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.

A Mosaic of Makes from 2011

2011 has been a fabulous year for Aileen Clarke Crafts.

My work has sold really well through various gift shops and galleries here in Scotland and gone all over the world thanks to the wonders of online shopping sites like Etsy and Folksy. Apparently my shop is among the top 250 sellers on Folsky which truly amazes me. It is one of my goals for 2012 to keep both of my online shops well stocked with a full range of items.

Events like Open Studios North Fife and The Handmade Show have also helped me focus and given me the opportunity to meet so many more people face to face, both customers and fellow artists.

Textile Trinket Boxes

My little boxes were an instant hit and have all gone to new homes over the past couple of months. Only two left in stock.

I do hope to develop new ideas for these and make them regularly available.

These photo mosaics are just a snap shot of pieces I have made during 2011.

Textile Wrist Cuffs

My range has certainly expanded and will hopefully continue to grow throughout 2012. I have enjoyed making a few commission pieces this year including pendants, earrings, brooches, wrist cuffs, handmade cards and art work. 

Fibre, Textile, Glass and Resin Pendants

Earrings

Brooches

New to my range this year have been these rings. I love wearing them myself and have to admit to owning at least five in all different colours.

Also new this year have been the Sheep Pendants, Earrings and Rings.

There are so many different colour combinations and different fibres that can be used that the possibilities are endless! It means that every single design is different. It also means that it is sometimes hard to choose. I've had customers at fairs swithering for ages not knowing which one to get for a friend and ending up buying one for themselves instead.

A variety of Sheep Jewellery is still available in my Etsy Shop

Card making was my first love and really how my whole Aileen Clarke Crafts business came about. I still make hundreds of cards but most of them go out to local shops and sell at craft fairs. I find them difficult to photograph for selling online and the time taken to get the photos just right is worth more than what the card will sell for. One of my plans for the new year is to buy a  new and better camera during the sales so hopefully that will allow me to make more of my cards available online.

The bookmarks continue to be a hit but again, I have struggled to find time to make more of them in recent weeks. Much of January will be spent making back ground felt for lots of different projects so hopefully I'll get some new bookmarks made in the new year.

Over the past year I have met people in real life that are regular visitors to my blog and fans of my page on Facebook. They have all helped and inspired me to come up with new ideas and make more of everyone's favourite items. Thank you to all of you who take the time to leave comments. It's such a great source of feedback and encouragement especially for someone who works from home. 

It's great to be part of such a wonderful creative community as well. So many of us are busy making and creating trying to make a living doing what we love and the internet has certainly provided us with a fantastic way of helping and supporting each other.

Felt Art Work

I'll leave you with this little selection of cosy cottages.

Bonnie Wee Hooses

 I think it's fair to say and obvious through my work that I have a bit of a thing for wee cottages.

I was brought up living in a cottage on the outskirts of Perth and I've lived in a few different ones over the years including the one I live in now with my husband and two children. 

This is the cottage I grew up in as a teenager. My brother lives in it now.

Painting By Jim Douglas

This is the cottage we live in now.

You can just about make it out behind the trees! The trees provide a nice bit of shelter and are home to lots of Greenfinch in the summer. Thankfully they are all still standing after yesterday's gale force winds! I felt like I was in the opening scenes of a disaster movie yesterday when I went out for wood and coal!

 I found these old photos taken in 1996 on a visit to Donegal with my Mum. I can remember we were ridiculously over excited with these cottages much to the bemusement of the old fella we met in the driveway.

 We were even more over excited when we saw that this one was a florists!

Mum and I both worked as florists for years and we thought this our absolute dream place.

A few weeks ago I spotted a photo on Craft Blog UK that really intrigued me.

It was of a knitted cottage against the backdrop of the beautiful Scottish Highlands. I immediately went in search of it's maker and got chatting via email to Julia Marsh, owner of Hand Knitted Things based in the north west of Scotland. 

Julia sells knitting patterns for her little croft house cottages but seeing as knitting is not one of my talents she offered to knit one for me!

 Drum roll please.............

Ta da!!!

 I am so delighted with it! I think it's the cutest thing ever.

It reminds me of some of the wee hooses we saw on holiday this summer out on Harris.

And of course it's like a 3D version of one of my own little needle felted ones.

Sunset Behind The Croft

£40

You can find out more about Julia and her Hand Knitted Things here

So we had an unusually wild and windy day here yesterday with the children off school and the fire needing fed like a hungry animal.

My postie still got through though and brought me some new supplies to play with.

 These new Felt Flower Pendants are now available in both my Etsy and Folksy shops priced £20.

More colours coming soon.


I also have these new Sheep Earrings available in both my shops. Just click the images to go to the listings.

December and It Finally Feels Like Winter!

Here are a few pieces I made using all that stash shown in the last post.

Heart Shaped Pendant

£20

 Wrist Cuff

£18

Wrist Cuff

£18

Just click the photos to go to the listings for more information and use your 'back' button to come back here.

I received a commission from a customer to make her a silvery grey felt brooch so I made a few and let her choose which one she preferred. 

This one is now available in my Folksy Shop

Silvery Grey Brooch

£12

I also managed to get a couple of new boxes made. I sold all but one of the previous ones.

These are both in my Etsy Shop priced £30 each.

I have also been busy with more sheep pendants. 

Got some new ones available both on Etsy and Folksy but they are selling out really quickly.

All my chains now come with a little extension making them wearable up to 18 inches long. 

I wore one of my own pendants and a matching ring to the Trad Music Awards last night in Perth. My outfit was purple and mauve so I wore a textile and resin heart and purple textile ring to match and I did feel that the 16" chain was a little short on this occasion. 

The Trad Awards were fantastic with such a great line up and everyone decked out in their finery and killer heels! Except I don't do heels. It's hard enough negotiating stairs in a long flouncy skirt never mind heels as well! We were on the lower balcony seats but I still managed to come home with these beautiful Amaryllis from one of the tables.

You can watch highlights from the Trad Awards on BBC Alba on Monday night and on the BBC i player for a week after. I'll be watching with my daughter and playing 'Spot Granny In The Crowd'! My Mum was at one of the tables with other Folk Club and TMSA members enjoying the wine and chocolates.

And last but not least on this little catch up post, I have made this felt landscape available in my Folksy Shop also.

'Red Poppies Along The Wall'

£46