Saturday 4 September 2010

Wingham Wool, a holiday off the beaten track

For my birthday my Mum kindly paid for a felt making holiday for me in Wentworth, Rotherham. When we turned into the tiny village, on the corner was our destination, a beautiful cottage with four or five outhouses and the most gorgeous shop, Wingham Wool Work. I didn't manage to get any photos of the inside but through the wooden doors were a haven bursting at the seams with wools, silks, yarns and anything to do with spinning, felting making or weaving you could think of.

We were shown round by a lovely couple who own the business, Ruth and Alan Gough and then followed Alans car to the cottage down the road to the three bedroomed cottage.

The cottage was so beautiful and had everything! it felt like a home from home and was so peaceful


The garden, the sun shined the whole time and when we arrived we had our lunch here

Top of the stairs, a bookcase of textile books to do your research in the evenings : )


I want one! gorgeous spinning wheel in the living room, that was one thing I wished I'd tried out on the holida, there was so much to do, next time though!


Me felting! It was so freeing to work outside. The awning covered us so even if it rained we could have carried on working. Chickens were wandering about in the garden and Alan and Ruth just carried on with their day. They were very hospitable and friendly (not the chickens, Alan and Ruth) although the chickens were lovely too, I believe it was the eggs from those very chooks that we had in the cottage and very tasty they were too.


Teaching my Mum how to make 3D leaves, she picked it up really quickly and left with lots of samples.


Hee, hee, this is what my sketchbook looked like when I came back!


And this is what I treated myself to from the shop. I cannot wait to get started on more samples at home. When you are a designer/maker its not often you get chance to go back to pure experimentation but it is so important! my head is now buzzing with ideas for new products and ranges for my collections. I feel I've gone back to the heart of what I do in these past few days, the medium, the pureness of raw material, the smell of it, the colour.  To create without expectation, for the excitement of discovery, that feeling you get when something shows itself from nothing, bliss.

2 comments:

  1. It looks idyllic! So glad you enjoyed it. And it's true, there is never enough time to experiment and sample new things, so it's great that you got time to do that. Happy felting! x

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  2. wouaaaH! Looks like you had an amazing time!
    Cécile

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