Off to the Fair(s)

...and first along is the small-but-perfectly-formed Southdean Christmas Gift Fair just along the road from Tart HQ this Saturday 15th November. If you can come along we would be delighted to see you.

Very closely followed by a rather larger affair - the highly regarded Art & Design Fair at Kelso over both days next weekend

 

 I have been busily making and packaging... 

Stitchers' Mixtures

Fabric shade for tall spalted beech table lamp

Northern Exposure

The week in Assynt was wild and wet on the outside, warm and filled with lovely cooking aromas on the inside. We cooked up a storm in the kitchen, creating tasty healthy food for everyone and sharing many many laughs. 

The rain did not stop the hardier members of the group from getting out and exploring the terrain. Others could not be parted from their knitting and carried on intricate work with beautiful yarns. I'll save my knitting efforts for another post(!), but I did get a few skeins of yarn spun.

Some of us also opted to take a spoon carving workshop run by Chris Goodman. It was challenging work with unfamiliar tools but we all produced creditable spoons, in alder, birch or willow.

Home and Away

I'm off north in a few days, to share a big house with a lot of talented women who will be wielding pointy sticks and using gloriously hand dyed yarns created in the workshop of this alchemist!

I'll have images to share of the dramatic setting in Assynt but in the meantime, here are a few from the last foray north, when Hugh was training mountain rescue personnel in offroad driving techniques.
We stayed in a cottage on the Alvie estate, a few miles south of Aviemore. The setting could not have been better for us. 
Above is fearless tracker dog Ash, intently studying a potentially deadly moth or similar behind the cottage. 
And below is a typical game with both animals. Midge enters into the spirit of it 200% while Ash finds something much more important to do and is deaf to all commands.

 We were fortunate to have lovely early autumn weather; early mornings were gentle misty affairs.

And to finish, here's my newest Blue Moon yarn - Luna Laceweight, a mixture of baby alpaca, silk and cashmere. Seen here in 'before' and 'after' shots.

Just dropping in...

but it's a flying visit. 

Yarndale's 'Bert'

After a gloriously busy Yarndale I have been dyeing yarns, stocking up on buttons, spinning, planning and generally chasing my tail. 
Tomorrow I am off to join in Dumfries Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers' Gathering which is open to visitors too. Contents of the Tart's stall are ready to be loaded into the car in the morning, along with wheel and fibre so I can spin while I mind the shop.

Do you like the yarn? It was spun for the lovely Riikka in Finland who emailed me today to say that it had arrived. She called it beautiful, gorgeous and amazing so I think she's pleased with it :)

Blue Hands are Cool

...they mean lots of indigo dyeing is happening. 

Major stockpiling is going on here in preparation for the next great event which is YARNDALE in Skipton next Saturday and Sunday 27/28th. The great busy yarn fair got off to a fine start last year and looks to be surpassing itself this time, with 180 stalls of textile loveliness. The Border Tart is nice and easy to find, at No 65, close to the Wharfedale entrance...just so you all know! 
A little slice of woolly paradise, say the organisers, and who am I to argue?

As well as indigo yarns, I will have one-off handspun skeins, lots of luscious wool/silk fibre blends for spinners and felters, oodles of buttons including unique glass ones made by Laughinglass near Kelso, wonderful Indian block print and woven stripe fat quarters, and as much else as I can cram onto my stall. It's going to be a wild weekend :)

Cakes and Sales

What a fine weekend we had! It was grand to welcome friends old and new to Chesters as part of the Art Trail. I had fun encouraging visitors to pick up a pencil or two and design a blue sheep. The flock is substantial now, and I have plans for their reproduction...

 a sample of the indigo flock

Our Macmillan pop-up coffee shop raised nearly £300. Big thanks are due to my generous helpers who baked and poured and washed and stayed cheerful throughout.

A display of books I have made over the last few years

The lovely little knitting book I have for sale

One of my unique handmade paper lampshades

Sun shining on the (b)righteous!

Art Trail Eve

I've had a busy time arranging, and rearranging, and fussing about to get my new workspace sorted for the next three days' public viewing.

The cottage living room has tables and chairs and sofas at the ready for coffee shop business, and there have certainly been a few cakes baked. You can enjoy your refreshments surrounded by large canvases painted by Hugh, and smaller stitched silk and paper by me. All lit by a lovely wooden table lamp or two or three with handmade shades.

I called this one Titanic because it lists to port (or starboard, if you prefer)

So I should show you images, but I got too carried away taking photographs of shelves and tools and stuff instead, including my lovely Mark Hearld paper bird perched on the desk light.

 So really, if you want to see more, just mosey along. Hugh will be in his cabin, showing new work and some daft bargains, I'll be in my workspace and you'll surely smell the coffee. If in doubt follow the arrows!

Exhibitionists

Yesterday I travelled to Edinburgh and mingled briefly with Festival crowds as I visited various excellent exhibitions - 

India Street was my main reason for travel, and a date with Lokesh Ghai, assistant curator of The Bombay Sample Book. This exhibition examines the book held in the National Museum of Scotland containing designs printed in Turkey Red. (India Street in the Vale of Leven, backed onto the factory that was the world's biggest producer of Turkey Red fabrics). Lokesh is one of seven designers, from India and Scotland, who were invited to explore the archive, consider the historical and political impacts of the industry and produce contemporary work. It's on until 11th September at Gayfield Creative Spaces

Lokesh at the exhibition's chai stall

Monkey Business by Raw Mango  www.rawmango.in

Chilli Bean Flowers by Lokesh Ghai

A few steps from Gayfield is McNaughtan's Bookshop at the top of Leith Walk. In their lovely little gallery space is beautiful paper work by tapestry artist Jo McDonald
This image does not do the scale or delicacy, or constructive challenge of her work justice. Go see!

 

Dodging torrential showers and dazzling sunlight, I strode off along George Street to catch the Craft Scotland Summer Show too. Here there are mini displays by lots of Scotland's finest, including local jeweller Fiona Luing (who could resist silver ear studs listed as 'teeny', 'tiny' and 'small'?) and silk weaver Dorothy Stewart, based in Lockerbie, whose work is understated and elegant.

Finally, this was a thought-provoking reminder of the price paid in so many ways by our predecessors, and that being paid this minute in war-torn communities.

Art and Tart Time Again!

The annual Crossing Borders art trail takes place at the end of this month.

Hugh and I would be delighted to see you here at Chesters - there are new paintings in Hugh's cabin, a whole new room for me and my textiles and a pop-up coffee shop full of craftwork and cake!

Each day from 10 am until 5pm - look out for the wooden sheep signs

 
You can pick up an Art Trail booklet at venues around the Borders, or download one here

Frustration

..brought about by deathly slow broadband in Chesters. We are struggling with download speeds of about 1MB and uploads generously displaying as 0MB which is deeply frustrating. Complaints lodged with BT. Answers awaited. Sigh. 

Meanwhile, in other news, it was a gloriously sunny couple of days at the Border Union Show where the Tart was happily ensconced in the Wool & Water Tent with great textiley friends. The crowds were sometimes a little less than impressed at the humidity levels in said tent but Saturday was more comfortable than Friday for us and wool-related sales did still happen.

And my workspace is filling up. Here (with gracious broadband acquiesance) are some highly selective arty shots while it still looks half empty and tidy.

Good intentions

Ooops, where's this month disappearing to?
I nearly have an operational new workspace. This will be really exciting and uplifting and generally A GOOD THING. At the moment, though, there are too many tasks preventing me getting in there and enjoying it.
 

Posh Dublin breakfast

For example - housing everything. The simple fact is that I have too much stuff. I am trying to be realistic but sentiment gets in the way of quick decisions, and good intentions slow things further (I could use all that salvaged junk to make a really cool something or other, couldn't I?)
However, the recyling wheelie bin is full to bursting and Selkirk's Scrap Store will become a major beneficiary next week. 

So, when it all looks lovely and before I start to make a creative mess in it, I will post some images up here. Meanwhile, here are some images from Ireland!

And do come and visit at the end of August during the Art Trail, and see for yourself

Perfect welcome for visiting tarts

Stephen Pearce, potter to the stars - his empire is rather larger than the shopfront suggests

Ballymaloe Cookery School's garden

Breakwater beach art

 

Overseas

Just back from an all-too-brief trip across the Irish Sea. 
Blessed with pretty fine weather, we drove from Belfast right down to Co Cork and stayed a few days in a perfect little converted barn. These images are just a taster of the many I snapped as we walked and drove around.

nearest neighbours

can you smell them?

no wonder we were loathe to leave

waiting at Ballymaloe Gardens

Kilkenny Castle, where we stopped en route north

Ballycotton Bay

There's so much to see even in the one county that we will definitely be going back for major explorations.