Art, Design & Innovation at Hatfield House

After a successful show last year we were pleased to return to 'Hatfield House' to present our new silver and gold jewellery designs at the 'Art, Design & Innovation Show' mounted by Living Crafts.

This is the largest show of its kind in Europe, attracting tens of thousands of visitors each year and is an event not to be missed. Literally hundreds of craftsmen and women from all corners of the British Isles come to show their work.

The Living Crafts show has traditionally been held on parkland in front of the grand stately home known as 'Hatfield House' – a beautiful setting. This year we moved to a new purpose built area just a couple of minutes walk away from the main house which enabled us to take all the elements of this superb event and rearrange them to give the best possible experience! The additional space allowed us to provide the widest ever variety of lectures, hands-on workshops, spectacular demonstrations and outdoor entertainment for all ages.

Some of the featured events and workshops are listed below and the weekend proved to be a great success:

- 'Painting with light' experience
- Collagraph print workshop
- Drawing masterclasses
- Pyrography workshop
- Wildlife artists' workshop
- Jewellery making studio
- Watercolour lectures
- Working ceramics studio
- Pottery workshops

Opportunities were made available for visitors to participate in the following activities gaining valuable hands on experience:

- Silk painting
- Raku firing
- Willow weaving
- Using a potters wheel

There were also interesting talks on Nelson & the craftwork on HMS Victory, how to glaze your own pottery, upholstery demonstrations, glassblowing demonstrations, costume design workshops for children and talks and workshops on puppetry.

Hatfield House and its beautiful West Garden were only a short walk away and admission to the famous West Garden was included with the entrance ticket to the show. In these beautiful surroundings close to the Old Palace, childhood home to Elizabeth I, visitors enjoyed the 17th Century scented garden, the herb garden and the knot garden. The adjoining wilderness areas were certainly at their best during this year's Living Crafts show with masses of naturalized daffodils in brilliant sunshine throughout the entire weekend!