Autumn sensory bowl......

I saw a sensory bowl on the Imagination Tree, which is an amazing site for children's activities, and thought it was a brilliant idea to put the endless amount of leaves, sticks and conkers that my girls collect every day.

I added food colouring to salt, perhaps not the best idea as we all ended up with orange hands : )
Then I got the girls to add all of their found items from our latest nature walk. The bit they enjoyed the most was writing and drawing on the leaves and conkers. The Montessori side of early years teaching is to do letters and numbers which we did but they loved drawing monster faces on the conkers the most. Perhaps not the most educational but definitely the funniest! I had a white sharpie in my art drawer which was perfect for the conkers. It's very addictive and fun for both little fingers and big!

Eloise with her proud work of art.....
 

They loved it and it still sits in pride of place on our table. 

Come and learn feltmaking.....

Here's the full details for my feltmaking course for Havering Adult College...

I'm really looking forward to it!

Experimenting with felt.....

Unfortunately my felt making class has been postponed until November. So bad news for the people that wanted to start now but good news for anyone still wanting to sign up and have a go. 

So the new start date is now November 5th, yes bonfire night so we may even get a sparkly show outside the window as we felt! It's a 6 week course every Thursday evening at the Bower Park centre at Havering Adult College from 7-9pm. To book call 01708 434 955 or email enquiries-adultcollege@havering.gov.uk, quoting felt making or course code BE43204. 
 I've been playing around manipulating the felt and I have to admit this is my favourite thing to do with felt. As it's an old craft that's re-emerging there are some amazing new and exciting things you can do with the felt.So here's what I've made:

Weaving with strips of pre-felt:

Creating spikes:

Using circle resists: (love this Scandinavian colours)

Making a sushi roll: (I also kept some of these for beads to use as a necklace)

Using a moon resist and strings:

Creating craters with double resists:

Creating more craters with marbles and glass beads: (boy was this one heavy to felt and took a little more elbow grease but it was worth it!)

If you like the look of these and fancy giving it a go then come along to the class and i'll show you how. If you have something specific in mind you wish to create I can also show you how to do it.

A little burst of printing inspiration....

I was lucky enough to have a child free day on Saturday so I took full advantage and made a much needed and well overdue visit to an exhibition. 

After a quick search I decided to check out the East London Printmakers exhibition at Embassy Tea Gallery on Union Street and I was so glad I did. Being just off the beaten track it was lovely and quiet, the sun even shone which makes all the difference in London! 

The exhibition is amazing and it was lovely to see so many printmakers exhibiting together. It's running until the 27th September so you still have time to check it out.

Here's a few of my favourites..... I'm attracted to the lino prints and screen prints as I love the style they produce but there were very clever things such as mono-prints on leather and ethereal etchings.

Some clever printing onto a plaster slate and bowl.....

Mixed media with etching and stitch.....

I loved this collection of drypoint prints made from people's broken phones complete with very funny personal stories.....

Giving printing a magical and whimsical edge. 

For the full catalogue of the exhibition click here.

I then headed over to the Tate modern after stopping off at Intaglio print shop to treat myself to some more lino and a much desired soft rubber roller (can not wait to start using it after admiring it for so long : )

Loving the construction work on the side of the Tate modern and cant wait for its completion. The scaffolding is a work of art on its own!

I made a bee line for the war posters in the Tate as I love their style, passion and how easily they portray movement, these were my favourites.....
 

Then with some weary legs homeward bound I went, inspired to get working on some new prints! Hope they provide a little inspiration your way too.

Kirsten

Phew what a busy summer.....and a little felting

So after what feels like a grueling 7 weeks of the summer holidays Eloise has finally gone back to play school and Bethany is due to start tomorrow, eek! We've had lots of fun and laughter including a holiday to Cornwall and loads of amazing day trips and it's now back to the old routine. However I'm secretly loving being able to have a little bit of time back for myself to get creating again. 

I've been busy making some felt samples ready for my new class which starts next week at the Havering Adult College. I've started with a few basic techniques and I'm going to be working on some fun ones this week, such as spikes which I'm really looking forward to.

There's still places free so if you fancy coming along and getting creative in a fun and relaxed environment then call 01708 434 955 or email enquiries-adultcollege@havering.gov.uk to book a space. It's really reasonable at £62 for the 6 week course (only £32 for concessions) so a bargain at just over £10 per session, If you're over 60 then its only £47 for the whole 6 weeks. Click here for full details.

I'll be starting the course super easy with the basics of felting and building up so at the end of this introductory 6 week course you'll be able to make bags, scarves, laptop cases, flowers etc. You can make beautiful, quirky or modern items for around your home or perfect items for gifts. Whatever your heart desires and whatever your style then I can show you how to make it.

Oh we do like to be beside the sea...

June is a really busy birthday month for us with my neice's, my mum's and my youngest's birthday all within 6 days of each other! This year to mark my mum's 60th we went away for our annual family holiday to the coast for a fun packed family holiday where four little girls had the time of their lives despite lots of rain. 

Trains + disco's + games + characters = very happy children....

On the last day we went for a day trip to Southwold. I've never been before and feel a bit left out as everyone and anyone seems to have been already and it really is as lovely and beautiful as people say. It really was the perfect way to end our holiday......

The pier is full of creativity from artists Pure Evil homage to George Orwell.....

The metal work on the pier is amazing from Tim Hunkin including the Southwold sign, even the bins are beautifully designed. There's also this amazing clock tower near the end which performs special tricks on the hour which my little ones loved! You need to check out his novelty amusements too at the Under the Pier Show.

There was a vintage car meeting whilst we there so I managed to snap these with the iconic beach huts in the background which I'll hopefully turn into some prints very soon....