The Barony Project Team

The Barony Exhibition Centre Development Plans

The Gallery West Kilbride

New West Kilbride Crafters

Bryony Ausdahl, 'Bryony Designs', Studio Happy Hills, 121-125 Main Street. KA23 9AR. Tel: 07724 241967 Email: bryonydesigns@googlemail.com
Web: www.bryonydesigns.comshopping.officelive.com

Bryony lives in West Kilbride and her lovely jewellery has been a hit with the town's residents for some time now - she has built up a reputation over several years as one of our best selling jewellers in the W.K. Initiative Centre. It was this success that partly inspired Bryony to take the next step and establish her own studio workshop in the craft town, which is open a minimum of Thursday, Friday & Saturday.

Bryony was born and raised in Northern Ireland, and from a very early age the creative process was always at the centre of family life. Bryony's father George designed and handcrafted acoustic guitars and, together with her mother Flo, built that creativity into the George Lowden Guitar Company.

Bryony continues to focus on these traditional values of individual creativity, attention to detail, and the finest materials in every piece of jewellery that she makes. Jewellery began as just a hobby, grew into a passion, and remains at the heart of everything Bryony designs.

Global source: Global care
Materials for Bryony's jewellery come from all over the world. Bryony's inspiration also has global influence, drawn from experience living in many far-flung places. Due in part to her background in Relief and Development, and also to her faith, a continuing value for Bryony is to be a global citizen and to give from what she has to some of the most needy and most forgotten peoples on the planet.

For this reason a percentage of the income from Bryony's business will be donated to various projects that support widows and orphans in third world countries.

Individual: Inspiration
For Bryony, part of the thrill of creating a piece of jewellery is knowing that there is that one person who will enjoy it and wear it. Therefore, Bryony's designs come with that one person in mind. These aren't one out of a hundred thousand, machine made trinkets. They are handcrafted individual pieces, for an individual.

Often Bryony's inspiration comes from women she knows who have their own individual style and beauty. "I worked out very early on that if I pictured one of these women while I worked, then I often ended up with a much better design". In addition Bryony also credits nature, foreign cultures, and biblical descriptions of heaven as her inspiration.

Eileen Bell, 'McHattie', Studio Happy Hills, 121-125 Main Street. KA23
Tel: +44(0)7885402872 Email: mchattie@happyhills.co.uk
Web: www.happyhills.co.uk (coming soon!)

Eileen lives in Seamill and has supported the craft town by volunteering in The Gallery since its launch in 2005. An active member of the West Kilbride Knitting Circle, Eileen has been a health care professional for over twenty years.

Eileen's passion for her craft was sparked on the day her attention was caught by a wonderfully vibrant item knitted by a friend. A subsequent shopping trip saw her chance upon a stockist of the wool she had admired. Eileen bought some and went home to try her hand at knitting - from that moment Eileen has been 'hooked'.

Eileen has always approached developing new skills and techniques with enthusiasm and as a result has achieved a very high level of skill as a hand-knitter within a relatively short period of time. Over the course of a few years she has graduated from following basic patterns, to following more demanding patterns and finally to adapting patterns to create her own designs.

"I began to get more and more requests from friends, who then recommended me to their friends and soon every available space in my house was being taken over by my wool and knitting! The next logical step for me was to launch my own label - I'm really pleased to be joining the other crafters in the West Kilbride studio workshops".

Eileen's most recent departure has seen her making felted fashion accessories using wool from specialist designers. This top of the range Cascade yarn is 100% wool specifically made for felting.

Using another range of exclusive designer yarns from Collinette, which include 100% wool, 100% silk and 70% mohair mix, Eileen produces exquisitely made and finished garments, fashion accessories and finishing touches for the home.

Eileen is as happy to discuss bespoke orders as she is to work to a range of other designs - whatever the colour or texture, whether it's a felted tea cosy or beautifully knitted evening wear, personal service and attention to detail are guaranteed. Eileen is available at Happy Hills a minimum of Thursday, Friday & Saturday.


Lilith Green, 'Old Maiden Aunt', Studio 99b Main Street, KA23
Email: info@oldmaidenaunt.com Web: www.oldmaidenaunt.com

Lilith Green brings a wealth of experience as a crafter of the highest calibre. Lilith's craft business, "Old Maiden Aunt" is well established and has a truly International client base, with orders placed by private customers from as far a field as the USA, Europe and the Scandinavian countries.

Lilith also supplies yarns to several well-established outlets, including K1 Yarns Knitting Boutique in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Owner, Katharine Walker, is a passionate knitter and has an obsession with seeking out the most beautiful and unique yarns for knitters and crocheters who crave something different. Kathryn has described Lilith as "the genius behind Old Maiden Aunt yarns, one of our best selling Scottish brands!" Lilith lives in Saltcoats but is originally from Canada.

Lilith says:
"All yarn available for purchase in the Old Maiden Aunt shop has been either hand painted or hand spun (& often both!) in Scotland. The mill-spun base yarn for my hand paints is as ethically sourced as possible, and is processed at mills local to where the fibre is produced - UK-breed wool is milled in the UK, and the exotic blends are milled at their source in South America, with a portion of the money going to the Mirasol Project. The hand spun yarn is spun by myself on a lovely majacraft little gem wheel, from ethically sourced fibres which are also hand-dyed by me! I work from my small studio in West Kilbride which is open to the public Wednesdays to Saturdays, 12-4pm.

For the most part, I dye my yarns either as single, one-off skeins, or in small batches of 2-3 skeins per colour way. If you see something you like it's best to snap it up - it might be the only one of its kind, it might not be repeated! I do keep a record of the dyeing process for each skein that I make, so if you're desperate for a colour way I may be able to reproduce it for you. I'm also happy to discuss custom colour way requests if customers have something specific in mind."

Lilith is delighted to have her own workspace, she has achieved her success to date whilst working from her kitchen at home! Lilith intends to introduce workshops for the public, where she will tutor you in the art of hand-dying!

Studio Moves

Virgil Bauzys, Hastingwood Basket Works, Studio 30, Ritchie Street, KA23 9AL. Tel: 01294 829012 Email: enquiries@hastingwoodbasketworks.com
Web: www.hastingwoodbasketworks.com

Virgil and Alison Bauzys had been in Studio 99b for 4 and a half years, having come to West Kilbride from England - although Virgil learned his basket-weaving trade in his native country of Lithuania. Building up their business over twenty years, demand for Virgil's baskets meant they had outgrown the small space in Main Street. Virgil and Alison moved studio workshop at the end of October and now operate from the much larger space in Studio 30 Ritchie Street. Open Tuesday to Saturday 9am till 5am

Susan Roberts, 'Heart of Glass', Studio Happy Hills, 121-125 Main Street, KA23 9AR. Tel: 07769 718591 Email: suse@heartofglassstudio.co.uk
Web: www.heartofglassstudio.co.uk

Susan had worked in Studio 30 Ritchie Street, originally designed as a shared space, for over 2 years. Creating wonderfully luminous and colourful glass mosaics, leaded glasswork and fused glass, Susan won a UK Skills Challenge Gold Award. To enable Virgil to take advantage of the larger studio space, Susan kindly relocated to one of the new studio workshops in Happy Hills at the beginning of November. Open a minimum of Thursday to Saturday 10am to 4pm.