Visitors make their own earrings and more

I closed my studio doors to visitors last Sunday feeling very pleased with how my 'open studio' had gone. It is quite a lot of work.....not just designing and making things but deciding on presentation and pricing, as well as personal advertising and social media.

As I do both textiles and jewellery I had quite a bit on display. The photo shows me in my gazebo with my textile wall hangings and quilts. There were also a few bags-mostly sold- and a few items such as cards and felted notebooks.  

I decided I would try to set myself apart from other jewellery makers in Cambridge Open Studios and offer a 'make your own earrings' service. This proved quite popular.  An early visitor and friend from Cambridge Quilters made quite a visual impact with her bright green top that I suggested she made a button necklace. Funky eh? 

Next comes Tania who works for Spirus, the marketing company used by COS.  Tania was inspired by these acrylic discs to make herself some earrings. 

Another visitor created these freshwater pearl drops

and Agnes put together range and purple to make these. Apologies for the not brilliant photo quality.

There were many more but I love these next earrings made by a good neighbour. Hilary was desperate to make some earrings to match the red skirt she was wearing. Red is a tricky colour to find in glass beads but we managed!   I think these earrings are stunning, especially when the red bead is teamed up with Swarovski crystals--not just tiny bicone beads but one which is more of a flat disc. 

This week has been one of sorting out my studio ready for more creativity including a special commission for another Cambridge Open Studios artist who asked me to make her a one-off pearl necklace.  It's quite an honour and privilege to make something unique that you know with be treasured by that person. 

If I have any followers 'out there' then I must apologise for having such a long gap between blog postings. Not a great plan since blogging is supposed to be regular. In my own defence, I've never wanted to blog about random things such as what I cooked for dinner. My aim is to write about my creativity whether that be textiles or jewellery. 

My only excuse is that I've been very busy...however, not with anything worth blogging about.  In other words, I've achieved nothing much that I can call 'creative'. My grandson came to visit-took time to get over that! Then I did two events to sell my jewellery. One at C3 church and the other at Rock Road library. In both cases, I sold nothing but I suppose they do promote the bigger event of Cambridge Open Studios. 

Next we had a holiday (Zakynthos) only to return home to find a close family member in hospital. That was a month ago. Busy with hospital visits AND getting ready for Cambridge Open Studios I've had a lot on, as they say.  I may have mentioned somewhere that I am one of the organisers of the event and I've been occupied with that, emails here and there all the time.

Holiday villa in Zakynthos 2016

So, onto Cambridge Open Studios.....apart from preparing my own studio, I've helped coordinate a project to promote an event for the Arthur Rank Hospice Appeal. They are trying to raise a further £2M to complete their brand new hospice here in Cambridge. Their fund raiser asked me whether Open Studios artists would decorate a MDF heart, display it then hand it over for an auction later in the year. Of course we would!  I've already blogged about mine but I've been quite active finding photos of hearts created by our members on Twitter and reposting them on the COS News Page, etc. We had an amazing whole page article about the hearts in the Cambridge Evening News with my heart top centre.  The hearts are lovely; each one different yet marvellous.  Search on Twitter @ArthurRankHospice or @MarionCurtis53 to view some of them

I was asked to do a radio interview for Cambridge 105. Hopelessly early, I watched Julian Clover do his programme and eventually I chatted for almost ten minutes on his show. I think it went well, however, since I wouldn't like to hear the sound of my own voice, I haven't listened to the interview but here is the link:  Cambridge105

Outside my studio

This weekend sees my final two days of  my open studios exhibition. The photos shows my unique Cambridge Open Studios bunting made from upcycled discarded screen prints from the COS yellow flags which are given to every member. 

I have both textiles and jewellery on show with many items for sale. So far I've had a far few visitors and hope to see more in the next two days. I'm open from 11am until 6pm both Saturday and Sunday at 107 Perne Road, Cambridge, CB13SB. Parking close by. 

View inside the gazebo 

Another view inside the gazebo

Yet another view with a couple of my favourite pieces

Table with cards and small textiles items on display.

Felted notebooks

A busy week which started with me deciding to make some felted notebooks ready for Cambridge Open Studios in July.  You may have seen machines that can do needle felting or 'embellishing'.  I used to have one at my old school. I thought a separate embellishing machine would be one machine too many in my studio so I bought the attachment for my trusty Bernina. Here is a photo of the box. It was a bit pricey but it does the job very well. 

You need to fit the attachment, which includes a different throat plate, remove the rotary hook and bobbin, leaving the front of your 'bobbin area' open. Fluff does collect there but it's no problem since I clean and oil my machine very frequently. The needle array consists of five barbed needles which punch through fibres and yarn. 

So, I found a ball of soft roving, teased it out and began embellishing it onto some felt I made last summer.  

Here's a close up of starting. See how I've arranged the roving to spread it out.

Here I've created a little loop to punch into the base fabric. I often hold it down with a kebab stick so that my fingers don't get in the way!

Another view of my piece as it starts to come together......

Sometimes you can get quite thick, lumpy areas. If you are not careful you can overdo the felting and simply make a hole in the base fabric. This photo shows me laying some old cheap netting over the area. This helps to keep everything flat and stable until it's felted down. The net is thrown away afterwards. 

Eventually, I am finished and I trim my newly embellished fabric and cut it down to cover a small notebook. This photo shows me using invisible thread to stitch down one of the inner flaps. (I hate hand stitching!)

A button is added to the front with some linen thread and dangly beads and I'm done. I made 12 notebook covers in one afternoon. They will be for sale at my Open Studio Event in July.

The next project is working on something for the Arthur Rank Hospice Appeal.

Textiles In Focus 2016

I always look forward to this weekend in February as the Textiles In Focus Exhibition takes place. This year it has moved away from Cottenham Village College to Cambourne Village College. Luckily the organiser had the roads well signposted as my newish Sat Nav wanted to take me to the middle of a ploughed field.  This exhibition is not huge but, for me, heralds the start of the new 'sewing season'. Ideas are formed, materials purchased, friends caught up with. 

I rarely attend any of the workshops but always have a good look around the exhibition and trade stands. I must admit that I felt the event lacked something in 'atmosphere'. There were not many visitors when I was there and therefore none of the usual 'buzz'. I searched out my friend Agnes Asselin from Cambridge Open Studios. Agnes creates wonderful pictures using African fabric.

Here is Agnes on her stall. 

And a close up shot of some of her framed pictures. Agnes also makes cards, and sells jewellery, either ready made up or in kit form.  

To find out more:Link to Agnes' page at Cambridge Open Studios

I also bumped into Jenny Langley. Jenny is a local textiles artists who champions using recycled materials. http://www.arttextiles.co.uk/

I have known Jenny for many years. She has many interests including machine embroidery, printing and her famous storytelling mats. It's well worth looking at her website for more information. This picture shows her amidst her canopy of textile art connected with her work with Sense. I couldn't begin to write everything about Jenny but do go to her website. 

Next, I found Annette Morgan....

 Annette was busy demonstrating with Mary Mackintosh. Annette is very well know in the UK and it's thanks to her that I first got involved in indigo dyeing, which led in turn to patchwork and quilting. Annette is an art quilter and often uses print as a basis of her designs. 

http://www.annettemorgan.co.uk/

After shopping around I finally found what I was looking for. I have in mind to make felted and embellished notebook covers in time for my July Open Studios. Although there are five months before the event, one can never get organised too early! 

I almost forgot to say that I was the guest speaker at Cambridge Quilters, Grantchester Village Hall, on Friday morning. The talk was entitled 'Passionate About Textiles'. I reflected on why I gave this as the title and decided it is simply because I am compelled/obsessed with textiles. Moreover, textiles is not only my hobby bit had been the basis of my entire career. I brought along some Ukrainian textiles as well as various embroideries, weaving and even macrame. My early forays into patchwork and quilting are somewhat embarrassing in hindsight but pleasing to see how much I have improved over time.  I was very pleased with all the positive feedback and a few ladies asked me if I might do a workshop based on my fibonacci quilt series.   I can't wait. 

January 2016 reflections

If there are any followers/readers out there, well I must apologise for the serious lack of posts. It's been a busy post Christmas month. What with the dreaded Tax form, completed on time, phew! I have been fully occupied in the 'day' job of helping run Cambridge Open Studios.  465 members on the 'books' for 2016 and around 288 studios set to be in the summer guide.  The deadline to pay the fee to be in the guide was midnight on the 31st January so I hope I can relax a bit from this work. Only the AGM to get through on the 6th.! 

So, it has been a month of catching up and reflecting on the year that has just gone. I always spend some time writing letters to any friends who added a letter in their Christmas card to me.  On looking back to 2015 I saw just how busy I was. Five exhibitions including jewellery, various voluntary jobs, family, life and hobbies.  I did a tally, and I somehow managed to read 46 novels during the year-not a bad feat I think. I discovered the historical novels of C.J. Sansom set in Tudor times-loved everyone even though some ran to 800 pages. 

The photo I've included was one I found on Twitter posted by Jo Riches of Spirus Marketing. Jo kindly visited my studio last July and I accidently found the photo on Twitter. I really mean "accidently" found as I have come to think that Twitter is pointless as it is like finding a tiny needle in a trillion haystacks. 

After some thought I have decided to give a few things up and declutter my life.  Handed in my notice to the gym (no time to go and have taken up walking instead), decided not to go to the Thursday lacemaking group and stopped delivering newspapers for a (nameless) political party - not sure how I got into that!  There are a couple of other things I may give up later on, I'll see. 

You might ask, what about the creative work then Marion?  I attended Cambridge Quilters the other week and did a piece for the Chairman's Challenge for 2016. More of this later on. Did I mention I'm working with another member to re do their website?  I've also been working hard in preparing some samples ready for a Christmas table runner workshop in the autumn.  I do like to be organised ! I've also been perfecting how to restring pearls and made a few necklaces in preparation for July Open Studios. 

 Christmas table runner using fabric designed by my friend Jo Clark.