Talking about the The Clangers on BBC Radio Cumbria

So, do you remember the Clangers?  If you are around my age..... how old??..... you might well do.

They are bringing them back for new episodes in 2015.

The Clangers were little knitted fellows, with very large pointy noses and odd little waistcoats.

On Tuesday I got a phone call from BBC Radio Cumbria from one of the producers. Was I free to go into the studio and make a Clanger?   Oh, sure, I can do that........ em, what was I thinking?

Tuesday evening was spent trying to come up with something that was easy enough to do a quick demo to the studio cameras, yet that actually looked Clanger like.

The obvious would be to knit the Clanger, after all, the ones in the original series were all knitted.  But knitting takes time, and there just wasn't enough to get one done.

A quick trip around Hobbycraft found me some gorgeous soft pink fleece in Clanger colour, and the idea formed to make a Clanger puppet.

He actually came to life quite quickly in the end.  I made one, worked out the bits needed to make him better, re-cut the fabric and made a second, didn't like it so went back to the first and finished him off.

I will be sharing the pattern soon, so you can make your own - watch out for it on this blog  :)

So, at the studios I was half prepared with cut-outs and patterns and trimmings.  And Kevin Fernihough, the presenter from BBC Radio Cumbria got to work making a little waistcoat for the Clanger.

You can listen to the interview HERE at around 38:00 mins in  :)

In the meantime, why not watch an old episode and bring back the childhood memories.

Enjoy  :)

Making Paper Snowflakes at BBC Radio Cumbria

Yesterday I was invited to go along to the studios at BBC Radio Cumbria and talk about "papercraft".

Now, as you may already know, papercraft is so not my thing, my mantra is "I don't do papercraft", so this was a little out of my comfort zone.

However..... I can make paper snowflakes, and they are papercraft, right?

So paper snowflakes it would be.

Armed with a large black mountboard from Hobbycraft....

........  and some gorgeous papers from a scrap pack that only costs TWO shiny pounds, also from Hobbycraft I got to work the evening before, preparing some snowflakes for display.

Folding and cutting, chopping and turning.... I am almost scared to admit that I was actually enjoying this.... (NO!, I don't DO papercraft)

The next day, with a few colourful paper snowflakes glued to the board I set off.  It was windy and I had to walk across this bridge......

With an A1 mountboard that was basically a sail, what a job it was to stay in one place, I must have looked a right character staggering about all over the place while the board made that 'wobble board' noise attracting even more attention.

But I got there. Blew my nose hard, for a have a nasty cold and I really didn't want to sneeze on live radio, and got to work being interviewed while chopping up bits of paper.

Kevin Fernihough, (aka Fern), made a practise snowflake and then a really pretty one out of gorgeous Indian paper (also available from HC but only in stores) which I stuck right in the middle of the display board.

If you want to listen to the interview, you can find it on the link below. There are three separate segments, the first one at around 50:00, then again at 01:12:00 and the final part at 01:25:00.  Please excuse my sniffles.

LISTEN HERE.

And if you want to make your own paper snowflake, you can find the video tutorial of me making one below, filmed by BBC Radio Cumbria.

Hope you have fun  :)