August in Pictures: Colourful Craft Supplies and Summer Flowers

My August was full of colour!

I was busy working on lots of new things, choosing (then shopping for) the supplies to get crafting.

There were rainbows of thread on my worktable...

... and I stitched a couple of felt rainbows, too.

 

The rainbows and sun are pieces I've designed for the felt baby mobile class I'm teaching at the Village Haberdashery in West Hampsted, London in October.

I'll be running three classes at the Village Haberdashery this autumn - making an autumn wreath in September, a baby mobile in October and Christmas ornaments in November.

Here are the four designs you can learn to sew in the baby mobile class - clouds, rainclouds, rainbows and little smiling suns.

In early August I visited the bright and cheerful Village Haberdashery shop to chat about my classes and pick up a pile of yummy craft supplies for my projects.

The autumnal shades of that wool blend felt became an autumn wreath...

... decorated with felt leaves and toadstools. You can see more pics of the wreath (and find all the info about the wreath-making class on Saturday, September 17th) here. 

These festive colours were destined to become vintage-inspired felt ornaments for my November class (I'll be sharing pics of the ornaments soon!).

 

In August I blogged about the Brunel Museum and it's charming garden, the Green Way path between Maidenhead and Bray, lots of lovely London things, Leeds Corn Exchange, and a morning in Kensington. It might be weird of me, but I find it quite fun working out which photo from each of my "Nice Day Out" blog posts to share on Instagram.

 

I finally finished up my Take to the Sea embroidery (such a fun project - though a very time-consuming one!)...

... and I added some more colours to my scrappy patchwork cross stitch.The back of the work is somewhat messy, but who cares?

 

I had relaxing evenings in with beloved DVDs and comics and assorted crafty projects... (this mitten is from a kit by Alicia Paulson)...

... lazy days spent sewing on the sofa watching the Olympics and hanging out with this fluffy fella...

... and gorgeously sunny afternoons in the garden on some blazing hot days (I got this lovely bit of summer reading in Annie Spratt's awesome Indie Magazine Swap!).

There were plenty of busy days working at home with the tools of my trade: pinking shears, fabric scissors, paper scissors, embroidery scissors (great for cutting out small felt pieces) and my go-to selection of needles and pins.

 

But I also managed to squeeze in a couple of wonderful days in London, with long walks through parks and visits to museums.

I spotted these gorgeous wildflowers in Hyde Park at what felt like the height of summer...

... and just a few weeks later autumn is already creeping in!

Bright summer sunshine is all well and good, but I adore the soft light you get in autumn and all the colours of the leaves as they turn and fall. Mmm... autumn...

I took this photo of the gorgeous heather in our garden. I've spent lots of my recent tea breaks watching the bees buzz round this heather, they love it almost as much as I do. I love how the autumn colours are lurking behind the heather like "hello! it's me! I'm back!"

I'll share another Instagram round-up next month. Spoiler alert: there are probably going to be some autumn leaves!

I'm lauralupinhoward on Instagram - click here to visit my page and follow me.

The Amazingness that was London Craft Week: Part Three

Today we're playing a fun game called "guess which blog post Laura thought she'd published months ago but actually was gathering virtual dust in her drafts folder this whole time". Yup, that's right, this one! Oops. Better late than never though, right? :)

So, a long long time ago (May of last year) I spent two amazing days zipping round London exploring the awesomeness of the first ever London Craft Week.

On the first day I met so many interesting people, chatted to loads of different makers about their work, oohed over some incredible craftsmanship and got to peek behind the scenes of some fascinating spaces, it was wonderful. (You can read all about what I got up to on the day one here and here).

After that busy day I made the not entirely sensible decision to stay up late watching the election coverage... then had trouble a) getting out of bed the following morning and b) tearing myself away from the news of the (dramatic!) results. I'm glad I did though, because day two of London Craft Week was jam-packed with great stuff.

Once I'd finally got up and on a train and into London, my first stop was Trunk Clothiers, where the founder of (ki:ts) was demonstrating the art of hand stitching leather and showcasing his (then) current belt collection. It was so interesting to see the work in progress.

 

Next door, jewellers Cox + Power were running an open house, so after admiring their collections in the shop visitors could see the workshop where all that loveliness gets made.

Something that came up again and again during London Craft Week was how today's fine craftsmen and women are creating inventive, modern pieces but drawing on traditions, skills and techniques that stretch back hundreds of years.

At Cox + Power it was fascinating to hear how little a jeweller's workspace and tools have changed over the centuries, and we had a great chat about makers and making and the things that connect us all (whether we're making fine jewellery or cute stuff from felt!).

Next I headed to Savoir Beds - whose tailormade beds were first created for The Savoy Hotel in 1905 - where a skilled (and hugely entertaining) craftsman was demonstrating the craft of mattress making. I was especially fascinated by the large half-moon shaped needles used for slip stitching.

 

My next stop was the Contemporary Ceramics Centre which includes an exhibition space and a shop filled with gorgeous ceramics. The Centre is just opposite the British Museum, but I had no idea it was there as I always approach the Museum from the other direction. I will definitely be taking a slight detour and popping in here again in future!

 

After oohing over the beautiful ceramics, I headed down the road to a shop that I'd walked past many times on my way to the British Museum but never visited before: Cornelisson & Son. This is a truly wonderful little shop! There are so many art supplies squeezed into the space, everywhere you look is a riot of colour and creative possibility.

They sell some very specialist supplies here, but lots of more accessible ones too. Even if you have no interest in art it's worth a visit, just to see the shop's original drawers and storage jars filled with a rainbow of pigment. If you are a creative type though (and if you're reading my blog, the chances are that you probably are) what a pleasure it would be to shop for even something as small as a new pencil sharpener in a place like this!

For London Craft Week, Cornelissen were running a series of free talks. I turned up just in time for the one on colour charts, which you might think wouldn't be that interesting but you'd be wrong. It was wonderful to be able to peek behind the scenes at the shop, hear about its history and the specialist colour charts they produce for their customers... and we were treated to lots of great anecdotes along the way.

After filling my brain and eyes with all things colour-related, I walked up the Tottenham Court Road to Heals where textile designer Gemma Kay Wagget was spending the afternoon demonstrating screen-printing and giving tips to people who wanted to try printing for themselves.

Sadly I missed the demonstration itself as Gemma was taking a well-earned break, but I picked up a lovely notebook she'd screenprinted and a copy of Hole & Corner - a beautiful magazine "celebrating craft, beauty, passion and skill".

 

On to my next stop: the British Library, where weavers from Dovecot Tapestry Studios were working on a hand loom and discussing their work. We didn't get a chance to talk about much though, as a very loud fire alarm went off and the building had to be evacuated! You can see a short video about one of their projects here and see more of their work here.

As the Library emptied out and the fire engines arrived (to what I'm guessing was a false alarm as they left again pretty soon afterwards!) I headed down the road to The Crypt Gallery, a unique and highly atmospheric exhibition space under St Pancras Church.

This was the venue for the MAKE / CREATE exhibition, a collaborative exhibition between fine artists and makers that explored the intersection between traditional craft and contemporary art. I'm not the world's biggest contemporary art fan but this was a really rewarding (and slightly spooky) exhibition to visit.

Then there was just time for one last stop before I headed homewards: the Art Workers' Guild where some of the members were chatting about their work and giving tours of their meeting hall. 

I was especially entranced by Vicki Ambery-Smith's intricate architectural jewellery (and I'm hoping to get a chance to see this exhibition in Oxford featuring her work, sometime soon).

After all that, you might not be entirely surprised to hear that I decided to stay home and rest instead of attending some of the weekend's events!

This year London Craft Week will be taking place from 3rd-7th May. Visit the London Craft Week website for more info and to check out this year's programme of tours, talks, workshops, demonstrations and other event.

P.S. You can read more about the places, events and makers I visited during London Craft Week in part one and part two.

A Fabric Rainbow

I got a rainbow in the post this week - a shade card for Kona cotton solids (a range of plain coloured quilting cottons).

 

Picking colours online can be so tricky, especially when you need to match something exactly. The same colours can look totally different when photographed in different lights or when displayed on different computer monitors.

Having a sample card makes things so much easier. I loooove the DMC threads shade card I bought a couple of years ago, it has saved me from many hours of squinting at pictures in online shops and/or having to buy multiple shades in the hope that one will be "just right" for a particular project.

So, now that I am plotting to make more things with fabric I thought I'd treat myself to a Kona shade card so I can shop for exactly the shades I need without worrying whether or not they'll match.

Unfortunately it turns out that a new batch of colours have just been added to this range, which are not include on the shade card I bought. Oops.

Not the best timing on my part, but never mind. These 271 colours should be plenty to be getting along with... 

... mmm... so much yummy colour!

Colour Charts

Of course after buying new felt tip pens & colouring pencils you have to test all the colours, right?

It's really helpful to see all the colours because - especially when it comes to the cheaper sets - the colours on the outside of pens & pencils don't always accurately represent the ink/pencil colour you get.

Ryman Fibre Tip Pens & WHSmith "Let's Create" Colouring Pens.

Pentel Arts Studio Pen Set (affiliate link) & WHSmith Artists Colouring Pencils.

Am I a total nerd for making these charts? Probably. Do they make me happy? Totally!

Mini Rainbows

More lovely colour today!

I've been making up some bundles of mini felt squares...


It goes without saying that seeing all those colours stacked up like that makes me very happy :)

Each bundle now includes 65 felt squares - one square of each colour in my range. They're an affordable way to add a whole rainbow of felt to your stash: perfect if you're trying felt crafting for the first time. I also ship them with a blank colour chart so you can keep a record of all the colours and then easily re-order the ones you love as larger squares.


The mini squares packs are available from my website and from my shops on Etsy, Folksy and DaWanda.

DIY Colour Charts

From this week I'll be adding a little extra item to all my felt orders: a blank colour chart so my customers can keep a record of the colours of wool blend felt they've ordered from me.


Filled with all 65 colours the chart would look something like this:


I always like to keep a record of the colours I've ordered from other suppliers, so I hope my customers will find this useful!

If you've ordered felt from me before and want your own blank chart, you can download it and print it yourself - just click on the image below to view it, then click again to view full size and print.