The first rule of Craft Club is...

TALK ABOUT CRAFT CLUB

The second rule of CRAFT CLUB is..... you see where I'm going with this right?

This week I went to a training session for Craft Club, this organisation is all about championing Craft in schools, galleries, libraries, community centres and anywhere else that will bring people together in there love of trying something new. 

The session gave a great insight into something which I think should be part of the school curriculum anyway,  doing crafts encompasses a huge number of skills and helps with co ordination and concentration.

The training day was hosted by Jessica Worley a textile artist, with a special speaker of Deirdre Nelson who discussed her recent community projects. 

The actual day was very hands on and interactive, we did some finger knitting which Craft Club use as a good introduction to craft for everyone. We also made some knitted fish which linked back to the community projects of Deirdre, I think knitting fish may now become a small obsession. 

This was a wonderful, inspiring and creative day and I now have a head buzzing with ways to bring this to my local area and my Daughters school. I hope more people join this cause and help pass on their skills to a generation which seem to have missed out on these gentle arts.

If you would like to sign up as a volunteer or want more information the link is here 

And remember, the first rule of Craft Club is talk about it.....  lets get this organisation known about.

Thank you, Amanda.x.

A bit of a show, and some crafty business.

April has been full of mayhem, making and madness. On bank holiday Monday while my Hubby and children were playing in the sunshine,  I had a stall at Rheged Discovery Centre Food and Gift fair. I've not done a fair for a long time and was very jittery about this one, having been told it should be very busy. However that was not the case, I don't know if it was the lack of advertising and communication from the centre or the good weather but it was very quite, and not just for me but for all the stallholders. Below is my table for the event.

 

It was such a shame the event was quite as the level of the artists was amazing, below is 

Weft Studio which is an independant gallery and studio, they had a display of all their 

crafters work.

Then my other neighbour at the event was Jenny Lockwood Designs, as a seasoned fair trader her display cases put my stand to shame. 

I especially liked her tea holder birds, and ceramic bunting. 

She'll be at the Country Living Fair later in the year and is definitely a "next big thing".

One stand which really stood out at the fair was Rachel Gaw Jewellery, it was mostly resin pieces and so funky, full of sparkles and funk. A must for any Alternative girl wanting to make a statement.The love heart necklace and sugar mice were my favourites.

The other stall to pull me in was K.A.H Ceramics, her stand was full of beautiful yet 

simple designs.  

Well made, functional and yet so stylish, I loved her vases covered with product labels and the bird feeder bowls. With their cute Owl and bird designs, I wouldn't be surprised to see them in a magazine soon.

So although a bit of bad day for making money and missing out on family time, I did meet some lovely makers and chatted to plenty of(hopefully)would be customers.

Thanks for reading, your comments as always are welcome.

Amanda.x.

I don't believe it

I can't believe I forgot to publish this post, my post mummy brain must be in meltdown, here goes.

I was featured in a magazine, Make Jewellery Issue 5, in an article about hair accessories, it kinda makes me feel validated but more sales would do that quicker, ha.

They featured my new silk flowered hairband which is on sale in either of my shops,


and these 3 pretty hair pinsand because I'd love to see more of my pretty stuff out there I'm giving this set away through the magazine, click here, to enter.

Good Luck, hope someone nice wins, it would be great if it was someone in blogland.
Snowflake.x.

Argh, a plague on my house.

While we were on holiday we had to deal with Josh(2) having just had chicken pox, so was a bit grumpy; he did spring back by the end of the week, only for this older brother Ben(4) to get the pox on the Thursday & spend the last couple of days on the sofa watching Ben 10 and trying not to pull his own skin off.
Although we felt really sorry for them it was hard to know how to deal with kids that ill because our Maisie(3) never seems to show illness, she's had weird rashes, major ear infections with burst ear drums, bad head colds but the most she's shown for them was a crappy nights sleep, but then it happened...she got the pox, argh.

Now in a way I'm quite glad she got it now before starting school but it was a real shock to see our live wire little girl knocked out like this, we had 3 days where all she had was 3 spots & was a bit grumpy, then we woke to find her covered & she spent 2 days on the sofa sleeping for hours at a time & covering her in Chamomile lotion in between.
All of this brings me to what do you then do when they feel a little better but you can't leave the house, because nothing is more boring to a child than their own toys and mothers company, then I remembered the little felting kit we bought from Twist Fibre at Woolfest.
We had bought a flower brooch kit which contains everything you need for 6 brooches, but unfortunately doesn't contain extra calm necessary to complete the whole task with a very knackered mummy & over emotional little girl, so we did some felting experiments, there's no finished products yet as they're still drying, I'll blog about them later, but I'd recommend felting to any bored households during this boring (none)summer holidays, its messy enough to be fun & you may get some very strange but fun accessories too.


We also made cakes, for the post illness recovery.
They seem to have done the trick.
We just have to wait and see if Lucas get pox now.

Snowflake.x.