Happy New Year to you!
Hi there, welcome to my first newsletter of 2024!
I’m going to be keeping this very brief-unusual for me!
I had a lovely Xmas, spending time with friends and family relaxing at home with special visitors.
Then ‘twixmas’ came and I was hit with an awful illness which turned into an infection on my right lung. But after a course of steroids, and then antibiotics I’m finally on the mend three weeks later.
So not the best start to a new year, but some time for rest and reflection and to start planning things for the year ahead.
During the first new class of the year, ‘Beginner's 3-week Mosaics’, starting last week on a cold but bright winter afternoon, no one particularly noticed as the night drew in around us. But I think a lovely thing to reflect is that by the time we get to week 3, everyone will be leaving in daylight! Spring will be with us soon. Promise!!!
Following on from my student exhibition at Leigh Town Council in November, I’ve finally been able to go through the public votes placed in the box for the favourite piece/s. I’ll be honest, it wasn’t brimming, seems the community centre is a busy place but there isn’t a lot of lingering space so maybe this affected the votes. However, I thought the most democratic way to culminate and collate these was using an online voting wheel- you enter all the comments, give it a spin and it selects the ‘winner’. Although I want to add all of you who took part are obviously winners to me, and centrally I had lovely feedback from the council on the quality and look of the work and exhibition. Anyway the winners of a £5 mosaic voucher each are Liz King for her Pohutukawa Tree (which I can never pronounce, much to her amusement and astonishment) and the randomly chosen voter was Tracy Spurgeon - it just goes to show, you have to be ‘in it to win it’! Congratulations to you both. |
New Website
Many of my regular students, and possibly some of my one-off bookings, will already know that I’ve been finding my WordPress website’s functionality challenging for some time. So, a new one is coming soon!
I’ll be honest, I’d much rather be making mosaics and cutting glass but I’ve been working on moving all of my data over to a new provider. It’s very time consuming but the principal aim is that booking workshops should become seamless and I will have more control over the content, and I’ve learnt loads.
Ultimately, it will make booking workshops far easier for everyone and require far less manual input on my part, allowing me more time to improve my workshops and make more mosaics. Hopefully it should go live at some point in February. You can be sure I’ll let you know when its ready, as I’ll want you to let me know what you think of it.
I’m also busy preparing My next workshop at Hyde Hall is Mosaic Hearts on Saturday 3rd February click this button to book, there was only one space left when I checked this week.
Out and About
Life has seemed so busy since last September, I’m starting to crave a visit to London to take in some galleries and exhibitions…if anyone has any suggestions or recommendations, I’d love to hear them, please drop me a message with your ideas.
The Essex Open has come down from our local gallery, The Beecroft Southend, but another great show has just gone up and I recommend a visit, Steve Whittle, who I had the pleasure of working with many years ago when there was a Westcliff Art Trail, so if you have time and fancy a visit, find out more by clicking the button below;
Finally, I just wanted to thank you all for your continued support with my small business, from your word of mouth to sharing my posts on socials, attending my workshops and classes to buying my mosaics, I am truly grateful for all you do.