Felt Bead Making Workshop

I'm pleased to share that I will be running some workshops in the Essex area! If you are local to Essex, or fancy making the trip (I can recommend some really nice places to visit if you wanted to make a day of it before the workshop), join me and learn how to make felt beads using a combination of wet and dry felting techniques. I love making felt beads, it's such a fun process and the beads can be used to make garlands, decorations, jewellery and much more and it's a great introduction to felting if you haven't tried it before. The price includes all materials, tea/coffee and cake- my fave combination for an evening of crafting! Please do get in touch if you'd like to come and join me.

Mad Hatter's Tea and Craft Party On 6th October

Did you know that it's National Mad Hatter's Day on 6th October? If you fancy a lovely evening of tea, cake and Alice In Wonderland inspired jewellery making, why not book a ticket and come along to the Cardamon Tea Lounge in Colchester for the evening. There will even be goody bags to take home! I'm delighted to have been asked to get involved and I have designed the jewellery piece that participants will be making (we're keeping it under wraps at the moment but all will be revealed!). I had great fun immersing myself in all things Alice In Wonderland while coming up with ideas! 

It's great to be supporting such a great cause- all money raised will go to the charity child.org. If you'd like to book a ticket, you can buy them from the Cardamon Tea Lounge- contact them on 01206 504180

So looking forward to it, hope to see you there!

How fab is this poster by the way?! It was designed by the very talented printwear designer Melissa Faux- find her @melissafaux on Facebook

Craft Workshops At Cressing Temple Barns

I'm excited to tell you that I will be running some craft workshops at the lovely Cressing Temple Barns in Essex this Summer! 

Learn To Knit

Sunday 19th June 10-3. £15 pp

On Sunday 19th June from 10-3 I will be running a Learn To Knit workshop. This workshop will teach you the basic skills to start you off on your knitting journey- learn to cast on, the knit stitch, the purl stitch and how to cast off! All materials will be provided

Upcycling Jewellery Workshop

Sunday 21st August 10-3 £15 pp

On Sunday 21st August, come along from 10-3 and get in on the upcycling trend, learning how to make fabric wrapped bangles from materials that would otherwise have been thrown away! All materials will be provided but please feel free to bring your own along too

To book a place on either of the workshops, please call Gemma Clayton, Customer Liason Officer at Cressing Temple Barns on 0333 013 2738 or email gemma.clayton@essex.gov.uk

I'm really excited and so looking forward to both workshops-  hope you can join me!

My Workshop With Suffolk East Embroiders Guild

A couple of weeks ago I was delighted to hold a workshop for the Suffolk East group of the Embroiders Guild in Ipswich. I had a fab evening with the 23 ladies and 1 gentleman making upcycled fabric needle books, felt beads and folded fabric flowers. Here are some photos from the evening...

The evening started with me demonstrating how to make folded fabric flowers using fabric scraps and embellished with a vintage button centre. I then demonstrated felt bead making, which could also be used as a flower centre or alternative "button" fastening for the needle books, as seen in my example here!

There was such a lovely atmosphere to the evening- the group meet once a month so there was a real social aspect to the evening- lots of chattering, tea drinking and biscuit eating throughout the workshop. My sort of crafting!

The group really got into making the needle felted beads and I demonstrated various variations and applications for using the beads

It was great to see the different ways the group interpreted the project and really made it their own

One lady in the group made some fabric hair slides to give to her Granddaughters, which was very sweet!

Thank you very much to the Suffolk East branch of The Embroiders Guild for inviting me to run a workshop for you and thank you to all the members of the group for being so welcoming and making it such an enjoyable evening!

Fair Isle and Intarsia Workshop at Make Do and Mend, Chelmsford

Make Do and Mend is a fabulous creative space in Chelmsford, Essex. They have an extensive creative workshop programme offering classes in everything from dress making, crochet, knitting, jewellery making and much more in between! I've been wanting to go along to a workshop for some time so when I heard about the Intarsia and Fair Isle Knitting workshop I took the plunge! 

If you're a regular reader you will know that I'm obsessed with all things Fair Isle at the moment! Having created a hand knitted fair isle jewellery collection and now working on adding to this range I wanted to brush up on my fair isle skills. I have taught myself what I know about fair isle knitting from books but jumped at the chance of the workshop to pick up more knowledge from workshop leader and Make Do and Mend founder Hannah.

We were made at home with coffee, tea (Earl Grey, my favourite!) and biscuits! Hannah told us that the super cute mouse tea cosy was a handmade gift to Make Do and Mend from a lady who learnt to knit there- so lovely!

How cute is the shop front?!

Hannah supplied us with yarn, needles, a fair isle chart to follow and a worksheet to take home

We knitted this Fair Isle sample and I picked up lots of tips that I can apply to my jewellery work. I was heartened to find I haven't been going terribly wrong with the fair isle I've knitted so far and it's given me the confidence to feel I can knit more complex designs

For the other half of the workshop we focused on intarsia knitting, which I haven't tried before. Here we used separate balls of yarn to knit blocks of colour, twisting the yarn together in between to prevent holes

I'd now love to try knitting a picture jumper to these intarsia skills into practice!

The space at Make Do and Mend is well equipped and large enough to cater for groups and even crafty Hen Parties- right up my street!

I came away feeling like I'd really achieved something after a very fun and relaxing morning. Thank you to Hannah for being such a patient tutor, I can't wait to go back and do some more workshops! Check out the Make Do and Mend website here and go and be inspired!

Make Do and Mend, Chelmsford!

I was lucky enough this week to visit the brilliant Make Do and Mend shop and workshop venue in Chelmsford! I am also lucky enough to now have a cabinet space in the shop for Louise Dawson Design jewellery, alongside the work of some very talented Designer Makers.

 It's a lovely shop, and the workshop program is really extensive, ranging from beginners knitting to Book Binding and Screen Printing and lots lots more in between! I think that the local area is so lucky to have a place like this that offers the chance to learn new skills and encourages a return to the ethos of days gone by- creating as much as possible by hand and making things that will last forever. In this age of fast, throwaway fashion, it's a breath of fresh air and I can't wait to book myself up on some workshops and learn something new myself!

I love the quirky decoration in the shop!

As if lovely handmade pieces and workshops weren't enough, you can also buy yarns and haberdashery at Make Do and Mend!

My display