Has it Really Been That Long?

Has it REALLY been THAT long since I last blogged?!?

Well, what can I say? I've been rather busy since last, er, March.

What HAVE I been doing? Well, making, making and more making of course, keeping my stock up in my Folksy Shop and in Gloucestershire Arts and Crafts Centre and Taurus Crafts in Lydney. I attended some fabulous Christmas markets at Nature in Art and Gloucester Cathedral and I ran several classes at the Arts and Crafts Centre (including one using silver clay)! I also started experimenting with new techniques, which I am still refining and getting really excited about - including wax mould carving, photopolymer stamps and using copper and bronze clays - all things I fully intend to blog about over the coming months. In between all that Little Miss MoonRiver grew up a bit more and went off to secondary school (sob) and I studied a bit of theology (as you do)! SO all in all it has been a busy and crazy 2015.

And so, new year 2016 was a time to reassess and take stock. I have decided that from the end of January, I will no longer sell my jewellery at Gloucestershire Arts and Crafts Centre. I'm rather sad about this as I have loved my time there and made some fabulous friends, but I am simply not getting enough time in the workshop to develop all the new ideas I'm so excited about. I still have classes booked there each month though (for full details see attached poster) so I'm not disappearing entirely!

Right now, I'm itching to jump into all the half finished projects and ideas I have lying around but I really must be disciplined and attend to some less glamorous tasks like tidying up websites, shops and, yes, blogs. On that note, I hope it won't be so long until I post again!

 

Tree of Life Pendant Workshops

Last month saw the start of a new venture for me - I started booking the classroom at Gloucestershire Arts and Crafts Centre to hold workshops.

In February two lovely ladies spent the afternoon with me making their own tree of life pendants. One lady chose to use mother of pearl beads and the other gorgeously earthy mookaite.

Due to popular demand I have arranged another workshop for later this month, so if you couldn't make it last time (or found out too late!) then now's your chance. I will be arranging more in the near future too.

If you'd like to come along and have a go then just drop me a line!

A cold and frosty morning in January......two years ago!

Well, it certainly was a chilly start this morning wasn't it! And what a cold night - I had to de-ice my car before going out to an evening meeting and then again when I came to go home a couple of hours later. Despite the inconvenience of having' on-time mornings' turn into 'late for school mornings' I have to say that I do like a nice frosty morning. Perhaps because it's January (and I always get a bit nostalgic at this time of the year) I suddenly remembered taking a photo across a local field on just such a cold morning a while ago and blogged about it. So I set off to find the post and was sooooo surprised to find that it was two years ago! Almost to the day! It was the photo from my very first blog post ever over on my old blog:

You can't see it in the photo but I remember there being the most brilliant male pheasant in the field showing up against the frost. If you followed my old blog, you might remember that I said there was a housing estate being built next to this field at the time. Well the houses are up and people are moving in - I wonder what this field looks like now? I've made a mental note to take my camera out with me and see next time I'm passing that way.

A Walk in the Woods

It won't come as any surprise to those that know me that I do enjoy a nice trip to the woods, so with the weather really rather fine on Sunday (and finding ourselves with a rare window in the diary) we trotted off to reconnect with some trees.

Now, this particular piece of woodland is high on a hill with fantastic views for miles and miles. It's open and airy with mostly deciduous trees like beech, hazel and ash, but sadly not an oak tree to be found (my personal favourite........maybe). The ground slopes VERY steeply down to the one side of the path - glad no one slipped!

It's amazing what you spot in the woods - I wonder who might live in a house like this.......

I love to find little gateways like this one......

I was really taken by the textures of the ivy on this tree......

and the roots on the path......

And finally, if anyone knows what sort of fungi this is then I'd be very grateful not to have to look it up (pretty please).............

Thanks for reading - now that Little Miss is back at school and Small Boy has started in reception (sob) I'm enjoying getting back to the work shop - pics of this week's creations to follow very soon!

Back to the classroom

It's a bit after the event now (doesn't time fly during the summer holidays!) but last month saw my first foray into the world of teaching.

I'd been invited to run a two day course for Gloucestershire Arts and Crafts Summer School, so I diligently packed up my work shop and relocated to a local secondary school.

I have to say that it was a bit strange being back in a science lab again, it was not my favourite subject at school (and yes - labs still look and smell the same)!

I had a great two days with eight lovely and willing students. Over the two days they each made four pieces of jewellery, including a silver leaf and a gemstone tree of life. One of my ladies even made a silver ukelele pendant!

Sadly I was so busy teaching that I forgot to take any photos to show you (maybe next time).

I'm hoping to run some short classes of my own soon, so if you'd be interested in classes in Gloucester then watch this space or sign up for my newsletter here.

To find out more about the Gloucestershire Arts and Crafts Summer School you can find their website at http://www.spanglefish.com/gloucesterartsandcrafts/index.asp

Out with the old.......

Well, it might be grey and damp again today but we have at least seen some sunshine this week. On Thursday I even sat outdoors to eat my sandwiches!
This quick snap was taken next to the bench where I sat - it's in the cloister gardens in Gloucester Cathedral. I love the fact that you can see the dark evergreen holly bush in the background surround by the snowdrops. There's a lovely daffodil there too just about ready to bloom.