Made & Making Shell Class

I think Mr DT, Baby F and I are in need of a beachcombing day soon. I've done so many shell themed Stitchscape classes in the last couple of months that my shell stash is a looking a little bit sad. Don't get me wrong, I still have lots of shells but they are all of a certain size that many people don't want to use. Do you think I could take them back to the beach and swap them for some smaller ones? Would that be strange?

If anyone is reading this who lives in East Sussex, can you recommend me any beaches with lots of little lovely shells? 

Look at this fantastic concentration going on here! This was my latest class at Made & Making and we had an absolutely brilliant day. The studio has such a wonderful and creative atmosphere - often there's another class going on, on the other side of the room, so there is a constant hum of activity like a little creative hive. The conversations are always varied, always different, depending on who is in and how chatty they are. Some classes gel more than others, and sometimes neighbours can go away exchanging numbers or details to stay in touch!

Everyone has their own experiences of stitching and embroidery. Often they'll come up and guiltily admit that they haven't done anything for years, aside from turning up an emergency hem, and that is absolutely fine! There's no set pace on these classes and they will work for everyone. Sometimes people just need a creative push and some spit-balling to get the best ideas and creative juices flowing, others need a little bit more hand holding and teaching of the stitches but with these smaller classes I can still get around everyone for lots of one on one time so hopefully no one feels neglected. 

It's especially lovely to see people have creative freedom to do what they want. And I'm now determined to have about 10 minutes at the end of a workshop just to get everyone's pieces together so that they can see what the others have done and chat about it - the techniques they've used or the colours, and really build up each other's confidence. It's all very well me walking in with my years of experience and 'just the right materials', but it is always so much nicer for them to see what they have achieved and have others be as delighted with it as they are. Hopefully. 

There's lots of texture in these. Most of the ladies embraced the idea of throwing lots of trimmings and shells and bits to create a mass of touchy-feely bits (which also fills up the hoop quicker so they feel they've accomplished more in the day). The lady with the hoop underneath was much neater, with really fine and deliberate work that looks beautiful. I love the different use of the furnishing trimming here, and she also brought with her one of those bath scrub loofer things that's made out of blobs of netting. Rather than throw it away she deconstructed it and brought it in, can you see where she's used it?

Some of her shells were much smoother and didn't have a shape for the thread to attach to so instead she made a little pocket from the loofer netting and has secured one of her shells down with that. You can barely see it because the net is so fine and the colour worked really nicely with the shell itself, but also it just kind of looks like the shell is tangled up in beach rubbish. As it's a net she could go on to weave things through that as well if she wanted to, although I suspect her finished piece will continue to be pristine. Almost like a picture postcard beach from the Bahamas. 

I really hope that everyone who came along to this workshop had a good time. The pieces produced are just stunning and everyone should be giving themselves a pat on the back!!