Spring is in the Air!

Everything on the allotment is bursting into life which must mean that Spring is on it's way!

I'm hoping for sloes on this blackthorn bush this year..

I was worried that I may have planted this garlic a little late due to all the rain that we had last year but it's all sprouted, I love garlic!

The slightly warmer weather made the natural dyeing session we had at Sam's last week a lot easier - Jane Southgate is busy preparing for Rural Collusions and needed a load of stuff dyed blue with woad.

Dyeing with woad is always exciting so we didn't need a lot of persuading to get the dye pots out again!

The dyebath is yellow and the blue only develops when the dye reacts with oxygen in the air. We were dyeing some of the crocheted puffballs along with some wool blankets and some cotton interlining. Jane uses the interlining to make the gills of bracket fungi!

After a great day of dyeing I paid a visit to another artist's studio My Red Studio is just up the road from Halfpenny Home and is where Amy Louise Nettleton is currently working - we were really excited to hear that she had found somewhere nearby and I couldn't wait to see her studio.

Red, red, red!

Jacqui very generously treated me to a glass workshop with Anita Honeyball for Christmas with the condition that she came along too! Jacqui has attended a couple of these sessions before and I've always been so very impressed with all of the things that she has produced and it's almost all made with recycled materials that would otherwise be thrown away.
Jacqui and I were joined by our good friends Lisa and Gay as well as Maria B who organises the Ark and Craft Markets in Needham Market held on the 3rd Saturday of every month. Anita will also be at this month's event which will be on Saturday 19th February.

Anita's studio is a treat for the eyes - there are beautiful objects everywhere! These cheese plates are made from bottles that have been heated in a kiln.

You can't help but be inspired to create when you see all the pieces of coloured glass...

As you can see in the picture of the table below we were all very productive!

All that creativity can make you very hungry!

We even managed to make good use of one of the bottle cheese plates during lunch, I love glass so a whole day of playing with it was a real treat for me - I can't wait to see how all the pieces look after they have been fired!

Just look at the fantastic colours of the 'Stingray' glass bowls - I have a one in a kingfisher blue which I brought from Anita the very first time I met her at Treasures of Suffolk and I really love it! What a great way to spend a week, Nic x