Eighteen makers came together for the fourth annual Thetford Open Studios event during Heritage Open Days week.
This year, the event moved to a new venue, the Howlett Room at Thetford Methodist Church, which offered more space for both makers and visitors. More than 700 people came through the doors, enjoying the opportunity to meet the makers, see them in action and discover more about their work.
The range of artisan work on display included copper jewellery, original artwork, woodturning, willow weaving, textiles and honey and beeswax products. Organised by Leaping Hare CIC, the event was supported by a grant from …forThetford.
Speaking about the event, Corinne Fulford from Leaping Hare said: “The response was wonderful. Our new venue gave us room to bring more artists and makers together, but what really made the five days special was seeing so many people stop, talk, ask questions and get genuinely interested in how things are made.”
A steady stream of visitors enjoyed discovering how the work on display was created, with some taking the opportunity to have a go themselves while others enjoyed demonstrations throughout the day.
“It’s not often you get to have a go at making a wooden bowl,” one visitor exclaimed. “I didn’t think I’d be doing this,” they added as they were guided by woodcarver Faye Jones.
Faye learnt to make spoons more than ten years ago and has since developed her practice to include woodcarving, teaching, natural dyeing and textile work.
“Dyeing has led me to weaving; it’s all tree-related, as my dyes are from parts of the tree, such as bark. I’m now experimenting with developing my dyes into wood stains,” she explained.
Spinning Saturday proved particularly popular, with visitors trying their hand at a traditional spinning wheel and being given a whistle-stop demonstration of how fleece is spun, plied and turned into yarn by the ladies who spin at Ancient House, with Christine Sanderson of Hullabaloo.
Emily Chapman followed the success of last year’s painting, A Walk With Dave, by working on the third in her Thetford series – this time focusing on Thetford Market.
“I love painting Thetford; there’s a lot of different types of architecture and stone, and I like adding modern life on top of that. I have a soft spot for markets. Anywhere that can hold onto its market is worth celebrating. It’s a wonderful thing to maintain.”
For visitors, seeing Emily work provided a unique connection with the new painting.
“I can’t wait to see how it looks finished. It’s great to be able to say that I saw Emily painting it,” one visitor commented.
When a visitor mentioned to Emily that Simon, whose stall is featured and is very popular with market-goers, had been on the market for many years, Emily announced that she would make sure she included him in the painting.
Julie Eagle of Jeagle began by creating mobiles from stones and flotsam and jetsam. What started as a hobby to support her mental health during lockdown has developed into a body of work that includes pocket worlds in small tins, featuring quotes from Shakespeare, alongside a host of tiny houses created on everything from antique spirit levels to French drawers.
“I’m always interested in architecture; scale and detail is important. I like to imagine living in the tiny world I create.”
Gill Thornton demonstrated her multi-layered linocut printing process using traditional hard lino. Starting with a kit brought by her son-in-law one Christmas, Gill’s interest really took off during lockdown.
Visitors were able to learn how to prepare and roll the ink before transferring it onto the lino and printing one of the layers.
“I didn’t realise there were so many different layers to the print,” said one participant. “I really enjoyed seeing the image build up each time another layer was added. It’s magic!”
