March 2025: looking for light
Creative inspiration
My focus for March was ‘light’.
It’s that time of year when the days are gradually lengthening, reminding us of what is to come as spring emerges. Of course there were shafts of beautiful sunlight, but in the darker moments there was warmth and comfort with beautiful moments of light indoors.
The month started by celebrating our first anniversary since we met. The light in the Piersland Hotel was particularly lovely, as was the food, and of course, the company. We were able to spend more time in the garden and enjoy the moments outside whether the sun was beaming in, or fading to the west.
A trip to Loch Lomond gave us some dramatic skies with moody clouds and shafts of light, of course with associated shadows too, adding to the beautiful scenes. Closer to home there were opportunities to watch the sunset. Living on the west coast of Scotland we have glorious sunsets and I’ve enjoyed watching it over the past year. At this time of year it sets over Arran, just to the north of Holy Isle making beautiful skies and colourful reflections on the Firth of Clyde. I’ve always been inspired by sunsets, they feature heavily in my weaving work and provide endless opportunities for playing with colour, no matter what medium I’m working in.
Wetfelt Workshop at Honeybee Cottage
It was almost a year to the day that I had done my last wet-felting workshop in my flat in Glasgow. This time I was at Honeybee Cottage in Saltcoats with the lovely Denise. I first met Denise last January when I found her Sunday Sanctuary meditation class. It was one of my goals for 2024 to mediate more regularly and Denise’s class was a perfect fit. She moved into a brilliant space in Saltcoats last spring and I’ve been there almost every week.
We knew we would be the perfect fit to do a workshop together. Denise’s vision for Honeybee Cottage is ‘nurturing souls, crafting serenity’ and she’s created the perfect space to do just that. I was a little nervous to do a class in a new place as I’m so used to doing them in my own space where I have everything to hand, but Denise made it easy and we had a wonderful afternoon.
You don’t need much to do wet felting, just some merino tops (the colourful fluff), some warm water, eco-friendly soap, and something textured to work on. I use old bits of bubble wrap from packaging as it enables me to extend it’s life and keep it out of landfill longer. I like to work on a bed of towels too as the WET part in the title, really is true.
It’s always such a delight to pass on my skills and support others to unleash their creativity. Everyone was really pleased with their finished felt, including me! I’ve plans to embellish mine with some machine embroidery and hand-stitching… one day.
You can join us for the next workshop on Sunday 20 July, book through Honeybee Cottage.