Country Garden workshop

Country Garden

We had a great time on saturday at the studio in Dorset, with a full house for my new Albion Stitch Country Garden corsage workshop.
I love teaching and sharing my designs with my students, it's a total battery re-charge for me as there is really nothing more flattering that a whole group of people signing up to spend the day with me!
To start the day we had a good discussion about colour, one of my sidebar themes for all the new workshops this year. As a result the range of colour mixes for the show and tell at the end of the day was lovely to behold.  Yeay for blue and mustard coloured flowers how fab do they look! and I am loving the pink and green mix in one flower. It gets my fingers itching to bead some more...

a day of beading, show and share

Another enjoyable aspect of teaching is seeing finished pieces. In this class there were not one, but two 'Enchanter's Tassels' completed from a previous workshop. With the best will in the world there's only really enough time to make samples in  a few colourways and bead variations. Just enough to check that it really works and will be workable for everyone in class or at home.

Two variations of Enchanter's tassel

So when students take the colours or shapes for a walk, then bring in the end results for me to see, it is a brilliant treat. Enchanter's tassel is a fluid, jointed design worked in layers of Albion Stitch. I'm really liking the Herringbone stitch cord, worked in size 15 seeds. It takes an age to stitch, but is so worth the investment of time to get such dainty detail, go girls!

shop, share, recycle

all wrapped up in recycled ribbon

I'm doing that spring thing of clearing out cupboards. Partly due to necessity as there is something damp and mouldish happening in a far corner that needs much clearing out before a 'man' can be called in to have a look... why the 'man' can't climb over boxes of craft stuff just like he has to at home is one of those social nicety dilemma's that it's just easier to do a bit of tidying than to ponder too deeply. What is guaranteed is that the 'man' is going to want a lot of money to sort the mouldish thing.

Embracing the zen of clearing space in order to welcome in the new... I took a big bag of knitting wools left over from when I was writing my French Knitting book, to our local charity shop. In turn I came away with the most adorable nonsense. A second hand plate with three knitted cakes all done up in cellophane. I am slightly triumphant as I have wanted to own knitted cup cakes ever since my friend Becs knitted some adorably cute ones for her mini me's and has yet to knit me one despite much begging... and despite that I am a grown up and ought to knit my own, I guess.

knitted fancies WITH cherries on top!

I love quirky trends, the cup cake revolution was astonishing to witness, and seems to continues apace. This symbol that seems to have kick started the vintage kitsch revolution is either a divine manifestation of our collective need for creating and fun, or terribly descriptive of the wastefulness of our consumer culture. Somehow I don't mind as long as there are folk out there who want to hand make things, to sew, knit, bead, embroider, well or badly, but sustain these lovely expressive crafts.
Back to the zen clearing thing and my bulging bag of left over yarns will be knitted up into cute recycled gifts, which will give the knitter the pleasure of her hobby and the purchaser a delightful object, whilst raising funds for the charity, cosmic.

Romance with friends

sugar candy, mmmm!

I love a good wedding, no really, there is nothing better than the opportunity to dress up and party!
just before Easter we went to our friends 'renewal of vows' wedding. This was truly a no expenses spared (thank you so much my lovelies, you know who you are), kind of day. An unashamedly romantic day too, with poetry and love, laughter and the best kinds of tears... the happy couple's grown up children part of the celebration and a lifetime of friends and family to join in.
Post vow making was the best buffet ever... little paper bags and jars and jars of delicious sweets... those magical confections that the corner shop had in penny amounts on saturday mornings, sticky bliss!

The cake was a divine confection of chocolate and strawberry, and the day flow by in a dazzle of afternoon tea, roulette tables, dancing, entertainers, more food and fireworks. I still cannot fathom how that magician made the wine bottle sink through the table (no really!), nor how I started by holding a pack of cards and ended holding a block of glass... without noticing... and I don't drink!!!!
Like all good parties, we as guests were blissfully oblivious to the year long preparations, the hours and hours of work to get so many lovely details in place.
As an off duty designer I couldn't help but love the colours, a gentle chocolate and strawberry theme, with clever vintage mixes. The bridal party were in adorable '50's outfits, grown up bridesmaids in flatteringly bitter chocolate silk, flower girls in  dreamy cream with little fur bolero's and tippets, and all the guys in Gatsby smart suits and correspondent shoes. I loved the flowers too, just look at this bridesmaids bouquet... definitely going to have to explore this colour mix!!!

two lovely peeps

Delicious colours on a delightful day

Ravishing Ranunculas

Ranuncula's for a rainy day

It's raining, neither cats, nor dogs, nor even men, just big grey clouds full of water spaloshing all over the landscape. The kind or rain that makes the down pipes sing and the recycling bins into a percussion unit.
We are on 'drought alert', so the rain is welcome, by the earth and the good green garden if not by the actual gardener herself. After the unseasonal warm and sunny weather I'm finding it soooo hard to go back to enjoying wet and gloom, and those 'creep in round the edges' little chilly draughts.
Having just been soaked en route to the post office, soaked again when I noticed all the dishes under the plant containers were overflowing and needed upside downing... then once more again!!!! on the trip to get essential groceries because I've been too busy beading and getting ready for a weekend workshop to notice that we will starve if I didn't go do it a bit sharpish.
So, for no other reason than to cheer up a very wet shopper and gloomy rainy afternoon, I splashed out and bought a bunch of flowers.
Feast your eyes and draw inspiration from these Ranuncula nestling among some golden rod. Shouty Happy Yellow, they glow with sunshiny goodness Yipeee!!!!

trees... with beads on...

Tree with beads on

There is a row of splendidly huge and ancient Plane trees lining a busy main road nearby. In the summer these trees are leafy green silent havens for crows, blackbirds, moths and insects, while far below the traffic roars past. They are beautiful, each one a different gnarly shape and I love to walk past them. In the winter and spring they are magical trees because they are festooned with beads. Really they are the seed heads that cling on to fine stems throughout winter storms and snow with amazing strength, only to fall and crumble into a million seeds when the weather turns soft and mild.

Tree with beads in in Dortmund

 When I was over in Germany, the road       outside the exhibition hall was lined with Plane trees too... obviously a staple for the parks and gardens authorities needing to line busy roads.
As another step on my occasional quest for beading nature (see acorns), here is a first experiment. I just love the juxtaposition of branches and seed heads against the blue sky, so I am wondering whether this has some design mileage. Firstly though, the practicalities of making some beady shapes and deciding if they are nice or not.

Plane tree seeds

When you get close to them, the seed heads are kind of spiky, in a really dense pattern.
I've used the gorgeous 2.8mm Miyuki mini drops in dark bronze along with 11 seeds in a soft grey and 15 seed beads in dark bronze... worked over a wooden bead.

The Branch is some rather intriguing wire with a soft foam coating which I found in a garden centre. I think designed to be soft against delicate plant stems that need tying back I thought it had HUGE possibilities for beading and was tempted to buy heaps, as it came in different diameters. Sense prevailed so my experiment with this is to see if it is strong enough to hold it's shape when also covered with beads...yes is the outcome there.
Not sure where this is going yet but thought I'd show and share.... I'm kind of liking the detail and texture.

beaded seed heads with netted 'twig'

like the texture...but not the herringbone stitch stalks