Dear all,
It’s that time of year again when I need to take stock, get stuck into my admin and get ready for 2020! We have had a very busy 2019, met lots of lovely people from far and wide, including Australia, America, Canada, Iceland and many more..it has been so much fun exchanging stories and meeting so many interesting people, all with a common love of craft.
The sun is shining on us at this very moment but minutes ago we had hail, so nice to feel snug, with the burner on.. thinking about the past year. It was great to have so many people return for another Escape with us and to welcome back Ali, Ele, Joany and Fi, who all worked with us on our Escapes.
This year we also have Karen Price joining us who will be teaching on our new “Fleece to Needle Felt a Picture” course in June. Karen is an extremely talented fibre artist, who produces stunning works of art, mostly local scenes and animals. She will be working with our naturally dyed fleece to help participants produce their own needle felted pictures. This relaxing craft course runs from Monday to Saturday and has just a couple of places left if you are interested in joining us.
We were so pleased to be awarded a platinum award of excellence from craftcourse.com for all our 5 star reviews this year..it makes all the hard work worth while. Thank-you to all those who reviewed us, it really makes a difference. If you would like to read any of the reviews please click here.
I have been trying to pass on some of my craft skills to younger ones this year. We set up a craft club at the local primary school in October 2019- it has been great fun, hard work and very rewarding, all at the same time.. teaching 5-11 year olds hand sewing, felting and machine sewing so far.. we finished off the year by making Christmas stockings.
For the first time this year we ran a craft tent at Belladrum festival, near Beauly, like teaching the children, it was great fun and hard work! We ran workshops in spinning, weaving, wet felting, needle felting, shibori and eco-printing, as well as having kids crafts going on. One of my favorite parts was the massive willow heart the team weaved in the centre. The sun shone which made it all work so well.. thank-goodness!
Looking forward to next year, we have courses, holidays and events planned and here are some of them if you feel like Escaping in 2020…
Shibori & Indigo Dyeing weekend: May 9th-10th Learn Shibori folding, clamping and stitching techniques to create beautiful resist patterns on cotton using indigo dyeing.
Fleece to Felt week: Full
Fleece to Needle Felt a picture:June 8th-13th1 full day of natural dyeing, then a half day of dyeing and an afternoon exploring glen Affric, spend the last two days with fibre artist Karen Price creating a beautiful needle felted picture.
2 places left!
Natural Dyeing 2 day course: June 24th-25th & Aug 22nd-23rd: Spend the weekend creating stunning colours from natural dyes. Dyeing un-spun fleece.
Dye to Spin week: July 4th-11th -Learn to wash and sort fleece, make natural dyes and dye the fleece a beautiful rainbow of natural colours, spend two days learning to spin with Ali.
Eco-printing:weekend August 8th-9th: Learn how to print with flowers, leaves and other natural dyes, on silk and cotton.
September Craft Retreat:Sept 5th-11th: Enjoy a wonderful relaxing week, doing a little bit of everything we love…gentle walking, optional morning yoga and craft (including felting, natural dyeing and eco-printing).
Spinning Retreat Sept: 28th -Oct 3rd Includes 1 full day of natural dyeing then a half day of dyeing and an afternoon exploring Glen Affric. Ending with two days of spinning tuition with Ali. Stay in beautiful accommodation and learn something new.
October Craft Retreat: October 24th-30th
A relaxing cosy week involving craft, walking and optional yoga. Craft include shibori, eco-printing and felting.
Here’s to 2020!
Yours Rosie
