I remember Mum & Dad's lounge back in the 70's (it's just a hazy memory of course!). Through the dusky purple hues & pine furniture, I can see the yucca plant, the Fleetwood Mac - Rumours album cover on top of the record player, and there, in all its glory, the oversized glass bottle in pride of place. (I learnt this week that these vessels are called carboys). Take a closer look, and inside it revealed a miniature woodland world, ferns, moss and vibrant green spiky plants. Wherever we moved, and we did this quite a lot when I was younger, this terrarium would always take up its new designated place before other essentials!
Now, I've never been particularly green fingered. Suzi is not much better. In fact, if I'm really truthful, we've probably managed to kill a few plants. Quickly by over-watering, or slowly through neglect. But we want to be better! And one of our projects this year is to make our yard look a little more green and planty. Last week we had a rare Saturday off. We'd seen a terrarium workshop advertised at the amazing Egg Factory (more of this space later). We signed up, and our friends Sarah & Jimi came along too. Sally from Kingfisher Flowers was leading us through the world of terrariums, and gave us loads of advice and tips. She is a wonderful local flower grower and floral artist too. Sally had brought along an array of succulents, ferns, and moss for us to use. And also tiny creatures and people if we wanted to create worlds for them!
Some of us brought along our own glassware, and I started with a flour/sugar shaker that used to be my Grandma's. I absolutely love the design. Being a Christmas fan, it does remind me of ice and snow flakes, so I decided to go with this theme.
First, we added a layer of pebbles and a bit of moss, this collects the water drainage.
And then a layer of soil, all ready for planting. We made a little space for whatever we wanted to plant, and so started the process! Some had an idea of what the finished world should look like, and some went with how their inspiration took them. Jimi was busy creating 'Rabbit Wood' and Suzi was inspired to craft 'Wonderland'.
Our friend Sarah was terraring (an official term) along! First she created an amazing cabbage patch with succulents, and then moved onto her masterpiece, 'Tea Time in the Amazon'.
I was just loving being in such a creative space, being inspired, having good chats, and being served half time toast and tea, perfection! My 'Last Christmas' came along slowly but surely, and I airdropped the deer family in with a pair of tweezers, and started to surround them with icy rocks and moss.
The workshop was coming to an end, and we all brought our terrariums up to a viewing table where lots of oooohs and ahhhs were to be heard! There were some great titles - Land of the Giant Sheep, Apple of my Eye, Thing in a Bottle, and Elvis Lost in Paradise.
When me and Suzi got home, we were talking about how we crave these creative days. We always leave feeling fired up and inspired. And the Egg Factory is the perfect space to do this kind of thing! They have created a wonderful space, where you don't feel out of place if you just want to try your hand at something, or if you're already on your journey and want to use the fab facilities, it's the perfect hub. We've used it a couple of times now for shoots, and we love it, the thinking behind the space, and the folk who are there. It's great they're just round the corner.
So now, we are planning a new shelf to house our newly created worlds! I feel we've redeemed ourselves a little in the world of gardening and plants, and maybe we do have green fingers after all.
