Finished Crochet Blanket

 I have finally finished my blanket . I still have to sew in all the ends but that could take forever so didn't want to wait to post a photo ! There was actually some sunny weather so I took the chance to take these photos outside. Already planning my next blanket more about that soon xx

Holiday craft project

I,ve had some lovely fabric squares I bought ages ago from a friend of mine Toni who makes beautiful textiles . I knew straight away what I was going to make, a curtain to hide the washing machine in my kitchen . That was a least a year ago ! My son had been doing textiles at school and wanted a go on the electric sewing machine to make something .So when it was all set up (the machine usually lives under the stairs ) I felt inspired to do some sewing myself . I,m really pleased with it, the colours are beautiful and make me smile everyday .

Also I found this Boden dress in a charity shop recently ,I was very lucky it had just come in . It's got all my favourite colours and it fits! Never usually wear dresses though ..!

Progress on the crochet blanket.

I am still working away at my biggest crochet project .I have now done a quarter of it completed which I,m really pleased with! I am trying to approach it in a more organised way ,instead of just doing a few completed squares at a time I have done 11 middles in each of the 12 colours . Next I have done the second round in all the colours and so on . So when all three rows are done I will have 132 squares ready to add with the border of white . This will be more than another quarter of the blanket !! I am hedging my bets though as to whether I will make it to being 20x20 squares and I am going to join it so it grows as a square and I can finish it with some rows of granny square clusters if I want to ! Will have more photos soon when these have been added .

This is a very addictive project and I have had many a late night telling myself "I'll just do all the next colour"!! Must go and do some ceramic work in my workshop now bye for now xx

New Christmas range at local craft market

This saturday I took part in the monthly Arts and Crafts market at The Cross in Gloucester. This was the first stall to have all my new christmas stock this year. Here are some photos of my stall and some of my new work . Thank you to all my regular customers for coming to say hello and supporting me ,it is much appreciated !

If you want to find out which events I will be attending in the run up until christmas and my stockists please look on my "about me " section on my website . Come and say hello !

I will be at the Bathroadmarket ,Cheltenham sharing a stall with alic@studioone next saturday , where there will be lots of tea and lovely cakes from of the other stalls and lots of chat !

Bye for now xx

New Local Market

Last weekend my lovely friend(www.alicorder.blogspot.com) and I shared a stall at a new market which is going to be open on Thursdays,Fridays and Saturdays with Farmers markets ,Local Produce,Arts and Crafts ,vintage and retro Stalls.

There was lots of lovely fruit and veg ,fresh fish , bread , hand made chocolate ,cupcakes, organic sausages etc on offer too . If you want to find out more go to www.bathroadmarket.co.uk

Two lovely ladies Julie and Kristina also known as Yarnit had a beautiful stall with their knitted handmade delights and vintage collectables . They also run a lovely knitting group which I don't go to often enough !

I also met a very talented Textile designer called Alice Megan England, who also sells at other local fairs. I love the simpicity and freshness of the designs and the bold colour palette . To find out more about her work go to www.alicemeganengland.co.uk

Well that's all for now .It's that time of year when christmas stock must be made so I will be very busy making in my studio in the next few weeks . Also I have joined http.//www.notonthehighstreet.com, an online selling marketplace which is very exciting . I have to take lots of high quality images for it before I can start selling . I will post a blog about it soon when it is ready to go live .
Bye for now xx

Finished Canal Art inspired designs.

New designs fresh from the kiln ready to be glazed.

Glaze firing ready to unpack with all the new designs.

This plate is my favourite ,the lime green background seems to work really well .

I love the tiles especially the green one again!

The new bird designs fit well on the tiles .

New heart decorations.

I had a stall at an arts and craft market at the weekend and had a positive reaction to the new designs. I sold the blue bowl and some of the heart decorations.

So I'm off to my workshop to make some more !

Bye for now xx

Folk and Canal art inspired new designs

I have finally had some time in the workshop to try out some ideas that have been in my mind for a while . I have always been interested in traditional crafts and being involved in the arts and crafts centre near the docks I have seen all the canal boats coming through the lock outside. Also I have met a lovely lady called Pat Wannell who lives on a boat and does traditional canal painting on her boat and decorates metal buckets ,enamel mugs ,jugs etc with enamel paints . She sells her work at the Gloucestershire Arts and crafts Centre in the Lock cafe .

The British Waterways Museum in the Gloucester Docks also has a huge collection .I bought this little lantern too because of the colours and its folk art feel .

The technique also reminds me of the traditional english slipware pottery which has always influencd my work . I wanted to do my own take on this using my own colour palettes and enjoy experimenting. These are the first attempts and the painting will need lots of practice to get the flowing confidence needed .

I have already tried a few samples using the traditional rose and also have been looking at other folk art from across Europe . This is how the flower is built up in stages and is a very skilled technique .

I have been trying out some of the flowers on some hearts and also in the photo you can see a painted wooden spoon from a local charity shop for extra inspiration !

Here they are finished in rows ,how satisfying!

With these hearts I am keeping the background white to see which work the best . These photos show how I build up the design in stages .

I really like the finished result ,but the may look different when fired .

Now I have practised on the hearts I tried the designs on some larger pieces , it was really good fun to do something freer than I normally would do . I like the strong background colour too .

Again this one will be on a white background.

I think this one is the most successful , the colours work the best and the edging is bold .

I have some tiles ready for decoration too ,some will be the new designs and some the new scraffitto bird designs .

These designs have worked really well on the tiles ,I can't wait to see them finished and glazed!

Bye for now I will be back with the finihed results soon xx