I was thrilled when someone referred to Button and Squeak as button art this week. My range seems to be expanding and I seem to have become more and more creative as my confidence has grown. I have been looking at courses and was so disappointed at how few courses are available and accessible to people who want to learn new skills. With this in mind I have been sharing creative skills at work.
In my day job I am a secondary school teacher. This week I have made an effort to share and inspire creativity. I have visited colleagues in a primary school to help with sats prepation which was hugely rewarding. I have collaborated with colleagues to make new resourses and signed up to teach some kids to make earrings next year. I may have ended up volunteering to teach them to read 15th century writing as well. Its a really great feeling to share what you are great at and its amazing how free people are with their skills in return.
All I need now is someone to teach me to use this sewing machine....
Learning to boil water with a transformer. Awesome.
Today has been one of those lovely lazy sunny days that you dream of. Me and my little boy have pottered in the garden and read stories. We have done very little housework and just had a very splendid day. We collected herbs in the garden and the tortoise made a return back to her garden enclosure. This has made her very happy and she was not pleased at being back inside during the torrential downpours. This afternoon my little one re-organised all my buttons and made rainbow patterns with them which reminded me so much of playing with my mums buttons when I was a little girl. This was the result of our little creative session.
Today has been an exhausting day. After a full day at work I arrived home to find the postman had brought presents. So I spend a blissful hour this evening before the children came home making hair clips. These are my 15mm fabric buttons added to 50mm hair clips and they look so pretty. I have only made black ones before so I was really pleased with these colourful ones. I am just waiting for my daughter to spot them and see how many disappear ....
Shop in the Square is a new shop in the centre of Wolverhampton giving small businesses the chance to showcase their work on the high street. I was pleased to be able to work with Charlotte, the Manager and get my work into the shop. The press launch was on Friday and the grand opening on Saturday. The range of products on show was outstanding. Charlie's mum's chocolate factory can be recommended by my daughter as can Belinda who has designed my daughter a beautiful hair clip for a wedding. I can also recommend Damon who was doing the entertainment at the press launch - awesome magician!
Have so enjoyed being part of this project and wish Charlotte the best of luck.
http://www.shopinthesquare.co.uk/
http://www.damonconlan.co.uk/
bespokebybelinda.weebly.com
Made by Belinda - she does lovely fascinators too
I enjoy reading so many blogs. It is so inspirational and relaxing after a hard day at work. Setting up one of my own has always been something I have wanted to do but presented a number of problems. The biggest hurdle being I am dyslexic and not the most coherent of writers. The other problem is I seemed to have to many ideas I wanted to talk about. Life has changed so much over the last twelve months. I am no longer just Zoe the teacher. I have Button and squeak - my tiny crafting business which is quietly growing from a few pairs of earrings to a range of accessories. I have my paleography course and soon I will have my research on 15th Century England which I am so excited about. Then, of course, there is my lovely family. My amazing hubbie and two beautiful kids who have been the most awesome support. I am hoping to combine a bit of everything into something that makes sense.
