Festive baking

I spent an evening this week baking enough Christmas cookies to sink a ship (or host a Finishing School Christmas party).  If you’d like to have a go at making your own, here’s my nan’s recipe.  You might want to kit yourself out with a nice set of cookie cutters before you start and these vintage metal ones I found on Etsy are absolutely perfect.  The Cakes, Cookies and Craft Shop also do a great set in the shape of Christmas baubles.

Preparation time: 20 minutes – or more if you’re singing along to a Christmas compilation
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Total time: 30 minutes – or more if you’re like me and get carried away and baking several batches!
Makes: 25 gingerbread figures

Ingredients
125g unsalted butter
100g dark muscovado sugar
4 tbsp golden syrup
325g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamonMethod
Preheat the oven to 170°C, gas mark 3. Line baking trays with baking paper. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a medium saucepan, stirring occasionally, then remove from the heat.
Sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger into a bowl and stir the melted ingredients into the dry ingredients to make a stiff dough.
Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and roll to a thickness of about 5mm. Dip biscuit cutters into flour before cutting the dough. Place the shapes onto the lined baking trays and bake, in batches, for 9-10 minutes until light golden brown.
Remove from the oven. While still warm, and using a skewer or chopstick, make any holes that you will need to hang up the biscuits with ribbon or to make a yuletide garland. If you are decorating your Christmas cake with gingerbread people, make the holes in their arms so that ribbon can be threaded through at a later stage.
When completely cool, decorate with the icing. The gingerbread biscuits can be stored in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

And for the finishing touches: Writing Icing; sweets; sparkles; and ribbon.

Tags: Christmas, Craft, decorations, handmade

Printmaking

Here are some statistics from Finishing School’s lesson in lino-cutting and fabric printing night that took place at our brand new venue the Island Queen on 26th October.

Teacher = 1.  East London printmaker Catherine Walsh was on hand to suggest block carving techniques and provide design inspiration for all.  Head over to her webpage for details of her upcoming classes if you want to hone your skills further.

Attendees = just the right number (to allow for elbow room and no arguments over paint rollers).

Injuries = 2.  There are many dangers in this world and it turns out that lino cutting is one of them.  For other crafting dangers click here (at your peril).

Plasters used = 8.  Gougers are sharp, kids.

Litres of fabric paint = 1.5.  The messiest session so far!

Successful nights = 1.  Everyone took home a tea towel and tote bag decorated with their own stamp (or a stamp nabbed from another student as everyone had such great ideas it was a shame not to share!).  Check out our flickr for more pictures of the evening.

Thanks to everyone who turned up and had a go at creating some really original prints.  I went out the following day and purchased my own set of tools from a lovely art shop in Clerkenwell and I know for a fact that Atlantis Arts does a good range of lino so that’s Christmas sorted then.

If you had as much fun as we did (or frustratingly missed out on space this time) do keep a keen eye on our facebook page and our events page for details of November’s session.  See you soon x

Tags: art, Craft, event, handmade, paint, textiles

Needle felting

Finishing School lesson three (needle felting) was a great success thanks to Susanna Wallis and, of course, our ever-expanding band of eager students.Thanks to everyone who turned up and vented their frustrations by repeatedly stabbing a tiny ball of wool. I’m sure it was 90% creativity, 10% therapy for most!

There were some really interesting creations from tiny teacups, to felty-beads to badges featuring all manner of animal, vegetable and robot.

We had such a great time and hope you did too.  Actually, we’ve heard that many of you have caught the needle felting bug and are pursuing your own projects with the materials we sent you away with.  This is really exciting and, of course, what Finishing School is all about.  Feel free to bring in/wear/show off any finished trinkets at our next session!  And, if you’re after more wool or needles – or any other textile craft odds’n'ends for that matter – you might want to check out Susanna’s recommendations of the Handweaver’s Studio (which opens the doors to its charming new premises on 140 Seven Sisters Road, N7 7NS on 21 August) and Wingham Wool.

As usual, keep an eye on our facebook page and our events page for photos of the evening and details of September’s session.

See you next time!

Tags: Craft, felting, handmade, jewellry

Wee Birdy

I apologise in advance for this rather self-centred post, however we really wanted to take a moment to thank the glorious and wonderful Wee Birdy for writing a great feature about crafts in London and including us! Wee Birdy is one of my real must-read blogs, full of pretty things and stuff to spend my money on, and I can only encourage you to all add it to your RSS readers.

The post also features some other great crafty happenings, so please head over and check it out, and then part with some cash and support some fantastic people doing things far more professionally than we do!

To anyone who found us via the article, a big hello! and don’t be scared to come down and say hi at the next event (Needle felting! 4th August!) as we’re a friendly bunch who are all about meeting new people and making new friends (as well as the wine of course).

Tags: press, wee birdy

Making a mark

What a fantastic evening! Finishing School was bursting with eager artists at our second lesson: life drawing.  Louise Reade managed to calm us down, suppress the giggles and get us to focus on making that first mark and loosening up our personal interpretations of the human body, helped by our superb model Steven Wheeler.  It’s clear that Finishing School is home to quite a bit of talent.  It was also great for those of us who have limited drawing ability as Louise had a real knack of coaxing something ‘interesting’ out of everybody through the group drawing tasks.

I’ve added a few of our creations here, more photos and news can be found on our Facebook group.  I’ve also asked Fiona nicely if she could make another slideshow of images from our Flickr page.

Thanks to everyone for putting up with the heat – we promise to keep the doors open at all future events that don’t include a naked model…  Thanks also to the staff at the William IV for allowing us to bring together what could have been a rather dangerous combination of nudity, red wine and sharp pencils in a controlled environment!  If Finishing School has inspired you, Broken Arted answers many of the questions posed during the class (including what to do with the rude bits).

Keep an eye on our events page for clues to our next Finishing School event in August.  Whether it’s flower arranging, car maintenance or French lessons, we look forward to seeing you there.

Tags: art, drawing

First knots

I want to start with a massive thank you to everyone who came to our first Finishing School, and to everyone that said nice words and encouraged us to go ahead with it. Extra special thanks to Catherine for teaching 15 slightly tipsy women to crochet.

After an afternoon of last minute nerves it was incredible to see the event come together. The staff at the William IV were wonderful, getting us set up and then coming back to take food and drinks orders. As soon as Catherine took over I think we all knew we were in safe hands.

It’s fair to say that we were a group of pretty mixed abilities but whilst very few of us started the night knowing anything about crochet, most of us went away fairly confident we could give it a bash. We started with practicing the main simple stitches, and then the slightly more advanced group (which I definitely wasn’t part of) broke off for an intensive crochet flower making session whilst the rest of us finished our food and wine.

I had an incredible evening, with great company, and was able to take away a new skill (I have since even managed to crochet a slightly wonky flower).  I really hope everyone else who attended felt the same way and can definitely confirm that we have another evening up our sleeve for next month, so stick July 14th in your diary!

As always photos and news can also be found on our Facebook group and we’re ready for any and all suggestions about what to do next. (That’s another thank you, thank you for so many great suggestions and offers of help)

Tags: crochet, event

The start

I guess I should start at… well, the start. There are two factors that led to the creation of Finishing School:

1. I know a lot of girls in London. Some from work, some from uni, some via my boyfriend and housemates and some from all manner of other places; but I don’t know many of them very well.  A few other people have mentioned they are in a similar position, a phone full of acquaintances but not many friends with whom they could enjoy afternoon tea or a bottle of wine. Conclusion: Making friends in London can be hard.

2. I am also hopeless at crafts. I recently took up sewing and in the 6 months since buying a sewing machine have managed one and a half skirts. “Hopeless, but enamored” might be an even better description. I can spend hours and hours browsing Etsy and marveling at the things others create and I’d much rather spend my money paying them for unique things that no-one else is wearing, than I would for the overpriced, over-worn ware that Topshop has to offer. But I can’t help wondering if it be even better if I had the skills to do some of the simple things myself… Oh, to be able to crochet a vintage-look collar, or make my own feather fascinator!

Combine these two things, add the skills of housemate and super-friend Becky, and Finishing School is born.  Who doesn’t like a glass of wine after work on a Tuesday, a bit of a gossip and the chance to learn something new? I mean, really!?