The Make and Do Studio

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!

Getting to know the tutors: Jenni Harris of OffBeat Beads

 

I am so lucky to have this great pool of tutors who come and share their passion with those that attend our workshops. As I have gotten to know them all, first as tutors, then as friends, I get to find out all these neat things about them that makes me see them as more than just a tutor at the studio.

Jenni Harris, who teaches our Making Beaded Jewellery workshop, and also has her own online shop Off Beat Beads via Folksy, was kind enough to answer a few questions for me so that I could share a bit about her and what makes her tick. Thanks Jenni!

List five words the describe you and what you do? Beadaholic! Designer/maker, Mum, creative, passionate!

 

What inspires you when you are finding it hard to get your creative juices flowing? I am an avid magazine reader and hoarder and when my creative mo-jo grinds to a halt I will flick through some back issues of jewellery and fashion mags and see if there is anything that inspires me again. It's very easy to get stuck in a rut, especially when everyone loves what you make - however you need to keep moving forward and expanding your range and skills - I am forever on the lookout for new ideas!

 

Best part of being a jewellery designer/maker? It's got to be seeing people wearing your creations! I get thrilled to see my designs being worn by people. I recently went out for dinner with friends and everyone of them was wearing a piece of my jewellery! I've recently had commission orders from Germany and USA, from people I've never met.. now that really excites me! I also love teaching and sharing my skills, I recently started the Making Beaded Jewellery workshops at The Make and Do Studios and it was lovely to see my students being able to create beautiful pieces of beaded jewellery from the tuition I had given them.

 

Least favourite part of being a jewellery designer/maker? That's a tough question because I love what I do! I can honestly say the only thing that gets me down is when I have a workshop full of beads and I have zero inspiration, it doesn't happen often but when it does it's frustrating. Best thing to do is to walk away, do something else and come back later!

I also struggle with pricing my jewellery, I often undervalue my work and end up giving it away for next to nothing! I need to toughen up and be more confident in my ability to charge the right amount.

 

One quirky thing about you that we would only find out about by asking! I used to work in Animation! I worked for Cosgrove Hall Films and various other studios in my twenties and helped make cartoons for television. My biggest claim to fame being that I made an animated video for U2 called 'Hold me, Thrill Me, Kiss me, Kill Me' which was the soundtrack for the Batman Forever film.

 

 

Jenni's next Making Beaded Jewellery workshop is 28 April - we have a few spaces left and would love to have you come along! She might even tell you a bit about her animation days - what a great claim to fame!

 

Thursday is "in the know" day here at Make and Do!

My friend Jenni at Offbeat Beads has a Thursday Recommendations day where she lists businesses she likes  - she has been good enough to have Make and Do listed which I am very appreciative for.  It is really hard, when you have your own little business, to get serious about marketing because other things that appear more pressing grab your attention. But marketing  - like the kind the Jen has been doing - really helps get the word out, so today, I have picked three businesses that I really think are swell (gee Potsy! - that is so cool!) and could use a bit of "hey, look at me" (plus, I am hoping Grace will be putting on a ceramics class here later on in the year so my motives are ulterior!):

• Grace Bibby Ceramics - The colours are stunning and the quirky shapes are wonderful!  Oh to be this creative!
• Pretty Little Trio - What a great idea! Take your life long obsession of collecting sets of china and share it with others by renting them out!  I am a big believer that people should be looking to reintroduce items like china, which fell out of fashion, back in to the mainstream. And this is such a lovely, quirky way to do it.
• Trevor Palin Images - You can tell that my photos aren't taken by Trevor!  I just love him and his wife Justine - they are creative, energetic and so helpful that when people ask for a photographer, I just send them to Trevor. 

Now I have to get back to cleaning one of my many vintage sewing machines that is being re homed this evening!  I have a full All You Need to Know to Sew workshop and one of the ladies has asked if she can have one of my machines - an adoption of sorts!  All good...

Beaded Jewellery and Cob Web Scarf making - what a colourful week!

I love, love, love colours. I think once you start being creative you stop being afraid that certain colours are a "no-go" area and start to realise the potential that all colours may have.  This week was are real colour surge for me and with autumn slowly draining the colour out of the landscape, it was fantastic to have all these colours on display in the studio. Here are some of the photos from the Cob Web Scarf workshop - a bit of before and a bit of after:

And this week saw the addition of a new workshop Making Beaded Jewellery which came about by accident.  Jen Harris, the tutor, contacted the studio a few months ago wanting to take the Felt Fantastic workshop with the idea being to learn how to make felt balls for her jewellery making business - OffBeat Beads.  We ended up having a chat about a variety of things and from the discussion, a workshop was born.  To say it was enthusiastically received is an understatement - Jen did a great job and I have had a stream of compliments coming in.   

Colours, colours and more colours....

A woman and her weapons of choice....

And some lovely finished items...

What a great week to be creative!  And if you want to see and print out our ever changing list of workshops - we've even listed courses scheduled for the Spring! - click here.