Where Inspiration Blooms

Where Inspiration Blooms Inspirational spaces, from where we run ceramics, arts, crafts and wellbeing workshops & courses.
(10)

The Studio in Holmer Green and The Pavilion in Penn Street, Amersham.

DAY 7 - A DATE FOR YOUR DIARYWell, I'm not sure how well my personal 7-day challenge went (seeing as it actually took ab...
10/11/2024

DAY 7 - A DATE FOR YOUR DIARY

Well, I'm not sure how well my personal 7-day challenge went (seeing as it actually took about 15 days to complete!!) but the good news is that our social media mojo did return, so I guess you could say it worked!!

Today, in response to some lovely emails and messages asking if we are actually planning to run any classes after mid- December as there's hardly anythung left on the website, a date for your diary!

Classes for Spring 2025 will be on the website, available to buy from 9am next Saturday, 16th November.

As well as our regular pottery classes, courses, and workshops, we will also have lots of lovely new classes and a couple of new artists and craftsfolk joining our teaching community.

It's going to be a very busy week getting everything live and spotting the inevitable typos and wrong venue errors!

The piccies featured today are pieces made by novice potters on our Play with Clay course, which in Sping '25 will be celebrating its 6th birthday!

Hope you have a lovely restful Sunday,

Jules & Caroline xx

  6 - PLEASE TELL US ABOUT YOUR EVENT...It's that time of year again, where our social media feeds are filling up with l...
08/11/2024

6 - PLEASE TELL US ABOUT YOUR EVENT...

It's that time of year again, where our social media feeds are filling up with lots of lovely craft fairs, events, and markets.

If you, like us, are having trouble keeping up with what's happening and when, then we've got a plan!

Last year, we compiled our favourite events into a blog post (which took HOURS of work creating visuals and putting them all in date order!), so for this year, we have a cunning time-saving plan.

Our community calendar has been very neglected of late, whilst we prep all of our 2025 classes, but we are dusting it off and hopefully filling it fuller than santa's sack with seasonal sensations.

If you're having an event/fayre/market, selling handmade goods at an event, are supporting a local event or simply know of a fabulous local indie business or charity event then please email us on the usual Jules and Caroline email address.

We will need
- an image to promote the event
- the date, day, venue and time
- a link for more info or to buy tickets
- anything else you think we can use to promote the event for you

We will start popping the events up as soon as we get 5 mins here and there, so please spread the word.. thank you x

PS if you want to make a donation to charity alongside submitting your event info, then we are collecting for

DAY 5 - TRYING TO LIFT THE MOOD!Today was a day best forgotten (for way too many reasons).We are both pretty devastated ...
06/11/2024

DAY 5 - TRYING TO LIFT THE MOOD!

Today was a day best forgotten (for way too many reasons).

We are both pretty devastated by the US election results and worried about what the next few years will bring, especially for women.

In an attempt to make ourselves feel better, we thought we would try to help make someone else feel better. (A tried and tested method for us both that usually works! 🤞).

We have decided to give away a pair of places on 2 of our upcoming workshops (where we knew we could squeeze in a couple of extra folk sharing a table).

The classes are Intro to Monet... an artists study in watercolour painting and Ceramic Houses.

If you and a family member or friend need a little pick me up for whatever reason, let us know below which of the workshops you would both like to come to. You just need to comment Monet or Houses (we don't need any other info). You can enter multiple times if you like by tagging different friends you would bring... it's up to you.

The Monet class is this Saturday, 9th November from 10am to 1pm, and Ceramic Houses is Saturday 16th November from 3.30-5.30pm.

These are the last 2 places left on ceramic houses this year, so all the more reason to enter! Deadline to enter is Thursday 7th at 9pm. We will randomly choose a winner for each workshop when we are together on Friday morning and let them know via a direct message. We will need to hear back from them by 6pm to let us know that they can come, or we will contact the next person on the list until the places are gone.

Hope you're all fairing OK today. Good luck, and we hope you might find a little joy from our workshops.

Lots of love, Caroline & Jules ###

DAY 3 - WANTED...CLOTH BAGS FOR FESTIVE FUNWe've just loaded our final festive class onto the website. It's a bit of a h...
01/11/2024

DAY 3 - WANTED...CLOTH BAGS FOR FESTIVE FUN

We've just loaded our final festive class onto the website. It's a bit of a hybrid class... think basic sewing skills meets Christmas recycling!

On the evening of 29th Nov, we will be joined by the lovely Sam from .sam who will be teaching us how to turn an old tired cloth bag (you know the ones that you sometimes get given for free or that you've inadvertently ended up with and now have their own drawer!) into a fabulously festive appliqué reusable gift bag.

Not only does this make us happy because its a fun upcycling project but we also love it because it's a great way to pick up a few basic sewing skills from our local expert.

You can find more info here
https://www.whereinspirationblooms.co.uk/product-page/upcycled-christmas-bags

If you can't make it or don't fancy it, but you have a stash of fabric bags just waiting for a new home, then we'd gladly take them off your hands... all donations very welcome 🙏

We've put a piccy of some 'before' bags in this post just in case you don't know which ones we mean.

Right off to start the weekend now!
Have a lovely evening 😊

Day 2 - 🌱GREEN FINGER NEWS🌱Whilst Jules has been attempting to get bike-fit (see previous post!), Caroline has been taki...
31/10/2024

Day 2 - 🌱GREEN FINGER NEWS🌱

Whilst Jules has been attempting to get bike-fit (see previous post!), Caroline has been taking her free time in a far more calming direction!

Caroline's passion for growing may have wained somewhat when we had the huge grounds at The Barn to maintain (it was a real hard slog keeping an acre under control and growing a fledgling business) but once the shackles were off her love of plants, planting, growing and gathering came back like a welcome old friend.

She's grown the most gorgeous dahlias this year (swipe left), which has been quite an achievement given the variable weather...plus... and this is a real tell tale sign for me...has gone back to photographing interesting, quirky and beautiful details that she sees on her morning cuppa garden strolls... look how wonderful the little coiled tendrils are!

Whilst most of us have only just begun the annual pruning and clearing garden jobs for winter, Caroline has already planted her seeds for next year both metaphorically and in real life.

From Spring '25, horticulture and beautiful blooms will make a joyful regular return to our workshops and classes at The Pavilion. Where Inspiration will bloom again under her expert green fingers as she shares her passion for, and extensive knowledge of, seasonal locally grown flowers.

I mean, who else do you know who loves the greenhouse so much that they've put up fairy lights in it? 🥰

Now, all we need to do is find a free day to actually put them online!

"The thing with posting on social media is that you need to be consistent" (I piously used to preach on my marketing wor...
28/10/2024

"The thing with posting on social media is that you need to be consistent" (I piously used to preach on my marketing workshops!)... but the reality of these things, especially as small business owners, is that sometimes you don't feel like it. 

You're busy... preparing, selling, teaching and clearing up from workshops, wading through the annual accounts whilst, loading and unloading the kilns, planning next term, sourcing 2nd hand wreath materials... you get the picture🤯

Then there's home and the eternal laundry mountain, meals to cook, football boots to scrub, lifts to drive, gardens to maintain....families with all their varying needs to support.

And that's before the elusive oasis of 'self-care' even gets a look in...

It's no wonder things like the creativity and social media mojo sometimes go astray.

But, with the start of half term comes a natural break in the routine and a renewed sense of sociability (plus we thought you may enjoy us sharing a wee bit of WIB news)

We've created our very own 7 days of news challenge, which we hope will keep us on track for the next week...join us if you fancy it ...

DAY 1 - THE BIKE SHOCKER - RARE FOOTAGE OF WOMAN ON BIKE

The pictured 51 year old 'cuddly' woman (photo deliberately chosen to avoid the side view😉) has been out on on a bicycle, not once but TWICE since August and in even more of a shock (probably to her more than anyone else!) she's enjoyed it both times.

Granted in this pic, she's borrowing a bike bought for her daughter when she was 11 (which strangely wasn't too small for our vertically challenged amateur velodrome athlete) but apparently the words "I think I like this" were uttered on more than one occasion. Sadly, however, for 2 consecutive days, they were followed by wincing every time she sat down on anything solid.

Any cyclists out there are keenly invited to offer support on undercarriage cushioning to avoid the shortest cycling career in history.

Watch this space....day 2 is a 'moggy missive with a marvellous ending' 🐈‍⬛


A quick post to welcome our newest teacher... super Sam Slater from .sam Sam is a top sewing bee, who we've known for qu...
15/10/2024

A quick post to welcome our newest teacher... super Sam Slater from .sam

Sam is a top sewing bee, who we've known for quite a few years now. She's a treasured member of our Monday Club community, a wonderful supporter of our business and a marvellous seamstress, who has mended and altered many a garment for both of us over the last couple of years.

She's extremely passionate about reducing the amount of clothing that goes into landfill and it's been really inspiring to watch her business go from strength to strength over the last couple of years.

But our highlight has to be the look of pure joy, accomplishment, and pride that we were privileged to have witnessed last Wednesday evening after Sam's first ever class teaching. Sam was literally buzzing, and it was so inspiring to see.

Sam's back teaching again this Wednesday evening in part 2 of her Basic Sewing Skills course (which sold out super quick so will definitely be running again early in 2025). She's also got 2 spots left on our Make Your Own Pj's one day intro to dressmaking this Saturday. It's a fab class where you'll learn how to make a pair of pyjama bottoms from pattern cutting right through to hemming...and then once you've mastered the art you can make pairs for the whole family.... or slouchy 'pants' or even shorts! It's a super versatile and fun pattern... not unlike the lady herself😉.

Please join us in welcoming Sam into the Where Inspiration Blooms community 🤗

Here' a link for more info if you'd like some.

https://www.whereinspirationblooms.co.uk/product-page/make-your-own-christmas-pyjamas

This Sunday, we will be celebrating the full turning of the wheel of the year with the last of our Framed Hedgerow Seaso...
03/10/2024

This Sunday, we will be celebrating the full turning of the wheel of the year with the last of our Framed Hedgerow Seasonal Papercutting workshops.

Twelve months ago, our lovely friend Stacey from began her seasonal stroll through the seasons with an intricate Autumnal design and this week as we reach the end of her immersive nature walk you can choose any of her 4 beautiful designs to cut and frame up.

This, as with all of Stacey's classes, will be a proper treat of an afternoon... calming, soothing, and nourishing. Just how we like our classes!

Which season is your favourite? Which one will you choose?

Confession...I've been utterly rubbish at doing posts since the start of term!Luckily, Caroline doesn't appear to have n...
28/09/2024

Confession...I've been utterly rubbish at doing posts since the start of term!

Luckily, Caroline doesn't appear to have noticed!!!

It's probably a bit short notice for most of you, but....we're at Shopping Marquee at today and tomorrow.

We've got a lovely selection of 'you know who's' ceramics (can't tag her or she'll spot this post!) Plus some seaweeds and acorny bits from me. We are spreading the word about our upcoming workshops.

The sun is shining and so far it's been lovely having time together. Just don't tell her about this post...it might ruin the vibe 😉...

Preparations are now very much underway for our wreath making week in December.  These beauties were picked by us from  ...
20/09/2024

Preparations are now very much underway for our wreath making week in December.

These beauties were picked by us from and are now drying in The Studio. We much prefer supporting local growers than buying in dried flowers from goodness knows where!

With 8 different dates, we are going to need a lot of embellishments... and especially because this year, we are dedicating a whole room at The Pavilion to them! I suspect we will be on here asking for donations of all sorts of random items over the coming weeks..but we really don't want to buy new and add to landfill. Sustainability is our secret weapon for the very best welcoming and positive energy door wreaths.

This year's classes will be held at The Pavilion (opposite the lovely pub in Penn Street, making it the perfect spot for a workshop with loved ones followed by either lunch or dinner!).

Don't forget to book your space as we spotted last night that a couple of dates have almost sold out.

Almost the weekend! HAPPY FRIDAY folks xx

Did you catch the scent of autumn yesterday in that breeze? I was merrily hanging a bed throw on the line (last mad rush...
18/09/2024

Did you catch the scent of autumn yesterday in that breeze? I was merrily hanging a bed throw on the line (last mad rush to get heavy things washed and dried before the sun loses its heat!) and I paused to take a good lug of that inbetweeny seasonal air. I've seen a lot of people on here calling this threshold point 'liminal'... such a gorgeous word, don't you think?

We may be about to head long into autumn, but before we dive in, we are determined to enjoy the final dance of summer.

This Friday, returns to The Pavilion to lead a full day of painting watercolour flowers (the class runs from 10am to 3pm). We will be celebrating the joy of flowers. There will be a huge bunch of beautiful seasonal locally grown blooms (from our gardens!) to study, or you are very welcome to bring your own. Zoe will expertly guide you through numerous watercolour techniques, but more importantly, she will show you how to capture the essence of your favourite blooms - the very epitomy of summer ☀️

This will be a day to really slow down and immerse yourself in the beauty of nature painting. By the end of the session, not only will you have a deeper appreciation for the natural beauty of flowers, but you will also have created stunning pieces of art that reflect your personal vision and creativity.

Please drop us a line if you'd like more info or there's a link in here.

https://www.whereinspirationblooms.co.uk/product-page/one-day-watercolour-flowers-workshop-with-zoe-duncan-autumn-24

As we continue our look at what's coming up in the new term we thought we would tell you a wee bit about our Monday Club...
28/08/2024

As we continue our look at what's coming up in the new term we thought we would tell you a wee bit about our Monday Club.

Founded 2 years ago in collaboration with , Monday Club was born out of a shared a passion to work alongside other likeminded people (who otherwise would be working from home or anonymously tapping away on laptops in local coffee shops) and create space for a group that was entirely devoid of a networky vibe.

Monday Club is our weekly co-working community of small business owners, artisan makers, and freelancers. Members come together at The Studio weekly for either ‘laptop’ based work or ‘creative making style’ work. Everyone has their own designated workspace, free hot and cold drinks, and both healthy snacks and delicious homemade cake.

What makes Monday Club unique is our 'connection break'. During this time, we take half an hour out to share a group activity. These are usually seasonal and include activities like going for a walk, a craft activity (we've done everything from ceramics to weaving), a shared lunch, meditation or journaling. Once a term, we also have an informal business session (sharing best practise on things like SEO, PR, advertising, IT, GDPR, etc).

It's a very welcoming and warm space from which we have seen some really nurturing and beautiful friendships grow over the last few years.

But don't just take our word for it...here's a few words from one of our current members 🥰

"Working for yourself or from home can be lonely, I’ve experienced it myself, and I hear it in my therapy room all this time. Monday Club is a breath of fresh air in terms of co-working spaces. It’s much more than that; it’s a community of wonderful women who come together each week to work and also to support each other. The weekly connection breaks have also reconnected me to creative parts of myself that I’d forgotten." 

 If you would be interested in finding out more then drop us an email or pop a comment and we can send you some more info.

Today's workshop in focus is a brand new class and a brand new teacher.  Join us on Saturday, 5th October, for an Intro ...
27/08/2024

Today's workshop in focus is a brand new class and a brand new teacher.

Join us on Saturday, 5th October, for an Intro to Raised Embroidery Techniques (no idea how I got those words to go so big, but I kinda like it, so I am keeping it!!).

In this 4 hour class, we will be learning a range of different stitches that create raised, textural effects that look like things you might see in our local ancient Chiltern woodlands.

The class will be led by Viki Jenkins, a Bucks-based artist, working under her artist name ‘Thread Meditations’

Viki exhibited with us for the first time this year, and we fell in love with her intricate and intuitively delicate work.

Embroidery has seen a huge renaissance in the last couple of years, which doesn't surprise us at all as it's such a relaxing and meditative craft... but also such a portable one. No longer the preserve of great auntie Beryl, there's been an explosion of really amazing embroidery artists laterly taking traditional stitches and techniques to create fabulous textured and nature inspired pieces. It was one of our top 5 predicted craft trends at the start of the year, too!

If you visit our stories today, we've shared a few of our favourite super inspirational embroidery feeds...

In our new class, the techniques Viki will be sharing can be adapted into beautiful textural woodland inspired pieces or with a teeny bit of imagination any embroidered surface (I think some would make a stunning fireworks embroidered piece!).

This class will be held at The Pavilion, so not only can you embroider beautiful woodland textures, but you can also look out onto them for perfect inspiration.

Over the next few days, we're going to be sharing with you some of our upcoming workshops for the autumn term.We're both...
26/08/2024

Over the next few days, we're going to be sharing with you some of our upcoming workshops for the autumn term.

We're both really excited about this term as for many reasons, it feels like a return to when we first started out at The Barn.

Caroline picks up her passion for promoting locally grown sustainable British blooms vs. shop bought flown-in flowers with workshops we've not had the opportunity to run for several years.

Jules is going back to teaching again instead of hiding behind her laptop.

And The Pavilion gives us a second space in which to really grow the wellbeing and nature based side of our little business. It's so good to feel that excited tummy flutter again!

Jackie Bennett is a teacher who we've been fortunate enough to work with for 2 years. We are both huge admirers of her work and have bought several of her exquisite birds as gifts and for ourselves in that time.

She's also a really gentle and patient mastercraftswoman whose attention to detail really has to be seen to be believed. Please check out her instagram page honestly you won't be disappointed!!

Jackie returns to us this October to teach a needlefelted owl workshop, which it just so happens I added to our website last night. We will only be running this once this term and have 10 spaces (with a wait list that will inevitably swallow up a few), so do book asap if you fancy this class. It's suitable for beginners too so no need to have done anything like this before.

Jackie will also be back at the end of November to teach 2 needlefelted decorations classes of very cute Christmas creatures!

You can find all the details on our website or in links in biog and here.

Happy Bank Holiday xx

Our thoughts are starting to turn towards the start of the academic year and our autumn term.Play with Clay is a 4 week ...
20/08/2024

Our thoughts are starting to turn towards the start of the academic year and our autumn term.

Play with Clay is a 4 week course that we have been running for over 6 years. It had a few variations in the first couple of years as we tweaked it, took things out, added things in, but since we moved to The Studio 2 years ago we think it's been pretty spot on.

The aim, of course, is to give beginners a really wide breadth of skills and techniques but also to give them 6 pieces of pottery that they have made entirely themselves that are both beautiful AND practical.

In weeks 1 to 3, our potters use hand building techniques (also known as slab building) to create plates, bowls, and either plant pots or vases. Then, in our final week, everyone glazes everything they've made.

It's only 4 weeks. but for anyone considering taking up ceramics, it offers a concise, well thought out, and structured introduction to this highly addictive hobby!

The other lovely thing about this class is how many people go on to try other forms of ceramics afterwards...some of our regular Studio potters starting out here and going on to either sell their artisan work locally or developing their styles producing some really amazing pieces for family and friends.
It's a really fun, relaxing and inspiring course... (even if we do say so ourselves!!!).

If you'd like more info, please drop us a line... or if you are a former alumni please add a comment below and let us know what you've been up to since you came on the course.

We ran our Grow Your Own Cut Flowers workshops from 2018 (when we first opened) until we left the Barn half way through ...
16/08/2024

We ran our Grow Your Own Cut Flowers workshops from 2018 (when we first opened) until we left the Barn half way through 2022 and for a long time we didn't think we would ever run one again...😥
..but then came The Pavilion 🥰.

Our very first class of the autumn term will be Beautiful Blooms, a jam-packed morning of picking beautiful seasonal flowers in The Walled Garden, learning how to arrange them into a hand tied bouquet, planting hardy annuals and chatting all things growing!

We are extremely grateful to our lovely neighbours for sharing their stunning garden harvest and hours of toil with us! It feels so good to be returning to our roots (sorry couldn't🤣 resist!!).

Huge thanks to everyone who booked onto a workshop yesterday or replied to our first newsletter in quite some time! We have 4 spots left on this workshop now, so if you do fancy joining us, I wouldn't leave it too long to book as it was super popular yesterday.

and if you can't make it, then do follow Ross as his feed is a cornucopia of floral loveliness.

A post today to share with you some of the lovely designs that our families of artists created yesterday at our Family C...
13/08/2024

A post today to share with you some of the lovely designs that our families of artists created yesterday at our Family Cyanotype workshop at The Pavilion. Such lovely groups and really, really wonderful to have grandparents with their grandchildren sharing the time together. I think we both felt incredibly privileged to be able to create and hold a space for that sharing to happen... it's one of the very best things about what we do.

But also a bit of a public statement (for me to keep a record and hold myself accountable) as I'm returning to doing regular teaching when term starts in September. 18 months ago, I got hit with a massive bout of anxiety, which, on more than one occasion, resulted in me throwing up in the loos at work pre embroidery and weaving classes. Not something to be proud of, but there you go. After a good dose of 'women's hormones for a certain age', some wise cortisol changes, extensive encouragement and understanding from and a recent deeply unwelcome but unavoidable new perspective on life (the sort that makes you wake up instantly and gives your entire world new energy and clarity) the anxiety has changed into something less debilitating and more of an old friend. She no longer makes me feel sick or looms like a storm on the horizon, instead she serves as a reminder of how important the space that we have created here is. How families can create really magic memories together at our classes, how people can make new friends on our weekly sessions, how folk can rediscover old passions for things they once loved and haven't done since school. So next time my old lady anxiety comes a knocking, I'm going to kindly welcome her in and use her as a reason to do my best to create a special space for our lovely guests.

If you've got this far reading, then sorry, and thanks! a bit self-indulgent today... but an important part of my journey to keep a record. Hope you have a really lovely day.

PS this is Jules!!

Address

The Studio, Featherbed Lane
Chartridge
HP156XQ

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 9pm
Tuesday 9am - 9pm
Wednesday 9am - 9pm
Thursday 9am - 10pm
Friday 9am - 10pm
Saturday 9am - 10pm
Sunday 9am - 9pm

Telephone

+447410611988

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Where Inspiration Blooms posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Where Inspiration Blooms:

Videos

Share