You may have noticed that there have not been too many posts on my blog recently. This is because I have taken the big decision to start offering workshops. When I have given talks in the past, people have asked if I would do a workshop and I have always said no, but this year I took a deep breath and decided that I would like to offer classes in a variety of things that interest me. To this end, I have been dreaming up workshops that I would like to go on myself and making demonstration samples. Plus, I have roped in the Medieval Historian to add some historical information relevant to the workshop. So, Christmas decoration making will have a session with tea and cake where he will talk about the origins of Christmas customs in this country. My Easter workshop (which may well launch in 2018 – it takes much longer than you think to get these things ready) will include an informal session on the romantically doomed Romanovs who commissioned the Fabergé eggs we will be thinking about. He will not be caught up in the Romance, though; he’s a proper historian after all.
My vision is to create a series of workshops based on customs and celebrations that we used to have in this country but have lost. For example: the just-post-Christmas Wren Hunt, the cakes and candles of Candlemas in dreary February, and others to follow. All will have projects and historical information to drop into any conversation. Social success is assured.
The biggest step of all has been to have a studio built in my garden where I will offer small courses of no more than six participants. It’s called Pomegranate Studio as the pomegranate symbolises creativity for me. At the moment the studio looks like any new build in February – mudastic – but it will be surrounded by an inspirational flower garden when it is finished, I hope. Here are some far from enticing pictures. I will add more as I get the decorative bits finished after the hard build:
The studio is insulated so it is warm, has lots of light so that no-one gets a seat out of natural daylight, and is plumbed in so there will always be plenty of tea and coffee. There will also be my not inconsiderable collection of books to browse through.
I will be posting a lot more about this in the next few days with pictures of the possible products from possible workshops. In the meantime, let’s hope the rain lets up and I can get round to that flower garden I mentioned.
