Love Is In The Air

After a restful January and February whiling away the last winter months making and creating at leisure, March has sprung upon me with a frenzy of activity. The garden has come to life, the birds are busy nesting, the days are longer and brighter with opportunities to sit outside and my time is suddenly divided across many different activities. Included in this months endless to do list were the the flowers for my cousin's wedding.

It's always a pleasure and a privilege to do the flowers for a wedding but even more so when it's for family or friends. My cousin's fiance chose a mixture of pink roses for the table arrangement. I included white cymbidium orchids, eringium thistle, eucalyptus leaves, ivy and bupluerum to set the roses off.

My daughter was the flower girl and looked absolutely adorable carrying her little posy. The large pink rose is 'Sweet Dolomiti' and the smaller pink rose is 'Sweet Akito'. The cream rose is 'Vandella'.

The Sweet Dolomiti roses have ever such a slight perfume. This is unusual in cut roses as the scent is often lost. Garden roses have a heady scent but cut roses often don't so it was nice to have that pefume present.

Here's me holding the brides bouquet. A tight hand tied bunch of Vandella roses, each with a pearl headed pin. A loose collar of eucalyptus leaves and bear grass loops finished it off and the stems tied in matching voile ribbon.

We got a large piece of cake home with us and I have to say it's delicious!

A wonderful day was rounded off with a good ceilidh interspersed with a variety of classic songs sung at weddings to get folk up dancing. I might have passed on a few of the non ceilidh dances had my daughter not dragged me up to every single one! She put us all to shame as she was still up bopping at half past midnight when we were all starting to flag.

We spent the rest of the weekend catching up with the family and really feel like we have had a holiday and an extreemly enjoyable time.

No time to relax now that we are home though. Open Studios North Fife will soon be upon us in less than eight weeks time. The brochures have been printed and will be distributed soon. To keep up to date with where you can obtain your free brochure, why not become a fan of our Facebook page. Just click this link and if you are a Facebook user, click 'Like' at the top of our page. Any updates from our page will then appear in your news feed.

All 84 participating artists and makers are busy creating new work and thinking of new ways to make your visit even more enjoyable. This really is a great event so put Sat 5th, Sun 6th and Mon 7th May 2012 in your diary and look out for updates and info nearer the time.

Pinks and Blues and New Sheep Too.

Here is a quick visual feast of new pieces made last week.

I haven't been out and about taking many photos so I don't have much to blog about. Just been busy making new things and getting pieces out to stockists. Some of the places you can find my work are

An Cnoc in Creiff

Starfish Studio in Johnshaven

Studio 222 in Newburgh

Room 15 in Oban

and

Zigzags in Dunkeld

All of these new pieces can be found in my Etsy shop here.

The competition to win one of my framed felt landscapes and a set of six cards is still open in the Scot's Magazine. You can enter up until Wednesday 29th Feb by sending your details to

mail@scotsmagazine.com

I'm delighted to have been asked to do a few really nice events this year. I'll be anouncing where and when soon!

Find Yourself a Felt Making Kit

I get asked a lot if I do workshops or teach felt making. I don't but I know people who do!

I have also seen some great kits out there, some of which I have listed below.

Felt making is such a versatile craft. There are so many things you can make! There are two basic felt making techniques, wet felting and needle felting.
Wet felting involves laying out wool fibres called merino tops in layers and matting them together with hot soapy water and a simple rolling method until a fabric is formed.

Needle felting is when you stab at the fibres with barbed needles causing them to mesh together and either form a flat fabric or a three dimensional shape. You use a foam pad to stab into so that you don't hurt your fingers or damage your work surface. (Both are still possible but it's an easy technique to master!)

There are lots of 'How Too' videos on You Tube. Just search for 'How to make felt' or 'How to needle felt' and watch a few videos to give you an idea of what is involved.

Below are a few kits that you may enjoy trying.

Here is a Beginners Felt Making Kit from Maria at Creative Bumble Bee.
£9.90 contact Maria at info@creativebumblebee.co.uk

Maria has also come up with this brilliant kit for making Needle Felted Bird Brooches

£9.50 makes at least three brooches. Click here to go to Maria's website.

Lisa at 'Tigerlily Makes' has also come up with some fantastic kits.

This beautiful Scarf Kit costs £19.99 plus £4.50 p+p. Includes all the wool fibre and instructions to create this stunning one off piece.

This Rose Corsage is also available as a kit.

£9.95 plus £4.50 p+p

Click here to see the full list on the 'Tigerlily Makes' website.
Tigerlily Makes is based in Lichfield UK. Classes and workshops are also available.


Nicola Brown lives in Co Carlow, Ireland and makes really beautiful felt pieces including these felt purse/pouches. These are really fun to make as it doesn't matter how your felt turns out, you can just cut it to size, fold it over and sew it up the sides.

Nicola sells these kits from her Etsy Shop priced £6.50 plus £2.60 p+p (prices are approx as Nicola lists in US $'s)

You can also find details about workshops and tutorials on Nicola's blog here

Diva Designs based near Forres, Scotland also have a wide variety of kits for varying levels of felting skills.

You can choose from Needle Felting, Wet Felting and Felt Bead Kits. Other kits are also available from their webiste here.
Kirsty and Christine at Diva Designs also run workshops at their studio.

We are lucky to have a fabulous felting supplies and wool shop here in Fife called Twist Fibre Crafts. Based in Newburgh just south of Perth, this shop is very accessable as it's not too much of a detour off the M90.

 Felt Mirror

Everything you need to make a colourful mirror with decorative felt. Available in blues with fish or greens with flowers. Overall dimensions 20cm x 20cm.

£10.50

Felt Flower Bouquet

£12

Penguin Family

Kit includes foam block, 3 felting needles, felting needle handle, enough fibre to make 3 penguins and instructions.

£7.50

For the full range of kits from Twist and details of how to buy click the link below.

Twist Fibre Crafts Kits
Twist also run a variety of workshops and classes. See their website for details.

If you are in the Fife area you can also do a complete beginners workshop with Kirsty at

Falkland Felts
Kirtsy will taylor the workshop to your ability level and you can discuss the kind of things you would like to make before you begin. You can also liase with her about dates and times.

You can find some of these wonderfully creative and helpful people on Facebook. I'm sure they would love to hear from you and will happily answer your questions.

Falkland Felts
Creative Bumble Bee
Tigerlily Makes
Diva Designs

February Update

February already and it finds me getting on with a few new makes.

I love making a big piece of background felt using lots of bright colours and different textures then making it into various different pieces.

First out of this cerise and turquoise piece of felt was this wrist cuff. I used a previous design with the leaves dancing along the length of the cuff but added semispherical felt balls to it and a whole ball for the loop to fasten around.

Then I made these heart shaped pendants to match.

They can all be found in my Etsy shop here

 These birdy brooches can also be found in my Etsy shop. Both feature vibrant handmade felt with silk fibres and hand dyed scrim.

 My little tweed and felt boxes have continued to be popular and I managed to get two made on Friday. You can see some photos from our trip to Harris here and see where the wonderful Harris Tweed comes from. I love working with it but stocks are running low.

Both boxes are on sale aslo in my Etsy shop.

I had a commission for an Ivy Leaf brooch/cloak clasp similar to one I made last year so I made an extra two in beautiful purple and blue shades.

Brooches are £15 each and come with an extra long 5cm brooch bar making them perfect for keeping a cardigan, shawl or cloak fastened at the front.

 Alongside all these colourful creations I got another Coo picture finished.

This is Callum.

He measures 12x17cm and comes complete with mount and frame.

Read more about him here.

 Also new this week are these printed cards featuring Harvey and Alistair.

Cards are available as a set at £4.95 or individually at £2.50 each.

See the printed cards section of my shop here.

Set of six cards £12

 So it's been a busy month so far with all these new pieces emerging plus I sneaked in a visit to Glasgow and the Celtic Connections festival. More about that later though.

If you have come to visit my site after reading the wee bit about me and my work in The Scot's Magazine, you are most welcome and thank you for taking the time to pop in. See more about what you can win in the blog post below.

Win an Aileen Clarke Crafts Original!

The February Issue of 'The Scot's Magazine' goes on sale today and I'm delighted to be featured in the 'Around Scotland' section.

The Scot's Magazine is one of these publications that seems to have been around forever and certainly in our family it could always be found on the coffee table. It reminds me of the cottage I grew up in, especially relaxed Sunday afternoons by the fire with Granny and Grandad visiting. One of us would always be sifting through it's pages and I always loved the great photos of Scotland's beautiful scenery.

So I feel it's a great privilege to be featured in this iconic magazine!

Here is a close up of the piece that you can win.

'Highland Cottage with Sheep'

12x17 cm

Comes complete with mount and frame.

For this piece I have used some of these wonderful hand dyed fibres from Orkney.

The colours are so beautiful and reflect the colours of the landscape perfectly.

The chosen winner will also receive this set of six printed cards.

You can read The Scot's Magazine online.

To enter the competition all you need to do is

Email your your details to

mail@scotsmagazine.com

or send a postcard to

Aileen Clarke Crafts

Giveaway, The Scots Magazine, 80

Kingsway East, Dundee DD4 8SL

 to arrive by February 29. The first name chosen at random will be the winner.

All the best!

Highland Coo's!

I said I'd be working on some Highland Coo pics this week and I have been.

This is based on the photo I took of Alistair on Monday. I've given him less of a frosty fringe and I nice dry stone wall to look over.

Alistair

Harvey

I made Harvey up with inspiration taken from other photos of various coo's in our neighbours herd.

Both pieces are now sold. Hoping to get a few more made soon.
I have a couple of commission pieces to work on and stock to make for shops as well so it's busy, busy but hopefully I'll be back with more new pieces to share soon.

January Makes

Frosty Fringed Alistair

We had a frost as thick as snow here yesterday. This is Alistair who we pass every day on our way to meet the school bus. He's a handsome coo and likes to stick his tongue out at us (except when I have the camera to hand!) He has beautiful blonde highlights along his back and fringe but the frost was so thick that these were hidden yesterday.

I'm planning a few new coo pictures this week and have felt drying above the wood burner this evening ready for tomorrow.

I have been busy making more felt landscapes though. I know they all feature the same little cottage and sheep but they are in great demand! Seems everyone wants a wee cottage to day dream about living in.

 'Distant Glens'

£40

These are listed in my Etsy Shop Here

 'Poppy Stone Cottage'

£40

 Wee Landscape With Poppies

£35

 'Purple Poppy Stone Cottage'

£40

My Etsy Shop is also choc full of jewellery as well including these iridescent textile and resin heart pendants.

All my pendants are £20 each and come gift wrapped in a wee box.

I'm loving having a laptop to work on instead of just the family desk top PC. It's great to be able to sit in the warm for a start! The PC is in a different room from the wood burner and I'd much rather sit by the fire during the winter. I'm hoping the wifi will work outside in the summer and maybe even allow me to use the laptop in the summer shed! That would be great! But we shall wait and see.

The new camera is taking a bit of getting used to and I've reverted to our old one for close ups of my work. The new one is great for outdoor shots and landscapes and I'm sure I'll get used to it for taking macro shots but they seem to need heavily edited and I don't think that the laptop gives a true representation of the brightness and colours. I've had the laptop hooked up to the other monitor today and that made a big difference so I'm sure I'll be able to get some great photos with the new camera soon. It's just getting the time to play around with it that's the problem. Plus the other PC has gone off to my brother to be fixed.

Hopefully I'll be back with some new Highland Coo pictures soon. Our neighbours herd have a new addition but I haven't been able to get a good photo of it yet. You can just about make the wee thing out among the hay here.