Portobello Craft Fair - May 2nd 2009

I have survived to craft another day!  I'm back home now, exhausted, with a much needed cup of tea, and can reflect on today's craft fair... .

First of all, travelling on the buses with all my 'stuff' worked out fine (with Marc's help - thank you so much!) and we made it to the venue just after 9am to set up for the fair starting at 10am.  It took me a full hour to set up (shaky hands not helping!) and I was feeling pretty nervous.

Here I am working the 'scared rabbit' look.  I'm wearing a craft fair vendor apron that I made with a great pattern from downthestreet on Etsy - and it was really useful today, with lots of helpful pockets and a zip compartment for money.

It took about 3 hours for my hands to stop shaking!!

So, by 10am I had pretty much finished setting up, and the layout worked really well (thanks again for the advice everyone!).  I felt I had enough height but not too much, and all the colours looked pretty against the black background.

Then the doors opened, and the crowds flooded in eager with anticipation!!  Um, well, not quite, but there was a steady flow (sometimes more of a trickle) of people, and I actually found that the 6 hours passed pretty quickly.

I had folded a lot of origami cranes, and had them sitting around on the table - they were a big hit with all the children that passed by, and I gave them away to anyone who wanted one - cute wee chiyogami paper cranes are hard to resist! (Portobello's crane population has increased exponentially tonight!)

I also decided to work on some kumihimo braiding at my table, partly to soothe my shaking hands, but also because I thought people would be interested to see an unusual craft, and to see how I make some of my items.  The braiding got a lot of interest - the repetitive movements seemed to hypnotise a few people (!) - with lots of older visitors reminiscing about 'rats' tails' and 'french knitting' that their mothers taught them when they were little.

In situ!

I had a good table position not too near the doors, and I was surrounded on either side by very friendly fellow crafters, who also helped me to feel more at ease.

Deciding 'how to sell' is always difficult.  I didn't take 'The Apprentice' route (I'm really not that hungry for a sale :P ), and my approach was to let people take their time and not to pressure them - doing the braiding was a good conversation starter and people naturally took an interest in it.

I found it really fascinating to see how different people approached my table - and there were all sorts.  Some just walked straight past without even a glance.  Others gave a cursory look, others came and looked closely at my items.  Of those, some people were incredibly delicate and careful, gently touching the necklaces and putting them back in exactly the same place, whereas others poked and prodded and left items all over the place!  It was also fascinating to hear the comments people were making, either to each other or directly to me.  I've never heard so many different nuances of the word 'unusual'!  Pretty much everyone who looked at my items used that word - some with a wrinkle of the nose and 'hmm, yes, that's, um.... unusual' and others seemed to love the colours and textures and gave a pleasing 'ooh how unusual! '.  I also got some pretty frank constructive criticism from a few people which was interesting, and helped me to see my necklaces in a different way, giving me some ideas for how to develop in the future.

In general though I would say the response was positive, with people particularly liking the round brooches and kumihimo bracelets.  It was also really nice when a few friends popped in for moral support (thanks guys!).  My wee Moo business cards also went down a treat - lots and lots of people took one, so hopefully they will be encouraged to check out my online shop, my Flickr, or even my blog (hello there!).

So, down to sales.  Well, Alan Sugar would be showing me the door - but I did manage to achieve my goal of at least making back the table fee for the event.  There didn't seem to be much buying or selling happening for anyone all day, so I didn't feel too bad that I hadn't managed to sell everything!

All in all, I would say the day fulfilled my expectations - it was really interesting to hear people's comments, and to have the experience of selling face-to-face.  I have to say having my Etsy shop feels a lot easier now in comparison!  I did find it all quite nerve-wracking, but I'm sure that would get better if I did it again.  All the Edinburgh craft fairs are fully booked for jewellery for the rest of the year though - so maybe I'll give it another go in 2010!

Thank you~!

Hi :)

I just wanted to say thank you so much to everyone, both on and off my blog, who has given me such helpful and much appreciated advice in the build up to my craft fair.

I'm pretty much all organised (I think!) so was able to take some time out today (my 30th birthday!) to climb up Arthur's Seat here in Edinburgh.  The sun came out just as I reached the top!

A view of the castle and city centre from the top:

It was pretty windy, but I managed to have a cup of tea and some birthday cake :D

Oh, if only it were possible to have a cup of tea that big...

So, all set for tomorrow... I'll let you know how it goes!

Craft fair planning...

On Sunday I had a run-through of my table layout for my forthcoming craft fair (less than a month away, argh!).  Having made the requisite lists :D I thought I'd have a go, to see what still needs to be done.

I've also been planning how exactly to get my stuff to the fair, as I don't have a car.  Current plan is bus, suitcase and rucksack!  My plan is to take all my items inside their wee boxes, to protect them.  This is quite good as it means I can pack them inside cardboard boxes that I will then be using for display purposes (see below photo on the right - I'll cover the box in black felt and plan to do a neater job than this on the day!).  Height and interest are two things I'm aiming for for my table - I don't want it to be flat and boring!

So, the items I've decided to show are:  fibre art cards, kumihimo bracelets and earrings, and my felted, embroidered and beaded brooches and necklaces.  The table at the fair is 6ft, but my kitchen table is only 4ft, so I know I'll have a bit more room to play with on the day.

It was difficult to decide how to display my greetings cards - should I have them all laid out, all  in a box, or half and half?  I think I'm preferring the half-and-half idea at the moment - saves some space but also allows people to get a better look at the cards.

In the middle of the table are the necklaces - some in boxes and some out of boxes.  Down at the front are my yummy Moo minicards.  I tried several different layouts, but this is my favourite at the moment.

And on the right hand side are the kumihimo bracelets and earrings, and some more brooches.  The brooches are on a picture frame sitting in a plate stand, covered in black felt - which again I will do more neatly on the day!

I quite like the 'wheel' layout for the bracelets.  My only concern is that people won't know what they are!

So here's my planned layout to date - I was surprised that I managed to fill the space!

What I still need to do is make a wee banner with my shop name on it for the front of the table, and wee labels for the different groups of items saying what they are and their price.  I think I will also have a small table mirror so people can try on the necklaces and brooches and see what they look like.

There will be more room on the table on the day, so I think I'll have another felt-covered cardboard box to display more brooches, and there'll be more room for necklaces.  Now I just need to get down to making more brooches and necklaces!

So, what do you think?  Does the bracelet 'wheel' work?  Any ideas for the greetings cards?  Do the kumihimo earrings look ok just laid out on the table top?  Any comments or advice gratefully received :D 

Thank you~!

Nature, spirit and craft...

I'm very excited today as Jude from ilikelichenblog has posted an interview with me in her series of conversations on nature, spirit and craft!  Check out her blog to read other interviews in the series too.

Jude and I found out about each other though Flickr, when she contacted me and asked if I'd like to participate in her series.  I was very honoured, and found the questions fascinating.  I love nature, and I love crafts, so it was really a great pleasure to have the opportunity to talk in more detail about these things which are so important in my life.  Thanks Jude!

My first ever custom order!

I recently completed my first ever custom order through my Etsy shop. The lovely Amanda, from HungryDesigns, asked me to come up with a necklace just for her :) - asking me to work with a palette of greys, browns or blacks.  Here's what I came up with!  I decided to make 3 different necklaces so that Amanda would have a choice, and hopefully one might suit!  

~*~

I called this first necklace 'Nebula', as the swirling greys and silvers were inspired by the incredible photographs taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

This picture shows me planning the placement of the beads, before I sew them on by hand.  I mask out the dimensions of the piece with paper to make sure I don't stray!  For this necklace I used tiny Sterling silver 15/0 beads, Japanese glass beads and tiny bugle beads, as well as freshwater pearls and vintage nailhead beads.

After the beading, I added some hand embroidery stitches (running, colonial knot, bullion knot and split), before cutting the piece out and whip-stitching around the edges with cotton thread.

The finished necklace - completed with gunmetal grey chain.

The next piece I made had more of a black and silver theme.  I embroidered several roses in ribbon, and added Japanese and Italian glass beads, vintage nailhead beads, and hand embroidery stitches.  I called this necklace 'Midnight Rose'.

Here she is with the beading and embroidery finished, ready to be cut to shape.

And the finished article! Again completed with a gunmetal grey chain.

Last but not least, I made a necklace in shades of nut browns, called 'Chestnut'.

Here's what the pile of fibres for the base felt look like before they get felted with my embellisher.  For this felt, I used wool roving, wool locks, yarn, silk noil, silk fabric, and silk throwsters waste.

And this is how it looks after felting!

I added tiny vintage gold metal beads, tiny bugle beads, a big bronze metal bead and Japanese glass beads, along with hand embroidery stitches (Cretan, fly, chain, seed, colonial knot and Portuguese stem - phew!).

This necklace was finished with an antique bronze chain.

So, Midnight Rose, Chestnut and Nebula were my three answers to the brief - I sent pictures to Amanda, who was kind enough to buy both Midnight Rose and Chestnut - I was over the moon!

Finally, to top it all off, Amanda wrote this lovely post in her blog about my work.

All in all I really enjoyed the experience of making a custom order - although it is nerve-wracking hoping that you will produce something the customer will like, the challenge of being given a brief including elements you might not usually try is really exciting.  Thanks so much Amanda!

Busy busy busy...

Well, I've been pretty busy recently with a whole variety of things...

...my first custom order at my shop - yay!  I'll blog about this in more detail in due course, but here are the necklaces I came up with:  Nebula, Chestnut and Midnight Rose.

...learning some more origami - I always include a wee origami crane in with my orders, so wanted to experiment with some other designs to see if they could be alternatives.  Here is a butterfly and a lily along with a crane.

...the biggest excitement is that I've signed up to do my first ever craft fair!  A wee while ago craft fairs Scotland contacted me through Etsy inviting me to apply to exhibit at their craft fairs.  After checking out one of their fairs in Portobello last weekend, I decided to go for it!  (*gulp*).  I'm pretty excited about it, but there is so much to organise... (actually, who am I kidding, I love to organise, and this gives me an excuse to make lots of my favourite thing: lists!!).

So, the craft fair I'm doing is on the 2nd May (the day after my birthday!) back in Portobello.  I'm now trying to build up a store of things to sell.  I was thinking about making some more fibre-y cards, and came up with these whilst playing with my embellisher yesterday:

Not quite sure how they're going to end up yet.  I'll keep you posted!

...I've also started my first online course - an embroidery course called "Personal Library of Stitches" on joggles.com.  I found out about it through Flickr after seeing some amazing photos of work by students from previous courses.  It's been really interesting so far, and pretty challenging.  Here are the first two samplers I have made as part of the classes:

... and then last but not least, here is what else I've been up to:

I finally got around to arranging some lessons after my attempts at learning the basics myself were, shall we say, less than successful!  In my first lesson, my teacher was helpfully able to explain that no, I didn't need to somehow make my limited number of fingers cover all of those keys and that the reason I hadn't been able to play an 'F' was because the key was bent!  (I did buy my flute on eBay...!).  Anyway, some repairs and a few lessons later, I am able to make a slightly better noise than a breathy screech (just about).  It's an amazing instrument, and so different from anything I have learned before.  So many things to think about!

So, there you go - lots of stuff going on!

I've also been lucky enough to be featured in a blog for the first time (thanks, Myfanwy :D) which has been very exciting!

Now I think I need to have a wee rest and a cup of tea :D

A different brooch idea...

I decided to try a slightly different approach for a new range of brooches - I wanted them to be larger, flatter, and to have more flexibility about what shape I could make them.  I recently bought some Bondaweb (sort of like double-sided sticky tape, but for fabric!) and some Tyvek (crazy tough paper that is sometimes used for envelopes, but also by fibre artists), and wondered if I could use them to make thinner brooches that still had enough stiffness to them.

Anyway, as usual I started with a layer of felt, made onto a backing of cotton wadding, with my embellisher.  This piece was made with metal organza fabric, wool roving, silk noil fibre, silk throwsters waste, trilobal nylon and organza ribbon, in blacks and greys.  The trilobal nylon (like angelina fibre) and the organza give a subtle sparkle.

After embroidering and beading the front surface came the 'sandwiching' work to give the brooch shape and structure.  I decided on a large-ish round shape for my first attempt.

Here are the layers of the brooch sandwich: 

front felt-bondaweb-tyvek-bondaweb-plain black back felt.

The bondaweb sticks with heat using an iron.

Then I tidied up the raw edges by whip-stitching around the edge in black embroidery cotton, and I finished the brooch with a silver metal brooch finding on the back.

Here's the finished brooch.  I called her 'Storm'.  The glass beads are mostly Miyuki and Toho, with a few tiny vintage Italian ones scattered around.  The hand embroidery stitches are in silk, rayon and metallic threads - mostly colonial knot stitch, with a little stem and running stitch in metallic threads added for extra sparkle.  

She is about 6.2cm in diameter and less than 5mm thick.