We have organised  a 1 Day Felting Workshop here at Swallow Studios with Drogheda felt artist Colette Mulholland. 

Many of those who joined our evening calsses expressed and interest in learning how to make fun and funky Christmas Decorations using the felting techniques.  So Swallow Studios is the place to be on Nov 21st.

It runs from 10am to 4pm and costs €65.00 with materials and tea/coffee supplied. Bring lunch.

To book you place please call us on 042 9746614 (or 087 6821563 in the evenings) OR email info@lizchristy.com OR book online

Swallow Studios

Craft Workshops for September 2009

Annyalla, Castleblayney. 042 9746614

5 Week Course in The Art of Painting on Silk   Starts Tonight!

Learn the techniques of painting on silk.

Develop your own individual painting style and have a scarf for yourself and some gifts for your friends!

Starts Wednesday 9th September.

7.30pm – 9.30pm for 5 weeks

Cost €120 – materials supplied

Dress Making for Beginners 5 Week Course

Learn how to use the sewing machine that’s under the stairs!
How to lay, cut and sew from a pattern

And pick up tips on how to get a professional finish for your garment.

Starts Thursday 10th September.

7.30pm – 9.30pm for 5 weeks

Cost €120

Introduction to Crochet 5 Week Course

- all materials supplied.
Learn how to crochet and get ideas for using crochet in a colourful & creative way.Starts Monday 14th September.

7.30pm – 9.30pm for 5 weeks

Cost €120 – materials supplied.

5 Week Course in Felting

- all materials supplied.
Learn various felting techniques including wet felting, needle felting and Japanese ‘Nuno’ felting.
Experiment with fusing fibres, enjoy using colour and have something nice to bring home!

Starts Tuesday 15th September.

7.30pm – 9.30pm for 5 weeks

Cost €120 – materials supplied.

To Book Your Place

Please call Liz at Swallow Studios

042 9746614 or 087 6821563 (evenings)

You May Book Your Place

or for information

Please call Liz at Swallow Studios

042 9746614 or 087 6821563 (evenings)

Or

email info@lizchristy.com

On Thursday last we welcomed a group of 25 young people along with their leaders to Swallow Studios for a a day of craft workshops.  The teenagers were part of the youth exchange between the twinned towns of Castleblayney and Nogent sur Vernisson organised by Youth Fereration Ireland Monaghan. The group stayed at Alices Loft and they took part in lots of activities over the week, including making a dvd of their experiences, which they showed to organisers and guests on their final evening.

On the day we had four groups of teenagers, each with a leader and we organised them so that each group had about an hour at each of four crafts: frame tapestry weaving, loom weaving, silk painting & felting. Each group had a mix of French and Irish, and boys and girls, and they all engaged and took part in the crafts. The place was a riot of colour and activity and they seemed to enjoy themselves.  The results at the end of the day were amazing: 8 little tapestries, with a little bit added by each person, 4 loom woven lenghts with parts woven by everyone, 25 felted pieces and 25 painted silk pieces…..Wow!

And the next challenge for us was  make a collage of all the individual artworks and create two big wallhangings.  So on the last evening we were invited to Alices Loft where two young Irish people presented one wallhanging to Julie to bring to Nogent sur Vernisson. Then two young French people presented Mary with the other hanging to stay in Castleblayney and hang  in the Youth Cafe.

Louise & I were exhausted at the end of the one day of workshops, so my admiration goes to the organisers of the exchange Mary & Julie and their teams.   We really enjoyed being involved and opening the studios to the young people so that that could get stuck in and experience out crafts first hand.  I hope they had fun, enjoyed colour and maybe learned something abou craft along the way.

We welcomed a group of ladies last Saturday evening,  from the Clones Lace Summer Workshops. Maire Treanor organises and runs these workshops every year when she welcomes people from far and wide who have an interest in Irish Crochet Lace and in particular Clones Lace.

Carrickmacross Lace Demonstration At Swallow Studios

Like myself,  Maire is proud of the great lacemaking  heritage we have in County Monaghan and by way of telling this story and adding to her visitors experience, she brings them to Swallow Studios where Kathleen Kerley demonstrates the intricicies of the Carrickmacross Lace technique and I demonstrate how I design and make what I affectionately call ‘Annyalla Lace’. This is the weaving technique which I use in the making of my Celtic Tweed Collection

The group seemed to enjoy their visit here to the studios and I would be delighted to hear their  feedback, so ladies please feel free to comment!

And I have invited Maire to give evening classes here in the Autumn so watch out for the dates in The Northern Standard

Our summer evening classes finished a few weeks ago and it has taken me this long to write an update. I have been busy making my LizzyC Sheep which I must say are selling very well.  And of course I was galavanting on my holidays too, enjoying a road trip in the Canadian Rockies with my husband……a long time dream of his.

So to the classes……….well we did tapestry weaving, silk painting and felting this year and I must say it was a very enjoyable and productive five weeks.  I taught the tapestry weaving and it was great for me as a weaver to work in a different technique and it is something I hope to explore further in the future to develop my own work.

I actually ’sat in’ and participated in both the silk painting and felting and I have to say I really enjoyed both. Although I studied textile design at college, somehow I missed both of these techniques, so it is never too late to learn.

My colleague Louise lead the silk-painting class and it was great to learn how paint behaved on silk and it has whetted my imagination as to the possibilities. Louise and I have collaborated on commissions for  a while now so who knows how we might develop this in the future.  We all made a silk scarf using a somewhat unusual technique with a great element of surprise….and I have hardly left it off since, it came to Alberta with me and I wear it around my neck,  plaited into my hair or tied up with my ponytail. And of course since it is turquoise and purple it suits all my clothes too!

Felting was something I had always wanted to try, I suppose the notion of working with fibres really appealed to me so I was very keen to participate in Colette’s classes, and it was great! Colette has a great humourous way about her and she kept us all in craic and we weren’t long relaxing and getting into the fibre and the suds.  On my first piece I was still in a ‘weaving’ frame of mind and somehow I produced something which faintly resembled a Monet print on my studio wall…so I decided to keep this piece over until the last night when we would do needle felting,  and I would ‘ work into it’.  So felting brought me from the abstract by ‘taking a line for a walk’  to the ’somewhat’ representational  ‘Artist’s Garden at Giverny’. Everyone seemed to enjoy the classes, teachers and students alike and we had a laugh along the way.  Creativity is good for the soul!  And I will get some pics up soon.

Watch out for our Autumn classes starting in September.

Well John Mc Keown has just sent me a link to the webcam which he has on a swallows nest in his garden shed. What a lovely surprise to get on a friday evening! What beauty and thanks for sharing it John.  Click here to view the swallows nest.

We are just over half way into our spring series of evening craft classes at Swallow Studios and I must say I am really enjoying them. Colette teaches feltmaking on Tuesday, I teach tapestry weaving on Wednesday and Louise teaches silk-painting on Thursdays.  And that is what has spured me to get blogging about it tonight.

Being a weaver I generally work with ’straight lines’ on the loom which I do love,  but oh how participating in the classes is freeing and encouraging my creative juices in other directions. I just love the felting, still working with fibre but it is so different. And tonight I painted in a very loose and free way and that is just a great feeling, .  For me doing these classes is about having some fun in what is my daily work environment, and I think the other participants are enjoying it too.   And teaching the class in tapestry weaving has re-introduced me to a weaving technique that really lends itself to experimentation,  so once again I am enjoying it, the teaching as much as learning!

I must sign off now but next week I am planning to take some pics of what we have been up to here in the evenings at Swallow Studios so watch this space.

Nite nite

Liz

I recently decided to take my LizzyC Sheep Brooches a step further and develop them into a range of greeting cards which I could sell on the internet.  So yesterday I sat perched in the sun armed with my watercolours and brushes and set about designing my first card, aptly named “An Irish Woolly Jumper”.  Each card has a magical little sheep brooch attached.

So you can take a look  on the website and I’d love to hear what you think of it!

Hi, at long last I have  got around to getting my new ‘award winning’ collection of handweaves up onto my website today,  and you can take a look by clicking  on Celtic Tweed Collection.

Designed with the next Autumn Winter season in mind, somehow today seemed like the day to do the work!  It is mighty cold and blustery here, and May or not, I will be wrapping up when heading out into it

Celtic Tweed Wrap by Liz Christy

Celtic Tweed Collection

To find Swallow Studios on your SAT NAV the GPS co-ordinates are as follows:

N 54* 09. 922′

W 006* 47.800′