On Saturday 20th October I
left the busy city behind and went into the beautiful autumnal Nottinghamshire
countryside to the Hope and Elvis Studio for a workshop with Samantha Bryan. Hope and Elvis is run and
owned by textile artist Louise Presley and is situated on the idyllic Welbeck Estate. The Hope
and Elvis studio is spacious, light and airy and is a treasure trove of textiles ephemera old and
new. I went on a bag making course there a few years ago and have been eager to
return to such an inspirational and welcoming space ever since.
Samantha Bryan is the creator of wonderfully
humorous fairy sculptures. Louise had organised for Samantha Bryan to help us
produce ‘fairies’ in her whimsical and quirky style. Her work is inspired by ‘victorian gadgetry
and invention’ and is constructed with great technical skill and attention to
detail. The sculptures are fashioned out of ‘wire, leather, found objects &
collected materials’. Some of my favourite features of her work involve tiny
roller skates made from buttons and ear muffs made from acorns! Samantha took us step by step through
her fairy making process and was happy to let us work at our own pace, giving
extra tuition whenever it was needed.
It was a fantastic day and I relished
the opportunity to work with a contemporary craft practitioner. Both Samantha
and Louise were extremely generous with their ideas, materials and time. The
atmosphere was relaxed throughout and it was brilliant to see a range of
different ages happily working together. There was even the added luxury of tea on tap and easy access to
delicious confectionery – a must for keeping creative minds going!
I documented the experience throughout
the day in the hope that it will give you an insight into Samantha’s methods of
working. Samantha’s fairies usually take her around three days to create and
she works on lots of different fairies at the same time going from heads and
hands to wings and feet.
I love the fact that my fairy evolved organically from
scraps of leather and found natural materials. I had a loose idea of what I
wanted to make at the start of the day but let the materials on offer and the
making techniques lead the design.
I didn’t manage to complete my fairy at the workshop but
have thoroughly enjoyed finishing her off each evening this week. My favourite
part of the whole process was working with such soft and richly coloured
leather. I also loved accessorising her and have got carried away with knitting
tiny leg warmers and weaving a
miniature scarf complete with pompoms.
