A Royal Garden Party

After months of work, the Crown and Garden Party are installed at Rufford for their ‘Right Royal Extravaganza Exhibition’ and if I say so myself they look fab!

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The exhibition is running from now until June 10th, so why not go along and join in the jubilee celebrations.(Rufford Abbey Country Park and Craft Centre)

It’s a really fun exhibition, with so much colour and vitality it’s impossible not to get in to the celebratory spirit! Much of the work on display has been created by working with the local community including 4 commisioned works, my own with Newgate Primary; sculptures and reliefs (including the fabulous corgi’s) by James Sutton and Tuxford Comprehensive; Andrew Mason’s Surestart group’s mosaic (the youngest participant was 2!) and the tile piece created by Fran and Rod Bailey’s group. Then there’s 100s of plates and even more bunting all made by members of the public at drop in events at Rufford. And finally and not least all the hard work by The Rufford Team to put it together.

So The MAking House has a way to go to beat that, but we will be bringing a touch of the jubilee garden party to our window this week. We’ll be making bunting on Saturday so why not drop in and have a go.

Mad Hatter

My latest passion is definitely hats, the madder the better.

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I created the hats for Rufford Craft Centre’s preview of ‘A Right Royal Extravaganza’ yesterday. Great fun to make and just as much fun to wear. I think I have a new calling!

Jubilee Hat planters

A big part of the Jubilee project has been developing the ‘hat planters’ which will stand as guests at a table in Rufford’s exhibition. I’ve loved developing these and can’t wait to make some of my own and maybe some actual hats and fascinators too.

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Many thanks to my Making House team for all their help on this project, it’s been a ;little more work than expected, but the end results are worth it!

Jubilee Crowns

On the surface things have been quiet at The MAking House, but behind the scenes much has been going on. Anna’s colleague, Rajesh, from India, was over for 3 weeks working on designs. Anna and Joelle have been doing lots of planning to take The MAking House forward. And then there’s been the build up to the jubilee….

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Thanks to Rufford Arts team Anna has been working with Newgate primary school in Mansfield to develop some work based around the jubilee for their sensory garden, but first it will be off to Rufford as part of their ‘A right Royal Extravaganza’ exhibition.

“The school wanted a piece to go in their sensory garden which was a little forlorn and in need of a burst of inspiration. I wanted to make something that all the children could relate to and that was fun. I wasn’t sure at first what to do for the jubilee and decided we should look at what the Queen does rather than just symbols. We looked at The Queen’s roles and visits and from there the idea of ‘A Royal Garden Party’ grew. The crown  will sit at the top of the garden bringing new life to a square bench that’s there and of course represents the Queen. The hats represent guests at the party but also the Queen’s different roles as she always wears fabulous hats on her visits and official occasions.

In the main I worked with 2 groups; ‘Starlings’ (year 2 pupils) to develop the crown and the gardening group for the hat planters. I like to involve who I’m working with at every stage of the process, so they worked on designing and making using recycled plastics, paper and jewels. It was a challenge at first working out how to involve them as they’re pretty young, but they were so enthusiastic and keen to take part that they gave everything a go and really surprised me at times with their ideas and skills. I love the crown and hat designs that they came up with. One task was to make a crown using pipe cleaners; one of the boys came up with a design similar to the coronet crown and the group decided this was what they wanted to make.

The children made up lots of different parts, but it was only on the last day that they got to see how it all went together. As I was finishing putting up the crown, I overheard one child telling her mum all about what she’d done. It’s great that we got the opportunity to make something with such an impact and that will be in an exhibition for all to see. I surprised myself and found a new respect for The Queen and the role of the royal family; I’m really proud that we got to make this for the jubilee and hopefully the children feel the same.

I can’t wait to see them in the exhibition as well as planted up in the garden.”

New sewing courses at The Making House

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Joelle Harris has delivered some great sewing courses over the last few months and so we’re carrying on the sewing theme with 2 more evening sessions. One for Repairs, Alterations and Unfinished Sewing Projects on Thursday 10th May 7 -9 pm (I know I’ve lots of unfinished and some unstarted projects to do) and then another opportunity to try out Machine Embroidery on the 17th May 7-9pm.  Each session is £20, check out our courses page (or store on Facebook for more details)

Machinery Embroidery images from workshops, cuff and cards by Michele McDonald

Bags2riches is a Midlands winner!

Bags2riches is the winner of the Midlands heat of The Lloyds TSB enterprise awards for a start up business.

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This is a national award for entrepreneurs who graduated in the last 5 years from a UK university. The Midlands was the most contested area outside of the South West so we’re delighted to have been chosen as the regional winners. The judges were impressed with our products but also Anna’s understanding of the market and her vision to adapt and grow Bags2riches production and market.

Bags2riches Jewellery is made by a Fair Trade organisation using recycled plastic bags and cans. Anna originally came up with the idea in 2001 and made her creations in the UK but in order to go forward she developed Bags2riches as a Fair Trade product and now works with a Fair Trade organisation in Mumbai, supporting a small group of producers and the rag pickers who collect the bags. To support the development, Anna did an MA in creative collaborations and worked on her business plan at The Hive both through Nottingham Trent University.

The Making House is a showcase for Bags2riches jewellery as well as all the other things that we do.

Meikie Designs brings a burst of colour to The Making House

Meikie and i spent a frantic Thursday and Friday getting her exhibition ready for the preview; her work has transformed The Making House in to an emporium of colour. My photos really don’t do the exhibition justice.

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There’s so much on display, from the beautiful hand painted pictures to coasters and table mats, mugs, lamps, phone covers and even the odd cat appearing here and there, (reluctantly on my part, but Meikie convinced me that people love cat images and true to form, my good friend Lindsey snapped up a cat phone cover). I love the sea colours and autumnal vines, but Meikie does designs in most colourways.