When the Red Red Robin.....
For those of us in the northern hemisphere winter marches towards us with cold resolve. Extra pullovers are donned in line with the price of heating, and indoor arts and crafts have been relocated to smaller and warmer rooms. Christmas is fast on our heels and whilst it may be a less extravagant affair this year we can hopefully still enjoy the festivities in a less consumerist way.
Weaving your way
Fūnem Studio was founded in 2015 by fashion designer Jantine van Peski to share her love for textiles
A small loom is a great way to utilise the old cotton sheets and various left over cotton fabrics we accumulate over the years. Fūnem Studio looms come in three sizes and arrive with all the tools you need to make a start. Founded in 2015 by fashion designer Jantine van Peski, the studio now also supplies high quality tools, yarns and wool, all produced in Europe. In 2015 she decided to fullfill another dream of hers: sharing the knowledge of weaving and macrame through Instagram and a small webshop.
Out and about in London
Keep an eye open for Maud Milton’s stunning mosaics!
After completing her ceramics degree at Cardiff University, Maud spent many years teaching art to everyone - from toddlers to pensioners - before starting her own company, Artyface, which now specialises in designing and installing mosaics and ceramic murals for local pupils/staff/school communities, public spaces or playgrounds. She also accepts private commissions and offers personal and group workshop days by appointment.
Eco Christmas Gifts
Recent research has revealed that nearly one in four consumers planned to buy materials to create handmade gifts this year, with one in three planning to replace traditional wrapping paper with sustainable alternatives.
Recommendations include gifting edible goods - baked goods, jams, or sauces - instead of electronics and battery-powered items; and perhaps teaming up with a friend to buy something that is perhaps more expensive, but is sustainable. There are also delightful and charming ways to reuse eco-friendly fabrics and paper for wrapping.
Less about making
Next summer we will be hosting a relaxed and enjoyable singing workshop week, to be led by highly-experienced musical arranger, producer and Musical Director, Rob Willis
Rob has spent much of his varied career as a Music Director and vocal coach in theatres and concert halls all over the world and specialises in commercial music an exciting and this promises to be an immensely enjoyable event. Make sure you are the first to hear about our plans by hitting the link below!.
Cut out and go
Designs from nature, highlighting its beauty and delicacy that we need to respect and preserve.
Hannah Nunn produces a range of creations which include wallpapers, window films, books, laser cut 'treasures' and meadow bouquets . Recently ensconced in a new studio near Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire in the north of England, her inspiration comes from the beautiful, tiny and fascinating details found in nature in the landscape around her. Watch her Dream Film below for some enchantment:
The right angle
Unravel the universe with artist Zac Korvin
Zac offers a look into the process of making a geometric crest of three birds in a mesmerizing timelapse. Drawing inspiration from Japanese mon, an emblem used to designate an individual or family, he incorporates a precise network of lines first traced in graphite using a compass. He regularly shares videos on YouTube, and he also offers tutorials on Patreon. You can find more work on his website.
Vegetables galore
A blog dedicated to super-delicious vegetarian recipes.
Choosing Chia offers a plethora of whole food recipes with a big focus on wholesome plant-based ingredients, most with easy-to-follow video instructions. That being said, life is all about balance. So you’ll also find some healthified and not so healthified desserts and treats for the festive season as well!
Looks puzzling
Kreetta Järvenpää is the daughter of a plant and flower lover who has combined two skills - photography and floral design
She has been working as a professional photographer since 2005 and since 2016 has worked almost entirely with flowers, producing exquisite floral images that are now available as 500 and 1000 piece jigsaws.
For those of you who have previously been our guests (and for those just curious) we thought you might like to see how the place looks as winter draws in. These pictures were taken by a young Pole, Igor Legan, a budding photographer who is currently helping us get things in order for the colder months! Email him directly for more information about his work.
Laughter Lab
Expert facilitator, actor, comic, voiceover, Chris Grimes, and his InstantWit team will be leading an event choc-full of experimentation and fun
Together participants will explore the skills and enjoyment of Comedy Improvisation along with it’s wonderfully liberating mindset of ‘Yes and...’ Laugh - Play - Enjoy - Be Amazed - Breathe - Surprise Yourself - Giggle - Eat glorious fresh food in beautiful surroundings and with wonderful company. And then, guess what? Laugh some more!
Little Book of Fragments
Discover the joy of combining disparate momentos
Danish born artist-collagist, Tina Jensen, will be returning to guide a larger group of participants through the process of creating tactile pages using memorabilia, found objects and relevant patterns to collate as unique and beautiful books, overflowing with lost memories.
THE BIG PICTURE
by Ellen Bass
I try to look at the big picture.
The sun, ardent tongue
licking us like a mother besotted
with her new cub, will wear itself out.
Everything is transitory.
Think of the meteor
that annihilated the dinosaurs.
And before that, the volcanoes
of the Permian period — all those burnt ferns
and reptiles, sharks and bony fish —
that was extinction on a scale
that makes our losses look like a bad day at the slots.
And perhaps we’re slated to ascend
to some kind of intelligence
that doesn’t need bodies, or clean water, or even air.
But I can’t shake my longing
for the last six hundred
Iberian lynx with their tufted ears,
Brazilian guitarfish, the 4
percent of them still cruising
the seafloor, eyes staring straight up.
And all the newborn marsupials —
red kangaroos, joeys the size of honeybees — steelhead trout, river dolphins,
all we can save
so many species of frogs
breathing through their
damp permeable membranes.
Today on the bus, a woman
in a sweater the exact shade of cardinals,
and her cardinal-colored bra strap, exposed
on her pale shoulder, makes me ache
for those bright flashes in the snow.
And polar bears, the cream and amber
of their fur, the long, hollow
hairs through which sun slips,
swallowed into their dark skin. When I get home,
my son has a headache and, though he’s
almost grown, asks me to sing him a song.
We lie together on the lumpy couch
and I warble out the old show tunes, “Night and Day”…
“They Can’t Take That Away from Me”… A cheap
silver chain shimmers across his throat
rising and falling with his pulse. There never was
anything else. Only these excruciatingly
insignificant creatures we love.