Christmas Party

On Thursday SAF held its Christmas party at the home of Kathryn Pettitt and there was a fine turnout despite the icy weather. All members brought their savoury contribution to the feast and it seemed a lot of us had the same idea of something with smoked salmon – but this went down well with Kathryn’s punch.

Stephanie admires the Pettitt balls

The main art speak amongst members was the ‘School of Saatchi’ TV programme – the X factor for artists. Most agreed that Eugenie’s ‘found object’ a tree trunk impaled on a set of railings looked good in the Hermitage gallery setting but that Matt Clark who made the caravan was probably the better artist. One member did say thoough that the railings thing had already been done before - but what hasn't? Check it out - Nervosi

SAF is hoping for an even more eventful year in 2010 – plans for an even larger Art Trail are already underway and in January several of our members are looking forward to fill in a few hours working with Solihull Library Gallery on a new group project. Jackie Mackay

Malt Kiln Farm Fair

On Saturday having packed all my glass in the car, we got up early and headed off to Stretton under Fosse to the Malt Kiln Farm Shop where I had been invited to take part in a craft fair. The farm shop is well worth a visit if you are out that way. It sells its home produced meat and has a range of other goods and frozen foods you might expect to find. It was also selling Christmas trees and had a green house full of plants. There is a restaurant which produces full meals as well as cakes and pies and seems to attract a lunch crowd.

There were about a dozen stalls, of mixed items. Most appeared to be hand made although some had more bought in components than others. I would guess that most people who came to the farm shop came round the stalls. I had planned this fair as a publicity excursion rather than an opportunity to sell lots but as it happened I did very well, and the balance for the day was very similar to the much larger event I did two weeks ago.

There was an added bonus to the day. I sent Tony out into the village to look for a news paper and he came back with a business card for the Old Forge Art Gallery and instructions to take some glass up to show them. I did this later in the day and the owner agreed to discuss with his business partner whether they could provide a table and display some glass. In the meantime he took a couple of smaller pieces which they could fit somewhere to see what the interest was. There was an interesting way of charging for this service but I will see how it works out - Hilary Poole