Merry Xmas To All!

With all of my Christmas fairs done and dusted, I thought I would post a stitched festive image to get the Christmas merriment going.

Hope everyone has a lovely Christmas! xxx

I'm officially on Not On The High Street!

I was lucky enough to be accepted onto Not On The High Street. I have been busy snapping away my wares. My house has the worst lighting, zero white/empty surfaces and just generally far too much junk that is necessary. Photography hell in other words! I was lucky enough to be able to use my work place-the lovely Sew Over It as my photographing environment. The shop has plenty of light, white walls & tables and best of all, it's is full of sewing props to help with the lifestyle photography element! Photography heaven!

I can officially announce that they photos are finally uploaded and live on the site. Whoopie! Take a look here and let me know what you think x

Mollie Makes Blog Post!

I was lucky enough to have my work featured on the Mollie Makes blog recently. Take a peek at the blog post here.

It's (almost) that time of year again...

Yes, Christmas is slowly creeping up on us again. As with every year, it has come around so quickly! Despite being a self confessed Scrooge, I am taking part in a few Christmas markets. Come down to these markets to grab some unique handmade gifts and be merry! With free entry to both events, who could possibly resist? Take a peek:

Continuing with Christmas festivities, I am also doing Tea and Egg Cosy workshops as part of the Christmas Gift Classes series of workshops at Sew Over It. If you are stuck on gift ideas, this is the perfect solution. Not only will you have a gorgeous gift to give by the end of the class, but you would have also learnt some new skills, such as free motion embroidery! Two birds, one stone. If you are interested in booking a workshop, simply visit the Sew Over It website for more information.

Anyone who missed the London Knitting and Stitching Show can always go visit the Harrogate event. If anyone does happen to find themselves down those ends, do look out for my Granny Playing Bingo image. While I was at the Ally Pally show, Mr X Stitch was nice enough to ask me for one of my pieces to exhibit at his allocated space in the Harrogate show. You can see him in the latest episode of Kirsties Handmade Britain, so check that out too.

That's all for now. I shall be back with even more merriment soon!

Ally Pally Knitting & Stitching Show

Hi all! I'm sorry to say I have neglected my blog slightly due to my non stop preparations for The Knitting & Stitching Show. The good news is it's all over now, so I shall be back to my former blogging self!

The Knitting and Stitching Show was a good experience. I'm not sure that grannies are quite my target market as my work is quite contemporary, but I met lots of great people, recieved lots of positive feedback, sold some goods and even got some tweets and blogposts along the way!

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to have a proper look around the show myself. The most I could do was have a very brisk walk through the stalls-quite hard when there are lot of slow paced oldies walking through at the same time! Despite manning the stall by myself for 3 out of the 4 days, I had some lovely (not to mention very talented) neighbours in the form of The Linen Tree, Lost Emporium and Heart Zeena to help along the way.

I also attended a 'Craft social' at Drink, Shop, Do, organised by the crafty duo of Mr X Stitch and Perri Lewis, on the Friday night. Despite recognising very few people, I knew alot of them through their online presence! Many of them had tweeted or blogged about me, so it was great to put a face to the name. I still can't get over how nice everyone was. I'm so used to the pretentious and intimidating world of Illustration, so it was such a breath of fresh air!

Now that it's all over, I feel like I have made some new contacts and lovely friends. I shall keep my eyes peeled for any email of opportunities and events that will come my way. In the meantime I am going to take a few days off to unwind, be social and get organised, but then it's back to work for me!

I'm a winner!!!

I am so very happy to announce that I have been chosen to be one of the six crafters to be allocated a stall at The Knitting & Stitching Show 2011!

I was proud to have been chosen as the final 16, but getting the stall is unbelievable!

This is an amazing opportunity for me and I would not otherwise have been able to take part, as stalls for the 3 day event cost over £600!!! So thank heavens for the good folk at Craft Guerrilla & Twisted Thread who have joined forces to give people like me this wonderful opportunity.

The event takes place from October 6th -9th so a busy busy few months of making wait ahead! Until then I will also be at the The Thames Festival on Sunday 11th August, so watch out for me there too!

Making, Making and More Making!

...and did I mention making?

My little hands have been busy (you guessed it) making lots and lots of stock. I am aiming to make atleast 5 of each thing before things start to pick up (fingers crossed!).

I have a few things in the pipe line. Firstly, Retro Roost-an online designer fair launch tomorrow and my goods will feature on their site. I'm very excited to see my things up there! Similarly, I have also been accepted onto a website I fell in love with called Lasso The Moon. A few of my products are currently being photographed by their pphotographers, ready to be uploaded onto my page. Again, very impatient to see how it all looks on their amazing site. It's so great to be accepted amoung such wonderful work!

Anyway, here are a few pics of a batch of my teapot oyster card holders in the making!

Simon

Here is a purse I was commissioned for. The guy, Simon, contacted me through Etsy wanting a custom portait purse of himself to give to his girlfriend as her birthday gift! Above you can see I have included the photograph he sent me, my drawing and the finshed product as a small insight into my process. It's great to see the steps...although this photo makes it look so easy!

*Feature* Sew Hip, Issue 31

Pick up the latest issue of Sew Hip to find an interview with me on page 52! Also by complete coinsidence Sew Over It is also in the same issue. Get your copy today!

Cally Fest Stall Pix

Here are a few pictures of my stall at The Cally Fest. It was an amazing day! There was so much going on -although I couldn't actually leave my stall to witness it all for myself, I could hear it and feel it in the air! Such a wonderful atmosphere and even the sun was shining (and that's rare!).

I had great feedback from lovely passers by and customers, which is always nice. Everyone was very complementary and I even saw a few unexpected familiar faces. All in all it was a wonderful day and a great success!

Come To This!

Stall at the first Cally Festival!

I will be having a stall at a festival taking place on Caledonian Road-the very appropriately named, Cally Festival! It's the first one ever and sounds very exciting! The street will be lined with stalls of all sorts, selling foods, crafts, and offering workshops while the air will be filled with sound of live music and the smell of tasty foods. That's not all, there will be a pop up art exhibition, sport, dancing and a kiddies section too!

I am excited to be one of the 70 designer/makers stalls that have been hand picked. Should be an exciting Sunday afternoon.

The Cally Festival will be taking place on July 3rd, 12-6pm

Find out more here

10% off my Leather Cupcake Brooch Making Workshop

You can now get 10% off of my We Make London Summer Boutique, Leather Cupcake Brooch Making workshop when you book through Etsy! Simply click to purchase and type in this discount code at the checkout: WML10...and voila!

Bread & Roses Pix

Here are a few pictures of my stall at the Of Cabbages & Kings first Clapham event...Observe.

Watch this space for more craft fair/market news!

Of Cabbages & Kings Market This Saturday!

I will be at The Bread & Roses Pub in Clapham this Saturday as part of the Of Cabbages & Kings Craft Market. Pop down to get your hands on some of Clapham's local crafters goods!

The market is open from 11pm-5pm, plenty of time for people to pop in.

Hope to see you there!

Mrs Textiles Feature

I recently stumbled across an email in my junk mail sent by a lovely lady called Gabrielle from a website called Mrs Textiles (Mrstextiles.com) asking if I would like to be featured on her website. After browsing through her site, I agreed! I love what she was doing with her website. Her aim is to form a website where children can find and browse different artists for inspiration-all under one website! Sounds like an amazing concept. I remember trying to find inspirational artists at school- it was near impossible! I would browse for what felt like hundreds of websites for hundreds of hours and find very few of what I actually liked. As a teacher, Gabrielle has caught onto this and has created a website to solve this problem. It serves as a place dedicated to textile artists for children to draw inspiration from and I am very proud to be a part of that!

Check out the feature here>>>http://mrstextiles.com/?p=539

We Make London Summer Boutique Workshop

There is still time for all of you lovelies to sign up to my leather cupcake brooch making workshop! It is taking place as part of the We Make London Summer Boutique on Tuesday 5th July at 3pm-5pm. Pop down to find only the best selection of beautiful handmade goods and ofcourse workshops!

All materials will be provided for the workshop-all you have to bring is yourself and your creativity! At the end of the class everyone will have a tasty cupcake brooch and a cute little drawstring bag to keep it in! All bags will be handmade by you and customised using handmade rubberstamps!

Follow this link for more information and to book yourself a place >>>http://wemakelondon.blogspot.com/2011/05/machine-embriodered-cup-cake-brooch.html

Spread the word! xxx

New Photography

Yellow Teapot Oyster Card Holder, a photo by Tugba Kop Illustration on Flickr.

I have been trying (and trying) to improve photography of my items for some time now. Photography isn't a subject I know much about. Sad, but true. I recently purchased a 'mini photo studio' with a little back drop and lights in an aid up my photography. Another thing I am paying more attention to is the idea of lifestyle photography, Strangely enough, putting another object in the shot with your item does make it look miles better. I have no idea how, but it does. I guess it gives it some context and customers are able to visualise the item in use.

Anywho, hopefully up and coming photos will be better lit, well thought out and most importantly do my items justice! One can only hope x

London Bus Oyster card holder on Craft Blog UK!

My London Bus oyster card holder has been featured on the Craft Blog UK among the 'best of Flickr group'! Check out their blog at http://craftbloguk.tumblr.com/ x

We Make London Summer Boutique Workshops Announced! Including mine! :)

We Make London has announced the workshops and workshoop dates for their Summer Boutique at Oak Studios, Hampstead. There is a lovely range of workshops, and I actually want to do a few of them myself!

My workshop will a Leather Cupcake Brooch making workshop! All materials materials will be provided and included in the price. Not only will individuals be making a cupcake brooch but also a little drawstring bag to keep your brooch safe in!

All cupcakes and drawstring bags can be made to the individuals taste as there will be a variety of leathers and fabrics to choose from.

My workshop will be taking place on July 5th from 3-5pm. There are 10 available places, so book up early! Book here: http://www.wemakelondon.co.uk/userimages/procart30.htm

You can view all workshops on the We Make London website.

Tea Towels

Tea Towels, a set on Flickr.

The complete set of British Favourite's Tea Towels. I am open to suggestions so feel free to tell me what your favourites are!