scotland – HooperHart

Winter 2025

October 26, 2025November 21, 2025 Hooperhart

The clocks have gone back and yet again the arrival of winter has taken me by surprise!

It’s been such a busy few months already with new stockists, new products, and winter events to prepare for, which this year are starting EARLY!

You can now find my dioramas, cards and accessories in 3 lovely venues on the Scottish coast – The Beehive in the East Neuk of Fife, Hilde Gallery in East Lothian, and Gallery 48 on the Black Isle. I’ve recently introduced 4 new coastal dioramas to the range, so this has been an ideal development!

This summer I finally stopped procrastinating about going down the greetings cards route (no time to sit down and work out the designs, let alone find a reliable/affordable printer). However, thanks to my studio buddy Alison Price I discovered Redcliffe Imaging and finally did it! The response has been brilliant, and I really wish I had done it sooner. My designs work really well in this format (just a touch bigger than actual size), and I think they are very much appealing to folk who like my work but might not be able afford to buy an original. Plus it’s a great way of getting my work seen by a wider audience…so better late than never!

Now, onto the winter events:

I was very honoured to be invited to show my work at Artful 2025. This exhibition showcases work from some extremely talented UK and international artists, all housed in the beautiful Callendar House, Falkirk. Entry is free and the exhibition runs until January 11th, 2026.

The lovely folk at Made In Stirling have also invited me back for another Winter Market:

This 2 month market starts on November 2nd and runs until January 3rd, 2026 and is a great place to find gorgeous gifts this winter, all made in Scotland.

Now, onto my in-person events!

Kicking off with a big one! Two days at the fabulous Aberdeen Art Gallery with the tremendous Tea Green

Always a pleasure to take part in, you can a truly phenomenal collection of Scotland’s best artists, makers and designers. If you can’t make it to Aberdeen, I will also be at the beautiful Burrell Collection in Glasgow on Saturday, November 8th ONLY.

On Saturday, November 15th you can find me at Strathearn Arts in Crieff – my first time at this venue, and I am very much looking forward to the hot chocolate and homebaking!

My final in-person event of the season will be the winter weekend extravaganza at our studios in Creative Exchange, Perth – a fun one to end on!

Hope to see you at one of these events but remember if you can’t buy from me in person this year, I will be stocking up my online Folksy shop the week beginning December 8th. And you can always drop me a message through Instagram and Facebook.

Ta ta for now!

Cal x

Long Hot Summer

July 19, 2025July 19, 2025 Hooperhart

It’s been an extremely hot and sticky few months in the studio, with lots of grumbling about the lack of rain and air conditioning! As much as I love the sun it doesn’t make creative endeavours particularly easy, and there’s been no let-up in prepping for this summer’s events…for some reason I always fool myself into thinking the summertime will be relatively relaxed but it never seems to work out that way.

Below are the places and events you can find me/my work this summer:

Made in Stirling

The Made in Stirling Summer Market runs until Sunday, August 31st; I’ve mentioned before that M.I.S. is one of my favourite indie shops, stocking a huge array of gorgeous art, craft and design from Stirlingshire makers. Twice a year they invite makers from all over Scotland to join them for a few months and I was was very happy to be asked back this year! Open every day 10am – 5pm.

Perthshire Open Studios Summer Show

This is the second year I’ve taken part in the POS Summer Show – running until Sunday, August 3rd it is held in the lovely location of the Civic Hall at no. 2 High Street, Perth, down by the mighty River Tay. It’s a great opportunity to see an array of artists’ work in a single location, giving you a taster of the main Open Studios event in September. Open from 10am until 5pm every day, the event is manned by the artists themselves.

Tea Green at The Burrell Collection & Aberdeen Art Gallery

I’m very much looking forward to being back at the glorious Burrell Collection in Glasgow in two weeks’ time, followed by Aberdeen Art Gallery two weeks after that. Organised by Tea Green Events, these fairs showcase the very best of Scottish artists, makers and designers in absolutely stunning locations so offer a grand day out! You can find me at the Burrell on Saturday, August 2nd, and Aberdeen Art Gallery on Saturday, August 16th. Both are free and open from 10am-5pm.

There’s a slim chance I might have a mini break before Perthshire Open Studios starts on September 6th, although that is very dependent on if I can get a number of projects I have planned suitably nailed by then! More on that another time…

So I hope you can make it to one or more of these lovely events – they’re always a good way to support local creatives and the local economy! I just have to avoid spending all my profits while I’m there…

Back soon with more new work, but in the meantime, TTFN!

Cal

image credits: Made In Stirling, Ceri White, Tea Green, Aberdeen Art Gallery, Hufton & Crow

Winter Events 2024

October 24, 2024October 29, 2024 Hooperhart

So once again time has befuddled me and we are somehow on the cusp of the clocks going back and being plunged into darkness once again. Yes, it’s late October and the busy season is just around the corner, so I’m going to cut to the chase and let you know where you can find me and my work in person this winter.

Tea Green at the Burrell Collection:

On November 9th & 10th I will be returning to the glorious Burrell Collection in Glasgow with Tea Green Events which are always top notch, showcasing the best of Scotland creative talent. Open 10-5, free entry.

Something Different For Christmas:

Another Perthshire one, this time in our nearest village, the delighful Dunning! It’s a special occasion, being SDFC’s 25th and sadly FINAL year, so you will not get another chance to visit this lovely, twinkly, super festive event. Doors open at 11.30am on Sunday, November 17th at Dunning Village Hall, Perthshire.

Creative Exchange Winter Market:

Creative Exchange in Perth is where I spend most of my time – home to my studio share and my part-time job! The winter market will showcase work from super-talented creatives from Perthshire and beyond. PLUS there will be an Open Studios event where you can find, among others, my sibling Ceri White and my studio buddy Ali Price. Not only that – there will be mulled wine AND a pop-up cafe! It’s a great building and a hub of activity so this will be a really enjoyable event.

You can find me there on November 30th & December 1st, 10am-4pm.

The Briggait Winter Market:

Back to Glasgow for my second WASPS event, this time at the beautiful Briggait. There’s been a major refurb and development of the Briggait’s Clydeside Market Halls which is due to be unveiled imminently – another reason to stop by on the market weekend of December 7th & 8th. Doors open 11am – 5pm.

Made in Stirling Christmas Market:

For those who live somewhere in between Perthshire and Glasgow, there’s the Made in Stirling Christmas Market, which runs for 2 months starting on November 4th.

Hope to see you at one of these events but remember if you can’t buy from me in person this year, I will be stocking up my online shops Folksy the week beginning December 9th. And you can always drop me a message through Instagram and Facebook.

Ta ta for now!

Cal x

Made in Stirling, The Burrell Collection and Perthshire Open Studios

July 28, 2024October 27, 2024 Hooperhart

It’s been a whirlwind few months with loads going on over the summer in life and art! But for now I just wanted to tell you about a few events I’m participating in, already in progress and on the horizon.

The Made in Stirling Summer Market is ongoing until August 31st; M.I.S. is one of my favourite indie shops, stocking a huge array of gorgeous art, craft and design from the Stirlingshire area. They also provide workshops and creative experiences for the local community, creating a unique and vibrant space bang in the centre fo Stirling. Twice a year they invite makers from all over Scotland to participate in their summer and winter events, and I was very happy to be asked this year to get involved!

On this coming Saturday, August 3rd you can find me at the beautiful Burrell Collection in Glasgow with Tea Green Events, which I am super excited about! I’ve spent many hours happily wandering through this incredible building, and I’m looking forward to seeing what they’ve done with the place since its recent refurbishment. Tea Green events are always top notch so this should be a grand day out! Open 10-5, free entry.

Then at the end of August we have the mighty Perthshire Open Studios – this will be my second year taking part in POS and again you can find me at home in the wooden workshop. It’s a great opportunity to buy/see my new work and pieces I’m currently working on, as well as experiments and discounted items I won’t be selling anywhere else. It’s a chance to meet lots of artists, designers and craftspeople and to find out how they do what they do. And it’s a really fun way to explore corners of Perthshire which you might not see otherwise!

Due to other work commitments I will only be opening Fri/Sat/Sun this year but I will be back with all the details before the big event.

Click through the images below for a flavour of last year’s P.O.S. at HooperHart Headquarters:

TTFN!

Cal

Image credits: Made in Stirling and Hufton & Crow

Strange Days

April 6, 2020September 8, 2022 Hooperhart

So we’re about to enter our third week of lockdown in the UK.

There’s a sentence I wasn’t expecting to write!

Full disclosure: my daily routine really hasn’t changed due to already living an extremely quiet, solitary (if you don’t count the dog and the husband) existence in the countryside, mostly making things and going for walks. I’m very fortunate in that regard. So this blog post is not going to be about how daily life has changed beyond all recognition. I feel for all the people who’s world has been turned upside down by this current crisis, most of all those who have succumbed to the virus, and their families who are dealing with a personal tragedy amid the chaos. I think about the NHS and frontline workers, the parents, the carers, the people who are struggling to make ends meet until funds come through (if they come through). The small business owners who could lose everything they’ve worked so hard for. Here’s hoping life can return to relative normality soon before too much more damage is done.

For me, the first few days of lockdown were spent keeping my head down, avoiding listening to news reports and distracting myself with making, making, making. Firmly staying put in my happy place. But slowly I started to feel like I was unravelling slightly; I could no longer concentrate on anything, hours would go by and nothing would be achieved. My little workroom is stuffed with wood, cut and ready to go, so why can’t I just get on and do it? Every day I venture in there with good intentions and every day ends without being any further forward. An awful lot of time is spent gazing out of the window, wondering when the lambs are going to finally join us, or thinking about the raised veg beds we’ve been planning to build. But then I feel guilty about having a nice garden and views while so many people don’t. I’ve been wildly veering from feeling happily oblivious, to feeling so angry at the world. But these are trivial concerns in these dark days.

With regards to keeping things going with my business…I’m constantly questioning whether to post out orders from my online shops because I don’t want to add to the postal service’s problems with non-essential items, but I also don’t want my income to dry up completely. But then, are people even spending money on non-essential items? I’ve kept my Etsy and Folksy shops open otherwise it really would feel like there’s no point in making anything! Anyway, this blog post is much more of a downer than I was intending, so I will finish with what I have managed to produce since the start of this craziness – a wee range of completely unique printed wooden necklaces!

They are available from the Folksy shop (incidentally the folk at Folksy have been very lovely and featured a lot of my work a lot of late, which has cheered me up no end) and can be posted via the letterbox rather than the post office. But then some poor postie’s workload still gets added to…oh, I don’t know!

I think I’ll end on a positive note – a picture of Rudy surveying his domain…and looking a bit feral (but aren’t we all these days)

Thanks for reading and stay safe x

New Beginnings

June 11, 2019September 8, 2022 Hooperhart

We’re now halfway through June which means it’s been 6 months since I last wrote a blog entry!! Okay, it has been a busy 6 months with lots of life changes but still – 6 months!! So I thought I’d do a very quick one so it doesn’t look like I’ve abandoned it completely 🙂

So we moved to country (and closer to the coast – yay!)

This is a photo from one of our dog walking routes nearby our house. I would have definitely have described Rudy as a ‘townie’ but he’s getting used to the sheep, cows and lack of pavements. At first it was a big re-adjustment for both of us after a bit of a traumatic move full of doubt and regret (long story), but after a couple of weeks out here I realised just how stressed and tense I’d felt for the past five years, and how much more laid back about everything I am now. The idea was to simplify our lives and relax more and so far we’re on the right track (and it’s amazing how being near the water has a profoundly calming effect).

Thanks to the previous tenants’ hard work we have a really beautiful, fully-formed garden which makes glancing out of the window a very happy experience (oh, and I’ve just noticed the ‘cuckoo’s spit’ in this photo – it’s reminded me that I must go to www.brc.ac.uk and record my sightings just in case Xylella fastidiosa spreads to the UK).

Well, I told you this was going to be a quick entry! It’s time to feed then walk the dog, although it won’t be in weather this alas…I’ll be back soon, however, to fill you in on some new work I’ve been making and where I’ll be exhibiting and selling this summer. TTFN 🙂

My favourite month

September 29, 2018September 8, 2022 Hooperhart

Well, I think we can safely say that autumn has definitely arrived in central Scotland: the temperature has dropped, the leaves are turning, and darkness descends at a frighteningly early hour. The end of summer seemed to happen strangely quickly this year, and an Indian Summer looks like it’s off the cards. Despite all that, there’s something about September that I really love, even though it signifies the end of summer and the beginning of the long dark winter to come.

It’s a month for wrapping yourself in cosy knitwear, going for long walks amidst a kaleidoscope of colour, and coming home to a glass of sherry in front of a crackling fire…or in my reality it means donning waterproof trousers, traipsing along muddy pathways with the dog and coming home to spend half an hour cleaning said dog and draping dirty towels over the radiators! Either way, there is a certain atmosphere about the autumn which has long been a source of inspiration for creative types, and as a result I’ve been making a few items in warm, autumnal colours to mark the change in the seasons.

To see all my work currently available, click on the link in the top right hand corner or go to my ‘Shop’ page.

So here’s to a happy, cosy few months ahead, and I’ll leave you with one of my favourite photographs of the afore-mentioned dog, Rudy (aka Mr Biscuits), looking all autumnal…

Maggie’s Penguin Parade

August 7, 2018September 8, 2022 Hooperhart

Earlier this year I was over the moon to have a design accepted for Maggie’s Penguin Parade – a fantastic public art event taking place in Dundee and Tayside this summer. Myself and seventy-odd other artists were sponsored by local companies to realise our designs on giant fibreglass penguins which were to be dotted around the Dundee area before being auctioned off to raise money for Maggie’s Centre. Maggie’s Centre provides practical, social and emotional support for people with cancer and costs £540,000 per year to run. The aim of the Penguin Parade is to keep Maggie’s doors open for a year.

I don’t know anyone who has not experienced the devastating effect of cancer can have on their own lives or those of friends and family. It is so vital for organisations like Maggie’s to keep going so they can continue to make a crucial difference to people’s lives when they are at their most vulnerable. The Penguin Parade has been organised in partnership with Wild in Art who have staged some incredible events across the globe and helped raised an enormous amount of funds for charitable causes.

My design (chosen by my sponsor Thornton’s Law ) is called ‘Penguin Classic’ and is based on one of the iconic Penguin Books book jacket designs. I chose Ernest Hemingway’s ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ – a tale of endurance which seemed to fit with Dundee’s history and maritime heritage.

One of the lovely things about being involved with this project has been seeing all the wonderful pictures on social media of the public engaging with the Penguins and joining in the ‘Penguin Hunt’; some have actually managed to find all 80 penguins which is very dedicated! When I was there I only spotted about 10 but it was a bit of a flying visit…!

Waddle in Wonderland by Joanne MacFadyen

I was completely blown away by the intricate detail and creativity of so many of the designs! The artists have realised their designs with so much love, talent and care, it’s just a wonderful thing to see. You can see all of the designs on Maggie’s Penguin Parade website but really you should make the trip to Dundee if you can to see them in all their glory! The penguins are on the streets until September 7th 2018 before the grand auction will send them off to their forever homes.

Before I go I just want to share some of my favourite shots I’ve seen of Ernest from Instagram – click on the images for the larger version:

Thanks very much Maggie’s Penguin Parade, Thornton’s Law, and the people of Dundee!

Northern Lights

June 12, 2018September 8, 2022 Hooperhart

Our unusually long heatwave seems to have come to end today – for the first time in about a month I did the dog walk wearing a cagoule this morning! However, the fact that it’s grey and cloudy outside means it’s perfect blog-writing conditions, and I really want to tell you about my recent trip to Aberdeen 🙂 Back in January I was invited by a lovely wee establishment called Teasel and Tweed to be their June Maker of the Month; an absolute treasure trove stocking a huge variety of beautiful art and craft (all made in Scotland), Teasel and Tweed seemed like a good place to showcase my work so I jumped at the chance.

All my dioramas feel like my ‘babies’ and a lot of time and care goes into making each one, which makes me nervous about sending them out in the wild indefinitely on a sale or return basis! This is why the Maker of the Month is the perfect concept for someone like me who has a relatively small output of limited edition work – it’s like having a mini solo exhibition, and it gave me something to work towards especially at a quieter time of year when it can be easy to lose focus a little bit. Check out the Teasel and Tweed website and blog for more pictures and info here

It’s been a long time (20 years!) since I visited Aberdeen; I actually lived there for a couple of years once upon a time between school and college (for the first couple of months in a caravan park on the outskirts of the city which was fun as it was the summertime – we moved into a flat before the North East winter hit). My dad came from Aberdeen and my sister attended art school there so there were always connections. Having grown up in bang in the middle of Central Scotland it was a novelty living in a city by the sea, and I remember one summer evening a group of us decided to go to the beach to watch the sun come up…turned out not to be like in the movies as being on the North Sea coast we near froze to death!

While there recently I took a walk along the beach, stopped at one of the beach cafés for lunch, and continued on to Footdee at the south end of beach by the harbour.

If you’ve never been to Footdee (Fittie to the locals) it’s a very cute little enclave made up of squares of terraced houses with quirky sheds and huts in the middle of each square. Originally a fishing village, it gained conservation status in the 1960s and it has now become one of the most expensive areas of Aberdeen to buy property – changed days from when I lived in the city in the 1990s! Nestled beside the busy and very industrial working harbour, it wasn’t seen as hugely desirable back then, but then you could buy a flat in Aberdeen for about £20,000 so…anyway, definitely worth a visit.

Well it’s now lunchtime and the sun has come out (yay!), which means it’s time to round up the terriers for their walk round the park. Thanks for reading and remember to check out Teasel and Tweed online and in the flesh if you can!

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