WELCOME BACK TO OUR CUSTOMERS!

The One Craft Gallery reopened on July 1st.  I am pleased to report that sales for the opening days were very good and it was good to welcome back our customers. We have a fresh look inside - it has been decorated with a new carpet.  The position of the desk has changed to help with conforming to the Covid-19 regulations.  We also have a new hanging system for the artworks and new display systems for textiles.

Caroline and I kept the window display simple, with colourful spotted fabric bunting and the word WELCOME in large white letters...

  

LET IT SNOW!

The latest window at the One Craft Window is a wintry scene with LET IT SNOW as the theme.  White bunting, white skeleton trees and an old fashioned wooden sledge contribute to the look.  At Shepton Mallet we have had plenty of rain but no snow!

TO THE BEACH!

After a few months break, Caroline and I are back styling the One Craft Gallery windows.  As the weather has been hot, we have headed to the beach!  A sign stencilled onto driftwood, and blue and white striped bunting set the scene.  We added discarded ropes, fishing nets and line, wooden seabirds, starfish and loads of seashells.  We then scoured the gallery for goods and artworks to fit in with our theme...

HOLIDAY SEASIDE WINDOW FOR THE GALLERY!

Our latest window design for the gallery is with holidays and the seaside in mind.  We have map bunting, sun hats, felted pebbles, shells, starfish, paper boats, seaside artwork, textiles, ceramics, glass seagulls and an enormous textile one (see top right pic) - made by me!

SPRING WINDOW!

Colourful painted paper bunting and large white letters spelling out SPRING but with my large wooden flower as the I, was the basis for the latest window dressing in the One Craft Gallery.

SPRING WINDOW!

At the gallery we like to change the window regularly, with little or no budget!  I have found that Hobbycraft in Yeovil is a fantastic source of cheap display material.  For instance, in the latest Spring window, I have used a couple of pieces of artificial grass to set the scene.  They were £5 for a 90cm strip that can be used time and time again.  The plain white paper bunting was only £2.50!  I painted it in suitable bright Spring colours...

The large wooden flower which I used as the centrepiece of the front window, I found in a charity shop some time ago.  It was in need of a repair and repaint.  It now lives on a window sill at home, when not called upon to contribute to the window dressing!

SNOWDROPS AS INSPIRATION

I have been working on snowdrops as inspiration, as there is a Snowdrop Festival in Shepton in February.  The gallery has been asked to do a window in celebration of the festival, so I have been making bunting, cards, bookmarks and gift bags - all with the snowdrop theme.

These were all done in a similar way - the brown paper background was crumbled and treated with paint.  I sketched out the snowdrops and leaves onto white tissue with alcohol markers and attached to the background with matt medium.  Once fully dried, I added further details with marker pens and some glitter glue to give extra sparkle! 

IT'S HOLIDAY TIME!

Last Friday, Caroline Tetley, fellow maker at the One Craft Gallery, and I did a seaside window display - just in time for the mini heatwave we are now experiencing!  We both brought in shells from home and we hung the map bunting that I produced last year.  I also brought in some other bits and pieces, such as a lighthouse I had made, and a fishing boat. The two seagull pics - seen above bottom right and left, are some artworks I did a few years ago for an exhibition on the seaside...

I have also produced some shell gift bags.  I have a punch for the gift tags, but in the past I have found the ones I have made tend to curl, as the punch will only take thin card. To solve this problem, I punched out two for each tag, and stuck them together with matt medium, at the same time as adding the image.  It feels as though the holidays are here...

POPPY WINDOW

As you can see, my recently made map bunting and poppy garlands have contributed to the latest window dressing at the One Craft Gallery, just in time for the remembrance events for the start of WW1. The cube, with the installation of realistic poppies made in silk, is the brain child of our fantastic hat maker, Lizzie Oliva. Each poppy is, in fact, a brooch and for sale.

DIY PAPER BUNTING

I have developed two methods to make quick and simple paper bunting. Both methods require paper with interest on both sides - old books due to be scrapped are ideal. For example, I have used an out of date road atlas and a child's book. I then cut out simple triangle shapes using my own templates - see map bunting template illustrated. These shapes were then painted on both sides with acrylic wax available from Art Van Go. This coating gives the paper strength, durability and allows you to sew into it.

The next stage is to use a ruler and black marker pen to outline two sides of the triangles. Finally for the map bunting, I turned the top edge over and machine stitched it making a channel to insert the rope. For the child's bunting I used one inch wide braid which was ironed in half and the triangles inserted, tacked and then machined stitched. This bunting has been used to help with window dressing in the gallery. I haven't yet decided what to do with the map bunting.

FESTIVAL PAINTING

To make a change from all the collages I have been doing recently, I have been concentrating on using mainly acrylic paint. I started two paintings on wooden panels, with no preconceived ideas of how they would end up. I just applied paint and let them develop.

On the one below, the colours and shapes started to suggest something to me - summer festivals. They are on my mind as Glastonbury Festival is on at the moment and I can hear it at night from my home!  So I added some shapes to reinforce the theme, namely triangles and circles. The colours needed some darkness around them so I made the picture a night setting by painting the edges and sides of the panels black.

'Festival' - mixed media on board (50cms x 50cms)