It’s all quiet here now, but last weekend I had my two grandsons to stay and it was a madhouse! It was very fortunate that I had on hand a selection of crafty bits and pieces from Baker Ross for us to have fun with, little kids and big kids alike. We had lots of fun with the Super Clay, what a long way we’ve come since my primary school days and the boring greyish brown lump that came out on Plasticine days! 
One unexpected thing we discovered was how well it bounced! (These are things you find out when you have small boys around, don’t you?) Benjy, with a little help from Daddy, produced this jolly chap… 
I made a little flower… 
…and there was no holding my son back once he got started, we got another Higgins… 
He gives us that look when we don’t share our biscuits! 
And I found this strange little chap peering at me out of the cups and saucers… 
The clay air dries in 24 hours so it’s ideal for children to use to make little presents. (I think I’ve solved the next birthday present conundrum, and that’s for my grown-up son!) The Porcelain Paint Pens were really useful too. I’ve had a couple of plain white mugs for a while now, bought specifically for decorating in some way. 
Once you’ve created the design the paint is baked on and becomes dishwasher safe. 
One for morning coffee, and the other for afternoon tea! Baker Ross was also where I saved myself from disappearing under a mountain of unboxed matches when I got carried away by this project the other day. So much easier to buy empty matchboxes by the bag! 
For those of you who have been wondering how I’ve been getting on with the Green Man, he’s finished, and this morning I delivered him to the Forum in Norwich for the Norfolk & Norwich Open Studios Taster Exhibition which runs from Friday 18th to Wednesday 23rd April. I’ve written a post about the making of him for our Two Rivers Trail Blog so you can find out the details by following this link. While I’ve been typing I have had a very fidgety little dog round my feet, reminding me about walkies. It’s been lovely here the past few days so I’d better get out and wear off some of his energy… 
Wishing you all a peaceful, happy sun-filled Easter..I’ll be back soon…x
Category Archives: Open Studios
FollowNeedlefelt Workshops and a Present for Higgins
You’ll remember I’m sure, that last year I went to Art’s Desire in Norwich to teach some Needlefelt Workshops. I fell in love with the shop then, and the whole idea of the Craft Lounge being a venue for people to come to learn to knit, crochet, felt and more.
The exciting news is that it’s re-locating in a lovely old cobblers shop just out of Norwich City Centre and will be opening in a few weeks. I love a renovation project and when I called in a few weeks ago it was just at the point when you see what a great space it will be for the shop, it’s tempting goodies and the crafting area.
Kay, the owner, came to tea last week for a catch up and planning session and being a dog lover arrived with a special present for Higgins. (Tongue firmly in cheek, I may say!)
This is it, in the ‘bosses’ chair…
And this is what happened…
It didn’t work…
However, we had more success sorting out a workshop date, thank goodness!
And it is on…
June 14th 2014, from 10.30 – 1pm and price is £25.00 which will include materials,
and the venue is 82, Park Lane, Norwich, NR2 3EL
Please contact Kay via the Arts Desire website or me via the Planet Penny contact page if you are interested, it would be lovely to see you.
And talking of needlefelt, I am finishing off the Green Man, just in time. He goes off to the Forum next week for the Norfolk and Norwich Open Studios Taster Exhibition. I can’t believe it’s come round so quickly! I’ll post a picture when I’ve added the finishing touches.
Be back soon…x
Missing Mojo – Found!
You might remember me bemoaning the loss of my Mojo in this post, the debilitating feeling when inspiration disappears out of the window.
Well, I’m happy to relate that it’s back and I’m beavering away being creative and even the wind and rain whipping past the window and howling down the chimney hasn’t dampened my spirits today!
I realise that I’ve become bogged down, especially with Social Media. When I started writing this blog I had no idea about SEO, I didn’t have a Facebook Page, a Twitter account, a featured board on Pinterest, an Instagram account, Flickr. I wasn’t helping other people with their Facebook Pages, Twitter accounts, websites….
Add that to the Etsy shop, packing yarn, writing patterns, answering queries as well as family commitments and actually having a life… the part of me which I discovered and which grew when I was at Art School only a few years ago was in danger of withering away altogether.
Being part of Open Studios over the past few years has kept me hanging on by my fingernails though, and I’ve loved making the exhibition pieces…
Wool Gathering 2012
How to Knit a Sheep 2013
That time of year is coming round again (so quickly!) and I’ve been rummaging around in my mind for the perfect inspiration. For ages after making the sheep’s head, I toyed with the idea of a stag’s head complete with antlers. The perfect place to hang crochet garlands and pompoms! But then I realised that every time I opened a catalogue or magazine, or watched a design programme on television there seemed to be some sort of variation of a stag’s head, a rhino, a zebra or similar and I knew the moment had passed.
There are also restrictions for the exhibition too. I work in three dimensions but making something which needs a plinth, and finding the plinth too is an added complication, so the hanging format I’ve used so far works best.
Inspiration struck a couple of weeks ago because of our local pantomime. The Am-Dram group in the village is full of creative people and we’re lucky to have someone to devise something beyond the usual Sleeping Beauty/Aladdin/Puss in Boots offerings. This year it was The Green Man.
Aha! the Green Man! And with some research I find this quote…
His name means the Green One or Verdant One, he is the voice of inspiration to the aspirant and committed artist.
He can come as a white light or the gleam on a blade of grass, but more often as an inner mood.
The sign of his presence is the ability to work or experience with tireless enthusiasm beyond one’s normal capacities. In this there may be a link across cultures,… one reason for the enthusiasm of the medieval sculptors for the Green Man may be that he was the source of inspiration.”
Perfect!
I’ve sorted through my stash of fleece and yarns, filled a bag with natural colours and ordered some more from Wingham Wool Work. I also bought a sample pack of dyes and that’s what I’ve been doing most of today, dying natural fleece and yarn, and over-dyeing some bright shades to bring them into the right colour spectrum.
I’ve had such FUN! I’ve looked back in the archives and it was January 2011 when I last dyed yarn and I loved the results then. This is a very different palette, but I’m so enjoying throwing caution to the winds, and mixing up different dyes, and different strengths and dribbling them over the wool to get soft natural effects.
My Green Man has been inspired by the cherry trees in the garden with their grey trunks. His face is bark coloured using natural Cheviot fleece, rougher and hairier than my usual Merino, and lovely to needlefelt. This is the story so far…
Just waiting for the greenery to grow!
The greenery is too damp to use tonight so I will put my crochet ‘Hat’ on as I want to finally finish the bunting pattern which I’ve been editing. It’s looking very pretty…
I’m off to clean up the dye splatters in the utility room, but I’ll be back soon!
Come to the Christmas Fair!
There’s a lot scurrying around going on in this part of the world this week, and it’s not just the mice! We have our very first Christmas Fair this coming weekend, which is exciting and scary in equal measures.
So who is this ‘we’ I hear you ask…
Well, if you’ve been visiting Planet Penny for a while you will know that for the last few years I, along with my print maker pal, Kit, have taken part of Norfolk and Norwich Open Studios. It turned out to be a wonderful way of meeting up with kindred spirits living very close by, so this year we got together as the Two Rivers Trail to create an Art Trail for Open Studios in May of this year.
It all worked so well we decided a year was too long to wait to get together again and so the idea of a Christmas Fair and Exhibition was born. It’s been a great excuse for meeting up over coffee and/or wine for planning meetings!
For various reasons this year the Planet Penny Etsy shop has been my only selling point so it’s going to be fun to step out of cyberspace and into reality and meet real people. I hope that any Planet Penny readers who live in the area will come to say hello. My fellow ‘Trailers’ are varied and very talented, so we’ve got a great mix of things to see, and to buy. If you call over to the Two Rivers Trail website you can find out more about us all.
It’s hard to decide what to sell alongside the pieces I will be exhibiting, as needlefelting is such a time consuming craft and it’s hard to fit it in alongside the pattern writing, crochet, yarn processing, blog writing, knitting and everything else. This is why it makes more sense to teach it so that others have the fun of making their own creations. Nevertheless, I decided to make a collection of ‘One Off’ creations, totally exclusive, no two the same. Collectors items for the Christmas tree!
I started with a basket of hearts, needlefelted with fleece from my massive bag of colours, another rainbow collection…
I was quite tempted just to leave them just as they are, and heap them up on my dresser but no, that is not the plan.
I sat in the corner of my studio with the hearts and gradually disappeared beneath a heap of ribbons and trimmings, buttons, beads and threads while I had a happy few hours making tree decorations…
And they do look really pretty on the Christmas tree…
Now I’ve just got to persuade myself to part with them!
I’ll be back soon with more pretty things, but for now I’d better get back to the preparations. I have a red tablecloth to hem!
If you are in the area, put the date in the diary and come and see us, we’d love to meet you, and there will be CAKE!
See you soon…x
Crochet Balls of all Sizes!
Oh my goodness it’s been difficult not using my sore elbow! I’ve got so excited about the crochet balls I’ve been making. They started off as Christmas baubles but they are so pretty I think I want to have them on display all year round! I’ve been doing a little bit here and a little bit there and ended up with a bowlful…
and then had a happy time with needle, thread and beads giving them hanging loops.
Having discovered a little dish of small crochet balls lurking on the back of a shelf I had a brainwave and threaded them in random sequence onto white cotton yarn…
…and then made a long crochet chain, working the crochet balls and beads in as I went.
Add the original bigger crochet balls and you can see why I am now having to rest my poor elbow yet again!
This pattern really suits the Planet Penny Cotton colours. There are so many combinations to put together, it’s great fun. Would you be interested in a pattern? I’m currently working on it and it’s always time consuming but hopefully it will be available by next weekend.
(Ed to add: The pattern is available here!)
It’s been a busy week in other ways. There’s been a lot of weather about, hasn’t there? I do hope you haven’t been caught up with any of the aftermath of the strong winds blowing us about for the past few days. I’m currently waiting by the phone to see if my dear OH is going to have a helicopter to fly him home today which will only happen if the wind drops sufficiently.
The middle of the week was glorious in Norfolk and I called in at the Craft Fair at the How Hill Open Day. My Open Studios partner and all round best buddy Kit was there with her prints and cards, and several other members of our Two Rivers Trail group. We’ll be getting together later this month for our own Craft Fair and Exhibition so if you are in the area do come along to say hello. You can find out all about the event and the artists taking part on the Two Rivers Trail website.
I also met the lovely Sue of The Mercerie who had a stall at How Hill and drooled over her beautiful wool and colours…
And had a word with the alpacas from Burnt Fen…
..before heading back to the car via this amazing view over the Broads…
Before I go I’ve just time to tell you that I have a fabulous giveaway coming up in the next post, an early Christmas present! So don’t forget to call back or hit the ‘Follow’ button to make sure you don’t miss it.
I’ll be back in the next few days, so see you soon …x
The Hand-Stitched Home – Book Review
I promised you a lovely book to coo over and The Hand-Stitched Home by Caroline Zoob ticks all the boxes.
I’ve had very little time to exercise my sewing muscles lately and had rather forgotten how much I enjoy it so leafing through Caroline Arber’s beautiful photographs discovering the projects within was a real pleasure.
Do you hand sew? Is it something you love or do out of necessity? Sometimes it’s so easy just to get the sewing machine out and wizz around a few seams, or as I did over half term to piece together a spectacular tear on some nearly new tracksuit bottoms which had come off worse in a tree climbing related incident!
I had a very mixed introduction to the craft of stitching. Being left handed my school experience was almost entirely negative. Whole lessons miserably stitching a ‘blind’ hem with a length of thread grubby and grey from countless pulling out. And, being made to wear a thimble on my right hand because that was where they were worn! (I was nearly an adult before I found out what they were actually for!) However, during the school holidays I stayed with my left-handed grandmother, Bam-mum (who never used a thimble) and she introduced me to a love of stitching which has never gone away despite school’s best efforts.
Caroline Zoob’s book is all for pleasure, little hand-stitched treasures giving a new lease of life to vintage fabrics which then become part of the fabric of the home. From tiny projects such as this Heart Key Fob…
…delicately stitched shelf edging…
..and pretty egg-cosy made from felted wool blanket fabric…
..to larger pieces such as cushions, curtains and table runners there are plenty of ideas which you can use to inspire you to use and recycle pretty fabrics, trimmings, buttons and precious scraps of fabric.
Be aware that the instructions for some of the more complicated pieces do presume a fairly sound knowledge of basic sewing skills. However, this is book about hand stitching and embroidery and there is a lot of help and inspiration for even a novice at decorative stitching. And of course the joy of a book like this is that it is positive encouragement to go off and brush up on or learn new skills!
And what was my inspiration? Well, it was daisies. I’m planning to feature daisies in the next blog post for reasons which will be explained, but this was the image in the book which inspired me…
It’s so pretty and simple. I had a frame which I bought months ago in a closing down sale, and a remnant of linen so I spent a happy evening with my box of embroidery threads and this was the result…
So, I’m sure you would love to get your hands on a copy of this book. And you can because the lovely people at the Aurum Publishing Group have a copy to send to one lucky person. It could be you! I’d love to hear your sewing story, what got you stitching? Was it love at first stitch, or a gradual blossoming? Simply share your story in the comments, and next weekend you could be the winner!
This week I’m linking up again with Handmade Monday over on Handmade Harbour so follow the links there to discover lots more creative people and ideas.
I’m off to the studio now to get ready for the last day of Open Studios. If you are in the area we’d love to see you, but if not I’ll be back here soon…x
