Tag: Cambridge Open Studios

Open Studios

The first weekend of Open Studios was brilliant. A vibrant show from four textile artists and a very busy time with lots of visitors. Here are a few pictures from the show:

If you are on Facebook, then The Silk Spinner’s Studio has posted more pictures of our show.

We are open again this weekend (8th & 9th July) from 11am – 6pm both days. We are at Harlton Village Hall, Coach Drive, Harlton, CB23 1EN. We are number 137 in the Cambridge Open Studios guide. Come and see us!

Open Studios and Tour de Fleece

I’m taking part, once again, in Cambridge Open Studios. I’m exhibiting with three other textile artists at Harlton Village Hall. I wrote a piece about us a couple of weeks ago on the Creating Space blog. Today was our first day and we will be exhibiting tomorrow and next weekend as well.

It was also the start of the Tour de France, and therefore also the start of the Tour de Fleece. I missed it last year – but this year I’m back in the saddle and managed to do some spinning during our Open Studio:

Adventures…

I had a lovely time launching Crafty Fibres and my dyeing kits at Textiles East.  I learnt an awful lot, from planning ahead so that I had a float and something to put it in, to how to make my stand look more appealing (over the weekend I think I rearranged it about 4 times)!

onstand

corner

It was a great experience and I will be doing it again.  However, my next adventure is to open an Etsy shop, where initially I will be selling the dyeing kits.  And then onwards to July, where I will be taking part in Open Studios with 3 other spinners and artists as Spindependence – collective.

A year in review

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas and the winding up of 2016 seems a good time to have a review of the year.  It’s been a full year of change for me and this has perhaps been reflected in the sparsity of my posts over the year:

  • February brought the finalisation of my divorce.
  • In May I put my house up for sale.
  • In July I took part in Open Studios for the first time.  It was a wonderful experience, and one I hope can be repeated this year (I will let you know details later in the year).  At one point I found myself Navaho plying a yarn, while adding a fourth thread with beads on, all while being watched by visitors.  It would have been a tricky thing to do normally, but with an audience it was even more hair-raising!  (Not the relaxing activity that spinning is often perceived to be.)

open-studios-skein

bobbin

  • October brought a few days with my son in hospital while he had an appendectomy!  Thankfully we weren’t scheduled to move that weekend, but it was a close thing!  Even more thankfully my son’s operation was successful and without complication (with nothing to worry about at the follow-up appointment a couple of weeks ago).
  • In November we finally moved.

I’m looking forward to 2017.  I have the feeling of spreading my wings and being ready to soar!

Merry Christmas to you all and may you have a Joyful and Inspiring New Year.

Flying

Time, I am finding, is flying by.  Open Studios is rapidly approaching, it is less than 3 weeks away now!  Over the last few days I’ve reviewed my photos, selected some and prepared them for printing.  Today I sent them to the printers and they will be ready to pick up in a few days.  This is the first time I’ve tried selling any of my photography, and I’m excited to see how well they do.

I noticed that there is a distinct theme to my photographs.  I’ve created a collage of them here, for a taster, but the full versions will be available to buy, during Open Studios, printed to A4 size.

collage - open studios

I have other news: a finished shawl, some art yarn, a home made desk-top lighting studio and some big news on a personal front.  But all those I’ll share in a future post…

Round and round…

On Friday I found myself designing and printing a short leaflet to advertise the up-coming Open Studios event I’m taking part in, ready to distribute at the village plant sale on Saturday.

os

It’s just 6 weeks and 2 days away!  Earlier this week I made a list of all the things that need doing.  I’m going to be very busy!

On Saturday I borrowed my daughter’s hoola-hoop for a little weaving.  I knew I had to finished the weaving before my daughter missed her hoop.  So, I got straight to work, warping up the hoop with cotton yarn, and weaving in ever- increasing circles.

beginning

growing

woven

knots

I succeeded in my goal, and my daughter hasn’t noticed a thing.  (She hasn’t even noticed that the hoop is somewhat cleaner than it was before the weekend!)

I then progressed another project, blending (a variety of wools, seacell, trilobal nylon and bamboo) and spinning with Teeswater locks:

batts

locks

spinning

bobbin

I think I can squeeze a few more locks onto there before I start spinning the plying thread!