All posts by MikiRogers

Felting, printing and crochet biscuits..

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We’ve kicked off our new workshops with great fun and creativity at The Palace Hub.

We had a fabulous fun group of attendees for our first day of workshops for both the lino printing and needle felting classes, lots of tea in vintage cups, and even some delicious home-made biscuits courtesy of Geraldine’s little daughter..

Our chaps created a kalaidoscopic range of beautiful designs, some using dual printing colours while others printed over tissue papers and on a range of backgrounds such as sugar papers and old book pages.

We tried our hand at a ‘chine colle’ printing method, sandwiching glued papers between the inked lino and the base paper, to add vibrant colour to black mono-prints.

Geraldine took the helm for the second class , where we had excellent wool-based fun with needle felting. We prodded and poked in great style and made some smashing little animals, brooches and floral inspired pieces.  If you feel as though you’ve missed out , we’ll be doing it all again on Tuesday!  More info here.

Lino-printing
Lino printing

Meanwhile there are lots of markets and festivals to think about.. As I have been away visiting family I needed something portable, so have been making some fun little crochet biscuits to sell.  Here you can see them by some fab little retro Pyrex cups given to me by lovely friend Abi of ‘Oh Abigail’.

crochet biscuits

The pattern for the Jammy dodger is by Matt and can be found on his ‘According To Matt’ blog  http://accordingtomatt.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/jammy-dodger-pattern.html the custard cream is my pattern (which I will most certainly write down and share at some point) and I’m working on a bourbon too, so we’ll see how that turns out!
If you’re round and about Guisborough on the 3rd may, you might just see my biscuity creations on the Totally Locally Market! See you then M

 

Thriftfest and Pot Dogs

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What brilliant news we had this week that Geraldine and I have been accepted to have a stall at the Festival of Thrift at Lingfield Point in Darlington, this September.

For any of you who are in driving distance and didn’t go last year this is an unmissable weekend with loads of handmade and upcycled loveliness for sale, delicious and diverse food, and fabulous events and workshops (we loved the hula-hoop lessons). It’s a real honour and we hope to rub shoulders with the likes of Wayne Hemingway and Max McMurdo, a fab upcycler who’s appeared on both Kirsty Allsop programmes and ‘Small Spaces’, both of whom were there last year!

So, bringing myself down to earth and thinking of new recycled projects I have been looking at ceramics for inspiration, having come across some iconic Staffordshire pottery dogs whilst perusing Ebay. Looking a bit further it seems I’m by no means the first to be inspired by these lovely objects, and I found examples of updated versions by Rob Ryan (whose work I have long had a love for) and Donna Wilson…

 

Rob Ryan
Staffordshire Pugs
Staffordshire Spaniels
Staffordshire Spaniels
Donna Wilson for Heals

For my own version I have used a quilting method and 2 layers of thrifted sweatshirt fabric to create some dog and cat brooches, but there’ll be lots more to come.

Don’t forget to book your workshop if you want to come, we’re planning water-colour, free stitching, crochet and pattern-making after this round too! See the Facebook page to keep updated! Book a current workshop HERE and see below for details!…

See you on the flip side!

hub workshops apr 14 photo

 

 

Tweeting along

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On Monday I spent the morning optimising my use of twitter with the wonderful G who I do lots of markets and art sessions with, so all you little tweeters can follow. I’m at @rubynblue if you fancy following my exploits on there. It was run by Mark of @BestDadICanBe . He writes a funny blog about his exploits as a father and is great fun to have as a tutor. Something I always think about when I am running sessions… Who wouldn’t want to have some fun while learning?

The posters for the new courses are ready, and we’re enjoying the process of booking people in, don’t forget you can book them on Eventbrite and all the details are here.

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Monday night I spent with the little gang at Totally Locally Guisborough , the shop local scheme I co-run. We have the meetings at a gorgeous rustic little pub at the edge of the town; The Anchor. What a great place, with open fires and photos of sports teams (many of whom are still in the pub, but a bit older). We’re in the final stretch of the Spring market planning and it’s really exciting, with a ‘maypole’ theme of bright colours and flowers, the market is going to be a real spectacle, so we can’t wait. Alongside this, we’re running a ‘Magic Tenner’ campaign , which highlights the positive effect it has on our community if every adult just spends an extra tenner with a local independent business.. all good stuff!

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The basics of both the markets and the courses are now ready so I’m back to some making, at the moment I’m onto some cheeky embroidery tweaks, taking old embroidered images and updating them.. Take a look below.

These will soon be making their way to a market stall of shop, so I’m off to continue with them. Keep on with the craftiness all you makers.. Miki

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Creativity by the seaside..

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Whenever you open up a new set of workshops..

..no matter how successful your previous ones have been , there’s always that trepidation that no-one will turn up.. always, but especially when those workshops are in a new format and at a new venue . This is  what keeps you on your toes. So, to the new art workshops I have planned with the lovely G; we had bookings before we had even advertised , which is always a great and it’s been lovely to see the support we’ve been given so far. If you want to know more about workshops, click here.

The new venue just happens to be on the Seafront on the North East coast at Redcar, and after a recent ‘creative retreat’ by the sea, where I got to rekindle my love Redcar-content-headerof water-colour, I already have ideas to include a water-colour class for the next round of workshops, and happily have people interested in taking the workshops up… That view is too good to waste!

CREATIVE BRAIN…Untitled picture

What is a surprise is when you find out on where on the internet your work or your workshops have appeared. .. This week there was a little link to our workshops on the blog ‘Creative Brain’ .Lots of articles about creativity, with a decidedly intelligent twist..

I only discovered our link because of a Twitter post , but it’s great to see other people appreciating what you’re up to and as I have a real fascination with how the brain works , having done my thesis of ‘creative thinking in underachieving boys’ this blog was of great interest..

If you’re interested in the ways of the brain, a great book to read is ‘Frames of Mind’ by Howard Gardner, all about multiple intelligences and how we’re all intelligent, but in different ways…(one of the many reasons I love creativity, is it’s accessible by everyone) I’ll leave you with that and with my favourite quote:

fish

 

New Creative Courses at the Palace Hub, Redcar

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SkyBlueRed Arts present new courses at the Palace Hub, the creative centre on Redcar Seafront.

Miki of Ruby and Blue and Geraldine of Bean creative are looking forward to welcoming a new batch of would be creative types to the work room on the first floor for the first of the classes starting in April.

There’ll be a choice of classes, including felt-making, lino cutting and printing, batik and cross stitch, all with resources provided and time for attendees to have a chat about their progress over a cuppa.

We’re now live on Eventbrite providing booking online, you can also click here for full details and how to book!

Hi there

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Welcome to the creative world of Miki Rogers. I’m busily making for April markets, settirnb stall 1ng up markets and events as part of Totally Locally Guisborough, and am working out dates for workshops , with my wonderful friend Geraldine from Bean Creative.

Can’t wait to show you all my new work…

Miki 🙂