Eco Printing, campfires and stars...

Hello hello my lovelies,

It's been one busy summer and now, as the season turns it's face towards Autumn, all thoughts here at OSHQ start to revolve around Christmas preparations.

The festive soaps are well underway already and I'll do a separate post about these soon, but today I'd like to tell you a little about my other product stream, my Eco Printed range of silks and original art pieces. Eco printing is a technique to create a print from plants, leaves and flowers. Each one is unique and original, the colours and patterns cannot be replicated as the print is created from the pigments inside the plant materials themselves.

Laying out gathered Meadowsweet,
Copper Beech and Blackberry leaves onto the silks.

I've been extremely lucky to have just completed an artists residency up on the Northumberland fells at a beautiful spot in the remote region of Tarset, near Bellingham. 'Wild Northumbrian' are an eco friendly site providing very comfortable, off grid, luxurious camping accommodation in traditional yurts, tipi's and a handmade shepherd's hut. It's based inside the Northumberland Dark Sky park too, so the night skies were blimmin awsome!!

The View over the Northumbrian Fells.

My husband Phil from Scapeography was also resident and working on an ancient woodland photography project during our stay. It involved a lot of pre-dawn starts and tromping in the woods, then late night finishes gazing at the glorious plethora of visible stars in one of the darkest skies in the country...no bad way to spend your days eh? Check out his facebook page or Twitter account (@Scapeograph) for more details of his work and a peek behind the scenes at his current projects.

Our Sweet little Bothy through the Apple trees

During our stay, we had full run of the sweet handmade Polebarn Bothy, with a gorgeous log burner and fire pit to 'cook' my eco-prints over. I spent my days gathering local plant materials, attempting new dyeing techniques with plant materials I'd never used before and using off grid methods of heating so I had my work cut out.

Lichen can also be used as a dye,
I might have to try this one day too.

We were there for 4 days and I had quite a crowd at some times with lots of interest about how each print is made, what plants I've used and how each print is created, it was a learning curve for me as well as my visitors too as I don't tend to offer workshops or talks about my work (that's what comes of being a bit of a shy bird with a fear of crowds), but the wonderful feedback I received made me think I managed it quite well...PHEW!!

My kind of neighbors.

I'm delighted to say the dying and prints worked out well and I'm extra delighted with the (some surprisingly bright) results, see some of them below, what do you think?

These are both from Madder root,
such amazing colours!!

Silk bundles cooking on the stove.

Madder root in the pot, Wild Blackberry,
Copper Beech and Sycamore leaves leaving their
 ghosts on the silk.

Eucalyptus and Oak leaves give a strong
and colourful print.

This little guy kept a close eye on the activities.

Finished Scarves, cushions and mounted prints
 displayed in our Polebarn Bothy during our stay.

 As I type I'm soaking the 30+ prints I made during our stay, so I'll add more images once they are fully finished, dried and pressed. The scarves etc will be available to buy direct from my events, my studio and if I get a chance...from the website too...watch this space.

Huge thanks to the fantastic Rob and Vicky at 'Wild Northumbrian Tipi's and Yurts' for the use of their beautiful site for this project during our stay. The Yurts, Tipi's and Shepherd's huts are available to book via their website www.wildnorthumbrian.co.uk, so if you fancy a taste of off grid, luxury camping, go check them out and book a stay, you'll want to move in...we did :)))

I'd love to hear what you think about the scarves and eco printing as I love to make them, feel free to leave a comment below.


TTFN and until next time xx

Love,
Ceri x

Our little sneak away...

Well, it's been a pretty busy start to the year so far, I can't complain, but sometimes...just sometimes...I need the odd bit of down time to recharge the batteries and refresh my brain so I can come up with oodles of new goodies for you, my wonderful customers.

Last weekend, we were lucky enough to be able to go and stay in a Mongolian Yurt at Wild Northumbrian, a beautiful little haven of tranquillity, way up on the moors just outside Kielder Forest in the Northumberland National Park.

The surrounding Northumberland moors, such a gorgeous setting!

Our incredibly cosy home for a few days was 'Brock Yurt' a 16ft traditional Mongolian tent, settled next to a babbling stream within a little woodland clearing in a meadow...bliss!

Brock Yurt

We arrived on a sunny Sunday March afternoon and were very keen to go exploring. It was our 4th visit, but we'd not seen the delightful 'Brock' before. After unloading our car and winding through the free range ducks and hens, we found our way over the meadow and settled in to our gorgeous little hideaway.

That afternoon we had a stroll up to Sidwood approx a mile away, up the track and into the very edge of Kielder forest. We found an unexplored track (for us) that climbed up over the crest of a hill, to a stunning view over to 'Black Middens' a Bastle house dating back to the bloody battles of the Border Rievers. The sun kindly decided to show up again, this was the view!!

Black Middens Bastle House.

After winding our way back down the track to our little haven, we decided to get a camp fire lit in the handmade fire pit, it was starting to get pretty chilly by now and we were getting hungry, so we were very grateful of all the logs and kindling left for us inside the Yurt, We soon got a good blaze going to cook our tea on.

As the light was fading fast, we lit up the candles inside too, doesn't it look so pretty! Once the log burner was going inside, it was really toasty too. No need for the lovely hot water bottles (provided).

So Cosy...I want to move in!!

During the night, we listened to owls, deer and the stream twinkling away to us which was extremely relaxing and comforting out in the wilds. We even had a decent sleep...which for me is a rarity!!

The next morning, I was hoping to be brave enough to test the outdoor Bush Shower, just along from the Yurt...but I'm afraid to say, it was just too chilly a morning for me...and it was raining, so we hopped up to the shower block instead for the luxury of underfloor heating and warmth, sorry Rob & Vic, I promised myself I would too, maybe next time ;) x

Our Aussie Bush shower, with special cupboard for your smalls.

Eco friendly compost loo (left) and bush shower (right)

The next morning we decided to go adventuring up to Kielder Water to explore the North side of the reservoir, so off we went in the car, picnic packed...forgetting the hot chocolate (my fault!!).

We chose a route from the 'Shepherd's Walks' taking in the lakeside, sculptures and a forest track and had a really lovely day, and quite a challenging walk, Despite hail and more rain, we headed back with smiling faces, we were well prepared with woolies, waterproofs, warm boots and lots of layers, just without a warm drink.

Secluded inlet at Kielder Water.

Love the texture and colours in this tree stump.

Beautiful Lichen

Nature taking over

Beautiful Kielder Forest.

Stone textures...these colours really shone, despite the rain.

Robin & Freya's Hut.

To reward ourselves for our efforts, we headed off to The Hollybush Inn, a 300 year old coaching inn, just a mile from our Yurt...I think we'd exhausted ourselves too much to campfire cook that night! Besides we felt we'd earnt a pint of local brew by that stage, and some hearty grub.


Heading back to our cosy yurt, we were looking forward to a snuggly night infront of the log burner again, and it lived up to expectations again, lighting with only 1 match!


We'd hoped to take some Dark Sky photographs while we were here but the clouds were against us this time, Guess we'll just have to come back for a 5th visit sometime...

Our beautiful real tree bed!! Feather pillows and duck down duvet too...BLISS!!

A gorgeous Spring welcome awaited us...we had some beautiful, colourful ducky eggs too, but had scoffed them by this point, sorry x

Our little kitchen area...better equipped than home!

The beautiful handmade door...with hatch.

I wish we could have stayed longer, but I'm sure we'll be back again. If you get the chance to visit...DO IT!!  You need to experience it at least once to know the real rural beauty of this fabulous place, and the gorgeously helpful and generous people who run it all. 

Until next time peeps,

TTFN xx