Crafty As L

Last week my friend, Lorie, and I had a little crafty evening out doing some flower arranging.   I was amazed that Lorie hadn’t done any before as (like me) she’s done most things! The tuition was from All About Flowers but the event was held at 1086 wine bar, both of which are in the same Botley Mills complex.   It’s a glorious building with lots of nooks, crannies and beams and, unsurprisingly, used to be a flour mill. We began by securing our saucer and foam block into the basket using florists’ tape and pins to hold the tape into the foam. The idea was to start at the bottom and work up so the first layer was to get the big bits of greenery in so the foam was obscured. As both mine and Lorie’s philosophy with flower arranging is “more is more”, we then added more foliage, trying to leave enough foam free to stick the flowers into! We then placed the focal flowers, the rose, irises and tulips, into position.   It was supposed to be a basket that could be vie...

Having left my Easter makes until the last minute (i.e. yesterday!), I needed something quick to make.   After watching a few YouTube videos on this style of baskets, I realised that they would be quick to create and could be made in any size, subject to the available size of card to begin with. Start with a square of card, it can be in either cm or inches, it doesn’t matter.   Divide the measurement into 3 and score at 1/3 and 2/3 along one edge.   Next, turn the card 90˚, divide the measurement into 4, score at ¼ and ¾ and just make a little mark at the halfway point at the top and bottom.   Score from the mark to the intersection of the two score lines.   Here’s a template. This is what the card should look like when it’s scored.   Since I wanted to make my basket from a single sheet of A4 card, I began with a 21cm square, so scored at 7cm and 14 cm along the first edge, rotated the card, then scored at 5.25cm and 15.75cm, marking at 10.5cm. The b...

My crafty friend, Lorie, and I like to go and have a bash at new crafts now and again and this time Lorie found a willow weaving course so we could weave our own chicken. Well why wouldn't you? The course was run at Farnham Maltings by Judith Needham, who teaches basket making and willow weaving in Surrey and Hampshire.  She was a very knowledgeable and encouraging teacher with a structured but relaxed teaching style.  Most of the time she just left us to get on with it, which both Lorie and I appreciated. Judith had models on display for inspiration; pecking chickens and a cockerel.  You could also choose a design or other animal if chickens weren't your bag.  We chose cockerels! After a brief explanation on the types on willow we could use, we were presented with our metal hoops (to become chicken legs later) and a big wooden block to support our creation. We started off by making a rugby ball type shape as the building block for the bod...