things and it is not always easy finding out about each person because often we are not really interested until we are have families of our own. Then the problem is that not so many people are alive who remember all the intracacies of family relationships. This is often made more difficult with all the skeletons and black sheep roaming around!

We try so hard to avoid the mistakes our parents made and only end up creating a whole new set of them. Still, I would like to find out more.

crochet fun

After seeing a crochet blanket in a shop window some time ago, I decided to have a try myself. I am not very good and hate tidying up the back so I still need to do this! It has taken me a while as I was following a pattern from a video on the internet!

Anyway, I have since bought this book and I made the crochet flower last night. It is not too neat but I will get better. Whether I actually make any of the things in the book is debatable but I just had to have it. It is enough to dream of all the things I could make sometimes! If I had more time....

Actually I can make myself worn out just salivating over what to make next! Ever happen to you? I am going to West Dean College for a summer sampler weekend in half term and I know that I will get over excited by all the workshop activities. I can choose any 2 of 4 each day. That will be such fun! I will take my camera and blog about everything. I am getting better at keeping a photographic record, if not at taking the photos!

suddenly seem to have the time

It seems that my last blog post gave me an idea for a folksy selection- time! How about this great clock with the title time for tea? Is it speaking to me? How did they know that tea time is almost all the time in my house?
 Bread and Butter have many other ceramic clocks and cute things too.

 My daughter loves coffee so this cosy would be more to her liking. Lovely fabric!

 Lots of fun ideas from this shop. I was scared of Alice in wonderland when I was small.

 This is what I call serendipity! What a perfect response for me!No time to worry...I wish! Many more suitable quotes as well.

Finally, my thoughts turned to party time and wow this dress is fabulous. It is great that such flattering styles are back and I just adore the colour! I can see myself turning round to the camera with a knowing smile, in this. Well I can dream can't I?
 I enjoyed this and it has made me realise that you can always find the time if you reallywant to. What do you think?