The Make and Do Studio

Spring, the BBC and I should have posted this earlier!

I really should have posted this a few weeks ago.....but for whatever reason, things just got too busy.

It is about my movie debut on the BBC!

I was asked to attend the launch for the Webwise website (which the film was part of) at the new BBC Media City in Manchester. I didn't really have time to think too much about it as the invitation came at a really busy point in my week, but when we got to the brand-new just out of the box premises, I realised that it was a proper launch.

With wine and food.

And the head of BBC North.

And all the people involved with the creation of it.

As my friend (who came along as my plus one) Jane pointed out, maybe we should have put on more than a pair of jeans. But I really am a "pair of jeans "girl and so is Jane. However, we did think to take a camera so Jane took some photos for me to share.

The weather on the night was gorgeous - one of those warm springsummeriscoming days. 

Someone told me that the inside of the building looks alot like a hotel...and it does!  

The circles that you see are actually meeting area's for two - they appear to have really utilised the "hot desking" mentality and many of the sections are set up for imptomptu meetings. 

The one thing that also took me a bit by surprise is that they created an installment to compliment the series - here I am by my little part of it (I look like I am holding a burp in... I assure you I was not!).

Okay, for the actual video, click on the photo below, it opens up a webpage and press number 11.

That is us!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 What a great experience  - how lucky am I?

 

Want to come to our Open Craft Night?

If there is one thing I have learned whilst doing my workshops here at the Studio, crafting isn't just about learning a new skill, it is about connecting with people and making time to be social. And what better time to do this than during the Winter monthes when you start to feel like the days are just a bit too lshort?  

Make and Do have joined up with Coffee au Clay to offer a dedicated date in the crafting diary where folks can come and experience crafting and being creative in a mini workshop environment. The idea behind the Open Craft Nights is each session is an hour long mini workshop where a person can try something different - sessions in the pipeline include making a personalised kindle cover, creating a beaded bracelet, working with simple felt flowers and just in time for th diamond jubilee - making your own bunting!  

And for those of you that are knitters out there,at the same time as the mini workshops, we will also being running a much requested Stitich and Bitch session!. Beryl Woodcroft, our tutor at the workshop for the Fit to Knit workshop, will be overseeing those of you that know how to knit but maybe you need a bit more guidance or want to have a good gab while you knit and purl. Just bring your knitting with you and we will see what we can do to help out!

The first Open Craft Night will be the 26th of January, from 7:30 - 9:00PM and as this is a new venture, we thought it might be worth having an open house for the first session. All tutors who are involved with the Studio and the Open Craft Night will be on hand at Coffee au Clay to show what it is that they do and answer any questions that you may have about their specific craft. We also hope to have a full listing of what each subsequent monthly Open Craft Night will cover.

We really are looking forward to adding this event to our already growing list of workshops and activities. Our Facebook page and Twitter @MakeandDoStudio 

Winter isn't looking so bad now!

Winter - it's all in the way you look at it!

I have been so busy that I suddenly noticed...it is winter!

"The Invincible Summer," a quote print by Matthew Kavan Brooks for Society6

You could forgive me for not noticing it as much as the weather has been so mild that one would, at times, confuse it with Spring. But I also have been so busy....obviously not blogging you may have noticed!  But in my defense, I really have been busy:

 - being filmed by the BBC!  Okay - if you have been following the Studio on Facebook and Twitter you will be sick of me going on about it but it was such a great experience that I feel a bit like I need to shout it from the rooftops!  The five minute movie will be ready for on-line viewing sometime the end of February or March. I am in a bit of a hiatus whlist it gets edited but I really want to have fun with it when it does finally become available.  I am thinking I may have to do a movie premiere locally - when will I ever get this opportunity again I ask?  

- I have started writing a section for the Crafty Network called This Crafty Business- which started after a few conversations with the ladies who run the Crafty Network about wanting to include a business section but one that is focused on the special needs of small,creative businesses. I love being crafty but there is a part of me that loves how technology makes it so much easier to own and run a small business - from blogging. to photo editing to using something like Folksy - all of these are essential to running a small business and technology and the introduction of software for the small business arena has made it possible.  I want to make sure that anyone who is starting a business does so with the best possible chance and that is what technology will give you!

- I have added a few additional workshops based on feedback from folks - Loopy about Crochet and a sweet little workshop on Basic Alterations.  These two have been a long time in getting organised as I couldn't seem to find people to do them and suddenly, like busses, two arrived at once!

-and to help make the winter a little more bearable, we will be having Open Craft Night at Coffee au Clay - a local ceramic arts studio - the third Thursday of each month. But just to be a bit awkward - the first one will be 26 January and is an open night kind of night - people can come and meet the tutors and see what the Open Craft Night is about. I will post more details next week on Facebook and Twitter.....watch this space!

So please forgive me for my lack of contact......maybe 2012 is the year I blog with vengeance? 

 

I love the colour in these photos....

I have been taking many photos recently and downloading them into my Picasa files (in an attempt to keep them in some semblance of order!).  It occured to me that the negative to digital images is that you don't tend to keep them anywhere where you can look at them on a daily basis - I tend to look at them. go "wow, that is lovely" and then that is it. So I decided to take a very random selection from the last six weeks and post them  - just so I can see them once in a while!

Children's felt drying alfresco.

Addison catching the last dying rays of the autumn sun.

Canning and preserving stuff - ready for show.

Quilt strips on their way to being finished.

My daughter Sydney made a gorgeous Octonaut cake for Addison's birthday. 

The beginning stages of the Canning and Preserving workshop that just passed.  What a great workshop!

I hope you are all gearing up for the holidays - I know I am but this year I have decided to pace it out a bit. I have slowed down on workshops from the beginning of December and am concentrating on some other studio stuff - putting new stuff on Folksy, sorting out a monthly "Create" night at a local business, writing a business support section called This Crafty Business on the Crafty Network and of all things - hopefully being filmed by the BBC!

All the best and for those back in the States, here is to a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

 

 

 

Think you can't learn a bit of old school food preserving?

As you may know, if you follow what we are up to with new workshops, in a few weeks time, we are doing a workshop that is a bit different from our normal workshops - we have a great workshop for those interested in the basics of preserving and canning (or as someone else pointed out, really it should be preserving and pickling!).

 

I think the idea of preserving your food is so timely, as these challenging economic times means that the emphasis is on making seasonal food last longer and at the same time, trying to reduce the amount of waste that you create. Preserving does all this as you don't have to have fancy packaging - just some glass jars that have been been prepared by sterilising them and fruit and vegetables that are in season (so hopefully, not expensive!).  In our workshop, you make three different items (cranberry and fig chutney, pickled seasonal vegetables and a fruit infused liquor) to show you the ways to incorporate preserving across different food/drinks type.

And when I opened my delicious magazine yesterday, the foodbites section editors choice was all about the "big trend in drinking.....is about added flavour".  They mention Shoots Shots Sloe Gin at £22.95 for 75cl or William Chase Elderflower Liquer is £8.99 for 20cl - by no means a cheap hobby but by learning how to do it yourself (and some of the tips like expensive alcohol is not always necessary as the fruit covers the underlying alcohol flavour!) you can certainly put it in your affordable range. 

I will make sure that we post some basic information about canning (I got a great resource list from a lovely Dutch lady...you know who you are!) so if you can't make it, or want to give it a go at home, then you have a bit of help from us!

Roll on the holidays!

 

Autumn is sneaking in and I need to get back to posting on a regular basis!

It is really hard to get in to a posting frame of mind if you haven't done it in a while!  But I have said that today is the day to get back in the posting saddle again.....

First of all a bit of promotion for a new workshop coming up in November - Basic Canning and Preserving , which is also our first Saturday workshop!  I am really excited to have this workshop as I think it is a great way to add to the idea of being able to Make and Do.  Plus Nathalie Francoise Cosier, who teaches the workshop, grew up in France to a french mother and a british father - she lives and breaths preserving! And she is one of those people that, when she dropped into the studio the other week and was looking at my button mountain, said "when I was living in Russia and working buying fabric, I used to be given loads of free buttons....."  Russia, working, BUTTONS - I will never be able to say a sentence like that!

And for those of you that want to combine the above course with your sewing skills, there was a great post on Skip to My Lou on how to make fabric bow ties for your preserving jar:

And because I love to share anything with folks that makes my life easier (and I am a closet techno geek!) I discovered this download called f.lux  - it is for those of us that work at night and have to adjust from the glare of the screen to the subdued lighting in the room. F.lux, when downloaded (and it is free!) will adjust the colour of your monitor to the light in your room  - so as the nights draw in, instead of facing a bright, white screen it has a lovely, yellow glow to it.  From their website:

"f.lux makes your computer screen look like the room you're in, all the time. When the sun sets, it makes your computer look like your indoor lights. In the morning, it makes things look like sunlight again"

My eyes are so happy! 

 

 

Just a quick one about our Autumn workshop schedule

If you are visiting our website and expecting to be hit on the head with a schedule, we are much more subtle than that! The complete listing can be found on the above link, both a live version and a take away version for reading at your leisure. If you want to register, you do it via the live page where it is a simple, few-click process! 

And now off to have a few hours in the lovely sunshine!

Meet the Makers day three - Beryl Woodcroft of all things felt

First of all, I have to say, I really liked writing that title as we often pick on Beryl about being a master felter - and just think of what her business card would read!

Beryl has a very special place in the development of Make and Do.  About two years ago, I took an ad out in a little paper that gets pushed through people's doors.  At that point, I was only offering sewing workshops but wanted to offer more workshops - but needed other people to add to the list. I am a sewer really, even though I have dabbled in knitting and I remember when I was little crocheting. But I knew my expertise was in picking someone to share their knowledge in this area....not to teach it!

At the bottom of the ad, for some odd reason, I put "if you have tutor potential, please get contact the studio"  - I have only put that once and have never needed to put it again because Beryl replied, saying that she thought she had skills that I would be interested in and could me chat.  

Thought she had skills? - this lady is crazy talented!  She knits small villages on the weekends, has passed her City and Guilds Embroidery Part 1 and recently passed her City and Guilds Feltmaking Part 2 and 3. She is a Member of TX – a North Cheshire Textile Group and is the Regional Coordinator for the International Feltmakers Association.  She is so passionate about her crafts that when she comes around for a chat - she opens my eyes to new experiences (we recently made compostable felt bowls which you can use as an outdoor planter and when left outside to the elements, it will slowly decompose back to earth - and the colours are to die for!). I am 100% certain I would never had been exposed to this if Beryl hadn't politely asked, in that British way, whether we should meet to discuss her skills. 

If you would like to see some of Beryl's creations, please come by our stall at the Stockton Heath Festiva craft market. If you want just have a go at basic feltmaking skills, please come along to the Make and Take sessions in the craft tent - we have several sessions which are great for the curious and creative!

Three down, two more talented Makers to go!

 

 

Meet the Makers - Liz from Liliputs Monkey Hut

I have been up to here getting ready for Stockton Heath Festival, which takes place 7 - 10 July. We are involved with both the market - we have a double stall selling items produced by people who are associated with the Studio on Saturday the 9th of July - as well as an all day sample session called Make and Take (you can read more about it here). 

There are a fantastic group of women who will be selling their items at the Make and Take stall (and in some cases, teaching at the Make and Take workshops) and I would like to feature one of them every day this week so that you can see the variety of crafty items we will be selling but to also try and show you the connection that the Studio has to the local (but growing!) crafty community. In the case of Liz, who makes sock monkeys under the name Lilibet's Monkey Hut, it started when she came to a All You Need to Know to Sew workshop about eight monthes ago!  I will let Liz tell her story....

 



 

My name is Liz, I am 33 years old and I am a crafting addict.

I have always made or created something - from selling friendship bracelets at school, glass painting to making cards and Jewellery. I can’t draw or paint but love colour and pattern, so this was how I fed my addiction for many years.

I started making Sock Monkeys about a year ago. I saw one in a shop whilst on holiday that was very expensive and thought to myself (as many crafters will relate… ) “I wonder if I could make my own.” I had bought a small sewing machine a few months earlier that was still in the box, suddenly I had a use for it and a few weeks later the first Monkey was born. From there, more and more socks were brought to life as Monkeys, when friends and family started to ask me to make them for gifts. I then got brave and decided to join the technological age and set up the Blog - Lilibet’s Monkey Hut and the Facebook page Lilibets MonkeyHut. (Both were surprisingly easy to do for those thinking about doing one!)

Next came the logo and face of the Monkey Hut which is based on Maggie Monkey, my favourite Monkey! She was made for my gorgeous Goddaughter Lucy Margaret, who hadn’t been born at the time and I was trying to convince her mum to call her Maggie. This was then used to make the Adoption tags and business cards.

 

The Monkey Hut has come a long way in a short time! And I’ve lost count of how many Monkeys have been rehomed. The problem now is finding time to make them as I do have a real full time job.

I also have another crafty habit now… An obsession with looking for funky socks everywhere I go to make into Monkeys!

There will be many Monkeys running amok at the Stockton Heath Festival and in need of a good disciplined home to tame them. The monkeys and I hope to see you there!

 

 

 

 

 

Make and Take Sessions at Stockton Heath Festival

Calling all creative wanabees!  Stockton Heath Festival has been kind enough to make some room for us to have a Make and Take session on Saturday 9 July!  Make and Take allows for a quick "dip in and out" approach to crafting  - and you can take home your completed project! All registrations can be allotted and paid for on-line or by post.

First, look at our list of workshops and decide which one (or ones!) you would like to register for -

 
 2. If you would like to register on-line click on the following link(s) to the individual workshop(s) and this will take you directly to a payment page which also acts as a registration page.  NOTE: You do not need to have a PayPal account to do this - the payments taken are Visa, Mastercard or American Express - just click on the link  for payment using these payment cards.

Making Simple Bunting - AM or PM workshop

Simple Felt Flower Corsage 

Wrap Bracelet

Simple Felt Jewellery

Charmed Bracelet

Vintage Birdfeeder

Beaded Bag Charms

3. If you would like to register via post, please fill out this form, and post to the Studio address on the form. 

4.You will be e-mailed on the 7th of July to remind you that you have booked on your workshop and also to give you more detailed information about where you can find us within the Arts tent.

5.Your workshop fee is non-refundable. However, we are happy to have someone else attend in your place but we must be notified of any changes by 6 July.

If you have any questions or queries, please e-mail workshops@themakeanddostudio.co.uk.

Thank you for supporting this great local festival - and here is to being creative!