It has been a long time since I last blogged but I have decided it is time I started again. My life has been busy and much changed over the nearly five years since I have had my shop "The Magpie's Nest". I am now on my third unit in Bideford Pannier Market, which have got progressively bigger each time and to be honest I have nearly outgrown this unit too! When taking on my first shop my business plan was always to run craft workshops but I found that very soon I had used all the space up myself and there was no room for students! A little over a year ago, having moved into a double unit the workshops became a realistic possibility at last.
We have had crochet lessons, needlefelting, lino printing, dressmaking, brooch making , velvet pumpkin making, peg doll fairies for the adults plus lots of drop in sessions for children too. I have loved it, not just learning new skills myself but also the pleasure of crafting with other like minded people. I have met so many lovely craft teachers and crafters and it has been a real pleasure sharing my creative space.
We started our classes with crochet, taught by Robin Bray of HookedbyRobin and her classes were very popular, we learned simple granny squares, rolled roses, ripple stitch, sunburst granny squares and more. Thanks to Robin's encouragement i bit the bullet and started teaching simple granny square lessons myself. I'm hoping to coax Robin back for more sessions in 2017.
The needlefelting classes with Tracey of Benton's Menagerie have been a roaring success, we have made birds, hares, foxes, badgers, sheep, robins and snowmen.
Tracey has lots of new classes planned for 2017 and not just felting but more on that later.
I have been sharing my creative space with Tracey for several months now, she has a snug little nest upstairs in the shop, surrounded by bundles of wool and small wooly creatures are born there alarmingly regularly.
Tracey is a lady of great creativity she is also full of grown up business advice and ideas burst out of her brains on a daily basis, she also keeps me supplied with tea and gossip.
I am going try and blog regularly from now on so keep an eye out for more news from The Magpie's Nest, thank-you for reading :)
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