What have the Lark tutors been up to in lockdown?
It’s been 11 weeks since we closed the studio, in that time we would have had some amazing workshops happening but feel hopeful that our team efforts to stay indoors will mean that it won’t be long until we can reschedule our workshops and invite you back for more crafty action.
We have been catching up with the tutors and thought we’d share a little bit more about them and what they’ve been up to :
Liz at Create a Party has been busy working on lots of fun activities to help keep children entertained during the last few weeks.
She's been running free weekly LEGO build along sessions on YouTube. These run every Thursday at 2pm, with a different theme each week. She hosts these with her 7 year old son, which can sometimes make for entertaining viewing! If you want to find out more check out the events section of her Facebook page or her Instagram. Previous episodes are available to view again whenever it suits on her channel too: including a special dinosaur episode for young children which her 3 year old co-hosted!
We are selling some of her brilliant bath bomb kits in the Lark shop, which include step by step instructions and a link to a tutorial on the website which you can follow to make them. They are the perfect activity to do with children of different ages or if you fancy a bit of a treat as an adult too.
Liz is also offering versions of some of the crafts that she offers at her craft and after school sessions, as kits that children can do at home. These include dreamcatcher kits, rainbow clay necklace and badge making (with 50p of each kit going to Noah's Ark Children's hospital). Other crafts, including dinosaur kits for younger children are also on the way! Step by step instructions are provided and she provides online tutorials for many of these.
Thanks Liz
Lann is Irish-Armenian and grew up in West Cork. Moving to Dublin in his early twenties to study photography, he began a degree course at SIAD in Surrey in ’95. Lann met his now wife at college and the couple moved back to her native Wales to raise their two children.
In between a series of unsuited sales roles, Lann taught himself calligraphy and now, some years later enjoys lettering art commissions and teaching live workshops, while exploring Japanese ink-based art forms such as Gyotaku (fish rubbing), suminagashi (paper marbling), drawing ensō (zen circles) and book binding. The Japanese concept of wabi-sabi – loosely, ‘beauty in imperfection’ – fascinates Lann and informs much of what he makes
Lann says “striving for perfection in an artistic endeavour such as calligraphy is a natural human desire. However, it is precisely that innate human inability to achieve perfection that imbues the work with its charm and guile for the viewer.”
Lann’s business is called INKRDBL and you can find follow his work on Instagram
Recently Lann produced a series of video tutorials to help people get started in calligraphy without needing any of the usual equipment necessary for this fun and satisfying skill. As in-person workshops from INKRDBL at Lark Design are sadly not an option for the foreseeable future, watch out for more online courses exploring a variety of lettering styles and projects. Lann’s philosophy towards starting out in calligraphy is that expensive tools and materials should never be barrier. Basic equipment is usually perfectly adequate and often materials are freely available in our own homes – did you know that strong black coffee makes a very serviceable ink for example? Among various styles of calligraphy, future courses will explore how to make your own tools using everyday items.
You can find a link to the course workbook and videos on www.inkrdbl.com/workshops
The whole course including the printable download is completely free.
I was so excited to host Kim, who lives in West Yorkshire, but I made friends with via Instagram as we offer many of the same workshops. We were lucky enough to meet when I visited friends in Halifax and when we both ran craft sessions at Greenman Festival. It was so funny to then discover that she was also on last years Kirstie's Handmade Christmas show a few days before me. Kim planned to visit Cardiff for a few days in early April and her workshops sold out really quickly, she will be back once this has passed and hopefully will stay for longer this time. She's been making some great videos on cyantope, paper making and macrame so do take a look... Youtube
Since lockdown I've been at home with my husband Al and our 2 boys Tom aged 8yrs and Finn aged 5yrs.We live in a small terrace house so it's been pretty intense being together 24/7!
I'm not having much time to make at the moment amongst homeschooling etc!. I am really enjoying our daily walk and as it is Spring, there is so much growing and flowering and lots of nature to see!
When I have found time to make , I've been creating wire butterflies and driftwood+seaglass hangers. As soon as I've finished a piece I post photos and info about it on my social media Facebook & Instagram pages
I'm also in the process (gentle nudging from Gemma of creating button necklace+heart kits)
I'm really missing coming to the studio and teaching workshops. I'm so glad we have social media to keep up to date with everyones makes and how people are being creative at home.
Take care🧡It will be ace when we can all get together again. Beth x
Georgie, our Amigurumi expert and general Lark
Hello from the Crochet Corner of the Watkins/Foulkes household, aka my craft room!
Lockdown has been a very interesting for me over the past 6 weeks. As those of you who have met me in the last year and a half know, I was due to get married on 24th April and unfortunately, that has been postponed until next year. It left my fiancé (Josh) and I at a bit of a loss as to what to do and how to feel… we knew we should be happy we are healthy and have each other, but it kinda really sucked we couldn’t get married and now our lives are on hold.
So to turn a bad situation around, Josh decided he would make me a craft room to ‘do my crafts from’ which was code for ‘somewhere to contain all my craft supplies rather than hiding them in hidey-holes around the house’. So week one, the Craft Room was created.
Whilst the painting and moving furniture went on, I discovered just how much craft stuff I have and I wondered how I could make the most of it…. And so Foulkesy Crafts was born! I already had a little Etsy shop I used to use to make custom crochet and knitted items from so I revamped and relaunched my Etsy shop, remade my old Instagram account and created Foulkesy Crafts overnight.
Amongst all the creative ideas flying through my head, Gemma posted about a Facebook group looking for people to make items for local care homes which weren’t being covered by PPE deliveries. I took a look and decided that although my sewing skills are not too shabby, I would be best suited to make scrub bags for carers to pop their scrubs in at work, take home and throw straight into the washing machine. I sorted out all my old bedding and kindly had some donations from family (all collected complying with physical distancing) and with a bit of help from Josh, and about 10 machine needles later, 100+ bags were made for carers and key worker friends across the country.
With all the sewing going on, I don’t want you thinking I’ve been neglecting my duties as resident crochet tutor, lots of crochet has been happening here too. There were the hearts for hospitals which Gemma asked if I wouldn’t mind creating a tutorial for. This was my first foray into YouTube video creation and I have to admit, I did not enjoy it… hearing my voice back it’s a wonder any of you ever put up with me! But the cause was worth the cringe and I know there have been hundreds of hearts made for hospitals and local key workers which has brightened their days.
I have also been making lots of baby mobiles with awesome acrylic toppers from Laser Kate (check her out on insta for some great laser cut goodies) with various creatures great and small attached to them. Gone are the days of Octopus and Squids, and in with bees!!!! This has been one of my favourite projects, and you never know, might one day for the basis of the advanced class for crochet! This little mobile is off to my super special and wonderful sort-of-nephew (my cousin’s son – what does that make him to me!?) who has an animal themed nursery.
For now I am back to my to-do list of creating stock and finding ways to entertain my puppy which doesn’t consist of running around the house with a ball of wool in her mouth, unravelling as she goes (that’s happened 6 times too many for my liking!). If you’re interested in seeing more about my craftscapades or checking out any more of my creations take a look at my Instagram or my etsy page www.foulkesycrafts.etsy.com
Since then, I have ordered my body weight in fabric and wool (which has coincidently also increased massively since I didn’t have to fit into my wedding dress for another year) and my sewing machine has never seen so much action creating stock for my shop.
Today as I was writing this post, a little delivery came from a very kind and talented crafty friend of mine who has created a door sign for my craft room so now this room is officially Foulkesy Crafts HQ!
Things I have been doing in lockdown:
Eking out every inch of milk
Eking out every inch of our back garden for entertainment
Eating hot cross buns, thinking about hot cross buns, eating hot cross buns, and so on
Asking, What's it like out there?
Stopping for afternoon tea
Realising that when our four year old says, he's too shy to go outside, he's become anxious about leaving the house
Watching The Repair Shop in pyjamas, and asking G to marry me
'Evening up' home haircuts
Watching toddler hair clippings take flight and sink towards the carpet, carrying April sunlight as they go...
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I run a wedding hire and event company called The Roaming Caravan Co. which also offers bespoke lettering and signage to clients and businesses. I started calligraphy as a hobby back in 2016 and attended a class in Bath as I couldn't find one in South Wales. I soon started practicing with other forms of pen and it started to become a useful skill to have when writing menus for our mobile caravan bar, Margot. It then evolved into wedding signage and at the end of 2018, I was asked to run my own lettering workshops and my love for brush lettering took off from there!
Now that weddings are on halt for the foreseeable I'm focusing on lettering and offering my brush lettering kits and wears online, as well as doing IGTV videos on my instagram with tips and tricks on how to master brush lettering. I was so excited when Gemma asked me to come on board and be a teacher at Lark but sadly my courses and private parties have had to be postponed so I figure offering the kits with the brush pens and tutorials is the next best thing. I find brush lettering really relaxing and a great way to switch off from my phone as I'm concentrating so much on each individual letter and words. It's also a great skill to learn for DIY wedding projects whether that's postponements/new save the dates or on the day signage such as table plans and place names. I’m really thankful for every single order of my brush lettering kits and hope they provide a bit of calm and relaxation to these worrying times. They’re available in the LARK shop should you wish to get one for yourself or one for a friend who perhaps has had to postpone their wedding + looking for a little pick-me-up. And if anyone has questions or needs any help then message on instagram
Narelle xx
Rhi has been busy looking after her 2 little ones but find time in the evening to create macrame pieces and is also doing commission pieces from her Instagram page - Knottibooth
Ali has also been using rope creatively to come up with lots of fab designs, her big lock down achievement has been to be paint the stairs at her and they are looking great, follow Ali’s creative projects on her Facebook page - ArtGarage16