Workshops at Craft Festival Wales provided by Make it in Wales

At Make it in Wales we believe in creativity and craftsmanship and run a variety of residential and day workshops including dressmaking, upholstery, weaving and jewellery in West Wales.

We believe in providing learning in a relaxed environment with our local team of inspiring designer-maker-tutors. You may be a beginner and want to learn something for the first time, or maybe you’re already proficient in a craft skill and want to master a new technique within your area of interest? Something made well, that looks pleasing to the eye, gives us all pleasure and pride. Making for yourself or for someone else is an alternative to the high street and what you create with us will be more beautiful than anything you can buy there. 

Our designer-makers have a background in making and teaching across many craft disciplines. Together, we have designed creative, rewarding skills based courses and workshops in West Wales.

All workshops are held upstairs in the Castle Green House. All materials included, unless stated otherwise. All workshops £25 plus booking fee. The workshop fee does not include entry into the Festival.

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 6th

11AM-1PM Weave a Storage Basket with Llio James.

Llio would like to use her weaving skills to teach you how to weave your own cardboard basket. Using colourful card you will make storage baskets to hold daily items

Llio James is a contemporary hand weaver encompassing traditional Welsh design in today's language. After a few years studying and overseas employment in the textile industry in New York and Scotland, Llio returned home to further her craft in Wales. One of her main interests is to develop the relationship between hand weaving and the traditional woollen industry within Wales. “The feeling of belonging to country and culture is important to me and one way of expressing this is through my work.” She sees weaving as a way to bring together industry and culture. She is also currently lecturing at Coleg Sir Gar, Carmarthen, on the Contemporary Craft Degree Course.

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 6th

2PM-4PM Free Stitch Embroidery with Suzi Park

Suzi will be teaching free stitch embroidery with added Appliqué techniques using a sewing machine. You will need to have some experience on how to use a machine but new beginners are welcome. These exciting techniques will give you plenty of ideas for further projects. Suzi Park is the founder of the company Make it in Wales.

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 7th

11AM-1pm Lost Wax Casting with jeweller, Maggie Cross

We thought you might like to try out lost wax casting with Maggie. You’ll learn how to carve a unique, one of a kind ring, using jewellers wax and a selection of tools. Your bespoke wax ring will then be sent to a casting company in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter where they will cast the wax into solid silver using the process of lost wax casting. Maggie will then hand finish the silver rings in her workshop in West Wales and post them back to you. There will be an extra charge on the day for the silver you use and the finishing work Maggie will need to do for your ring.

Maggie trained at The School of Jewellery in Birmingham and now lives and works in Cardigan, West Wales. Her jewellery is designed and made in her cute studio, with some elements outsourced to small workshops in The Jewellery Quarter. She aims to make her brand as sustainable as possible. At the bench she uses eco-silver sheet and the casting company she works with also only uses recycled metals. 

Workshop does not include finishing the ring in silver. (eg: a small silver ring will cost an extra £45 to be cast and finished and posted back to you). You can discuss this with Maggie on the day.

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 8^th

2pm-4pm Make Mini Books with bookbinder, Carole King

On this workshop, you’ll make some adorable mini books in a box with Carole. Learn a variety of simple bookbinding techniques which you’ll be able to up-scale and re-use again and again. For the covers of the books you’ll be able to choose from a variety of Carole’s own designs and hand screen-printed papers.

Carole is a bookbinder. From her rural stone barn studio she works through a wide variety of media including painting, printmaking and bookbinding. Her artists’ books include tunnel books, coptic bound and case bound hardbacks.

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 8^th

11am-1pm Needle Felting with Ruth Packham

Discover the magic of needle felting and make your own bird brooch. Needle felting is a simple, accessible technique whereby using a barbed needle to stab into the wool fibre it is possible to sculpt the wool. Ruth has been needle felting for many years and will guide you through the process of creating a bird brooch, using dyed Cambrian wool, with her own design as a guide.

Ruth is an artist/maker/felter and uses British wool fibre and Cambrian Wool to make her quirky creations. She works from her coastal studio in Borth. Her background is fine art, installation, video and printmaking but she’s now a full-time felt maker, mesmerised by wool as a material. Wool is a wonder as it can be wet and shrunk, used as a drawing material, moulded and sculpted.

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 7^th

2pm-4pm Beginner crochet workshop using hand dyed Cambrian Wool with Nellie and Eve.

‘Nellie and Eve’ is an indie yarn company based in rural West Wales. Founder Helen Hickman, hand dyes British wool yarns using botanical extracts & natural dyeing methods. Colours are inspired by the landscape & changing seasons of a Welsh mountain. Helen is passionate about using fleece from neighbouring small farms to produce high quality, exclusive yarns & the woolly miles used to process ‘Limited Edition’ & ‘Single Farm’ collections is under 50 miles, sheep to skein. Mindful of the environment yarns are dyed in small batches using water from a natural spring, compostable materials & plastic free packaging.

Nellie and Eve is named after Helen’s Grandmothers. All materials included.

www.makeitinwales.co.uk