The house and gardens of Port Eliot are extremely ancient. Lived in for over 1000 years, the estate is still family owned by the Earl and Countess of St Germans. For the last 12 years they have opened up their magnificent house and vast country estate, which stretches down to a secret estuary on the river Tamar for 4 days of music, literature, fashion, art and craft. Not to mention some pretty impressive food & drink. Having previously been to Port Eliot Festival as a general fan and punter, this year we rolled up our shirtsleeves, donned our white aprons and took part in our own (and first) paper flower workshop.
We were invited by the Hole & Corner magazine, a magazine devoted to celebrating craft, passion, and skill to take part in their craft workshops.
The pages of the magazine literally came alive in their brilliantly orchestrated Hole and Corner tent, complete with bespoke wooden benches and tables by Benchmark. Festival goers signed up and got their creative hands dirty, other keen observer's simply sipped a flat white and sat on a hay bale as they watched the workshops take shape!
In partnership with Affinity with Plymouth University over the 4-day event, the aim was to nurture and celebrate the beauty of hand crafted products. A series of free workshops and talks took place from several artisans whose materials range from Wood, Leather, Ceramic and Paper. That’s where we came in.
Thankfully the sunny weather was on our side unusual for the normal British festival weather, rain and paper; do not make a happy marriage!
We undertook two separate workshops, one on Saturday morning and the other on Sunday afternoon. The results were really impressive, only matched by the passion and enthusiasm of those taking part. It was quite humbling to witness those that signed up for the workshop to get so stuck in and produce some really creative hand painted flowers. The feedback was fantastic from everyone who took part. The paper workshop’s were to last an hour, but evidently as people got absorbed into their making the classes went on a lot longer.
Congratulations to everyone who took part in the Zoe Bradley paper flower workshop and to Hole & Corner for hosting us in their craft tent and of course to the St Germans of Port Eliot for another truly inspiring festival.
We have since had numerous emails from those that created their first ever paper flower to say what a great experience it all was, and when can they purchase the templates!
Remember to tag @zbdesign on twitter and @zoebradleydesign on facebook and instagram with your paper floral creations.
@Hole_and_Corner
@affinityplym
@PortEliotFest