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Wednesday 24 October 2012

Workshops at Dalmally Station

The last of the 8 week workshop was yesterday and some sadness about not having the lovely friends together on our Tuesday sessions. It has been a lovely time to get to know the people and the place here and some great friendships have been forged.
                                                         Gluppy soap mixture on 'the ball'
                                                                 Laying out the fibre
                                            A hat perhaps...this will be a Christmas tree...
                                                      Resist method of creating a vessel
                                               Bouncy ball technique of making vessels...such fun
                             A beautiful vessel with that lovely soft textured lip of combed wool
Having done several workshops and building up the skills and sharing the experiences of making some very different treasures the pieces made were wonderful.

Wednesday 17 October 2012

New photos and web upgrade...wonderful

There may be many of you out there with the same problem...technology moves forward so quickly that the tools to upgrade your website become outdated. In fact I have realised that my whole website structure has become ancient and curtailing to todays demands. A dilemma, spend time and money to do a total upgrade or struggle on?
                                                        The garden moves too
 
                                          The platform...other wise spoken of  as the veranda

                         The Yurt was up for a little while but we discovered this is rather a windy corner
                                                   Defiantly my favourite viewpoint
                                                      Picnic at the station anyone?
                                               Impish face at the window
                                 It doesn't take much to engage me in a conversation if it has wool in it
                       Autumn Equinox gives the building a great mood ( as well as clever lighting )
Thankfully I have a great support team at my web provider Webage ...the team have been great helping me to resolve the latest difficulty uploading the fantastic new photos taken by the very talented Glasgow based photographer Graham. I am sure you will agree that he has captured the mood of the building with a certain wistfulness. Now all I need to do is get cracking with the new range of work and I can see the setting here will be perfect for Graham Campbell's talented camera. Thanks guys you have made me very happy with the support you have given me.

Wednesday 10 October 2012

A great day for dying

The sun shone and although the day was cold it was perfect for a mix of indoor and outdoor dying.
The double gas boiler was set up outside with natural dye materials and our own pre mordant wool.
The tea urn chugged away nicely with a perfect blend of hydrangea shades of purples through to soft pinks and inside cosy and warm we microwave dyed with steam bags and fun experiments.






A great day was had and all the left overs were reused until exhausted of the dye and my workshop is filled with colourful delights to whet the appetite.

Saturday 6 October 2012

The Dalmally Railway station clock

The lovely Dalmally Station clock . A piece of heritage has been stuck on 4pm for many many years.
There was great excitement yesterday when a team came to fix the clock from via Scotrail.
Sadly they were not told a team had been there last week with the plan to do the same. No one seemed to realise British Rail sold of the mechanism as it did to many station clocks . How can such a  valuable asset be repaired now! The time now reads differently but no heart to the clock in the form of workings will never make it run. Please can we have the old one back to make the life tick again to count the history that is truly important to perverse in the last standing station house on the Callander Oban line

Friday 5 October 2012

picnic time...before school is out

Unlike some of the schools, Oban finishes today for 2 weeks.
In the midst of a whole heap of jobs the glimmer of sunshine and the gift of Mum and Dad Whaites picnic basket was all the excuse we needed.

 Perhaps this is a bear!!!!





Nice Fungi

As usual the stunning scenery didn't fail us and I am now energised to start back into the work load.
We met no bears in the woods today...