crafty craft craftness and stuff.

well, according to the brochure, "contemporary accessories" :-) In about half an hour, I'm off to Gift at Farnham Maltings. I'm nervous because I haven't been there before, so I hope it all goes smoothly. The show is open to the public from 5pm - 8pm today and 10.30 - 5pm tomorrow. Tomorrow some friends are showing up which is fun :-) Nice to know someone is coming for moral support!!
Anyway, I've ironed all the cloths again and packed everything up and have it all ready to go in the car, so I think it's all ready to go! Here we go again!!!

ps. I had another sale on DaWanda yesterday, hurrah!! To someone in Barcelona. I love Barcelona - such a brilliant city - it has everything. Beach, art, architecture, crooked back streets, fascinating history, etc. There are several excellent books about Barcelona - I'm trying to remember the titles. I think one is just called Barcelona, by the art critic Robert Hughes. The other is....something about miracles...City of Miracles? I know I read that one in Spanish, for a class I was following on Spanish Literature. Hm, well, if I think of the name I'll post it. And of course there are the fantastic Orwell books - I love his books, but especially the one about him in the Spanish Civil War - he went to Spain to fight. He was in Cataluna, so it makes me think of Barcelona. Ah, just looked it up, that book is called Homage to Catalonia. If I remember correctly, he was shot in the throat and was lucky to survive. I have a bit of a fascination with Catalonia and Catalan because I spent quite a few summers there when I was small. I really like the Catalan language and wouldn't mind learning it...except I wouldn't have much chance to use it. I like the words, like obert, tancat, es prohibit d'incendre foc. (=open, closed, prohibited to start a fire). anyway....tangent...ok, off to Gift now!!!

Gift in Farnham Maltings - starts tomorrow!!

Click for larger image!!

Projeto Gallery

Here's a photo of the gallery in West Yorkshire where two of my collections are available:

The gallery is now open: Open Mon-Sat 10am-4:30pm

two remain...

So on Saturday we had the Art Market at the Rising Sun which went pretty well. It was COLD though, very cold. Much tea was consumed. Much shivering was done. And despite all that, the promised snow did not materialise either Saturday or Sunday. Anyway, the art market went pretty well and so now there are two fairs remaining for me this year - Gift in Farnham this weekend and then another Art Market at the Rising Sun on the 13th of December. So, getting there.
In other news, I had my first sale on Folksy, which is quite exciting!! hurrah!!
Now I have to get ready for Gift!! Here we go again.....

necklace commission

This is a necklace I made commissioned to match the earrings in the second photo. (I also made those, but they were to replace a pair...one of the earrings was lost from the original pair so I made a copied pair.) You can see the necklace much better if you click on the photo to get a larger view!!

gorgeous ceramics

I saw some ceramics at the craft fair over the weekend that I really liked - elegant and minimal. Really lovely things! They are made by Lauren Denney who lives very close to me, it turns out! I especially liked a beautiful tourquoise green small vase...I wish I had a photo of it, but I don't. Anyway, you can see some her work on Etsy and on her own website. These are the links:
http://www.laurendenney.com
and here on Etsy.

yay!

The South Hill Park craft fair went really, really well!! Hurrah!! I met loads of nice, interesting people - exhibitors and visitors! I sold loads and even sold out of a bunch of items. I got lots of compliments - particularly on the large silver bud necklace - which was great and made the weekend very enjoyable. Exhausting, but enjoyable! Everything went so well, it's great! So now I need to prepare for the Rising Sun Institute art market, which is this Saturday....!! so, busy busy! I also saw some lovely things at the fair so once I've cleaned up a bit I'll unearth the business cards I gathered and post about the artists whose wares I liked :-)

UPDATE: here's a photo of me at the stand - this was in the theater part of the building, so that's a balcony above me!

South Hill Park Christmas Fair

This is it!!!!!!!!!!!! Months of preparing!!!!!!! Tomorrow is the first of two days at the South Hill Park xmas fair. Come and see me! :-) I hope to see lots of people there, I'll let you all know how it went!!!

fawlty towers

My dealings with the company that I buy my boxes from (Lynco) has descended into a Fawlty Towers-esque situation. I usually go to the store to buy what I need. When I was there a week ago, they said, 'oh it's better to phone to get what you want'. The woman working there was also clearly irritated that I was asking questions about the merchandise and even told me at one point to "stop bothering" her. Anyway, they said they had the boxes I wanted but they couldn't get them from the basement, I had to phone to order them. So, this week I phoned with the correct box code and ordered the boxes and some black earring stands. (Not so amusingly the person on the phone told me it was better to go to the store!!!!) I was assured they were in stock and would have them by the end of the week. Yesterday, I got a phone call that the boxes were labelled incorrectly so actually they wouldn't have them until after Christmas. Not much use with all these craft fairs being, unsurprisingly, before Christmas. Add this to the long list of items I was after that they did not have in stock - stud earring holder, long earring holder, etc. Anyway, in the end, I just cancelled the boxes order and said, well, just send me those earring stands that I ordered. So they arrived this morning - in the wrong colour. ARGH. It clearly says on the invoice accompanying the stands, "Black", but no, they are not black. I mean, how hard is it to see that?? It's just irritating because obviously I can't fix this before the craft fair TOMORROW. And now tonight I still need to go to another store and hope I can find appropriate boxes. Sigh and more sighs.
Not only that, but their catalogue is a pathetic collection of photocopies that gives you hardly any idea what the products are like and their website is totally rubbish....if you don't believe me, this is their website: http://www.lynco.co.uk/

grrr

Just when everything was going along smoothly.....now the internet connection is on the blink (quite literally, it only mildly works) and the pendant boxes I ordered and was assured were in stock....are NOT in stock so I have to find a solution by...oh, Saturday! argh!!!
On the plus side, the posters/postcards are out for the Rising Sun Institute Christmas fair and one of my rings features on it! So that is nice and once the internet connection works properly I'll upload that!

Slough Museum

So it's official! MagpieNest jewellery is now available at the Slough Museum!!!Yes, Slough has a museum! ;-) Slough Museum is at the end of the High Street in Slough and is starting a programme of promoting Berkshire artists....enter me with my jewellery and hopefully lots more artists/crafters to follow! Plus you get to find out all about Slough's history...I bet you don't know much about it...I didn't!! If you're an arts/crafts person in Berkshire, why not give Slough Museum a call? They are looking for more people who want to show off what they can do!

MagpieNest available in West Yorkshire!!

So there was a gallery which was online only, called the Projeto Gallery. It is now also a real, brick & mortar gallery in Silsden, West Yorkshire. The lovely woman there was interested in having some of my jewellery for the gallery opening and it was arranged!! So, if you're ever passing Silsden, West Yorkshire, have a look around the brand new Projeto Gallery!! I have the sphere collection and light pink version of the crystal collection available there now!
Coincidentally, I went to a friend's lovely wedding over the weekend (held at the Bodlean Library in Oxford, not too shabby!!!!) and it turned out that she got her wedding dress in Silsden - as it happens, Silsden has one of the best bridal wear shops in the country!

South Hill Park craft fair 15-16 November 2008

I just got the catalogue for the South Hill Park Christmas Craft Fair. MagpieNest is stall 51!! Please come and see me if you can :-) There will be loads of interesting and creative arts on display! You can see the full layout and explanation of who is exhibiting by clicking HERE. That will bring you to a .pdf detailing all the stallholders!

sleepy...

Well, after a late night of trying to stay awake long enough to get some idea of the election (I didn't stay up that long!), I am feeling rather sleepy.

Randomly, in Camden we also went to a small shop called Robot and it had lots of fun stuff. Bits of 1980s and random children's shows' things like My Little Ponies and Rainbow Brite and things like that. Fun t-shirts and cute plastic wallets and just quite unique fun things. Their website is http://pinkkat.co.uk/ - you can see some of their things on the site, but the photos aren't great. If you get the chance, definitely a shop to go have a nose around in Camden!

all eyes on america

watching the elections on the New York Times, CNN, Guardian, and CNN.......!!!!

pretty yarns

Skein Queen, who makes absolutely gorgeously coloured yarns, has revealed her new website and brand new online shop. Anyone into knitting......go have a look:

website:
http://www.skeinqueen.co.uk/

or straight to the shop:
Skein Queen

Camden

We went to Camden Market yesterday in London for the first time in ages. It was brilliant - so many interesting things and crafts and little shops! It had changed too, there was a whole section which is now covered over which I think was open before. They've made this incredible entrance with huge bronze horses and the whole ceiling is covered with material that looks like Chesterfield couches. It's very impressive! And new cafes and new stores and it was all quite exciting. Here's a photo of me (in the red coat) in front of the entrance bit with the horses:
In other news, I got a lovely award from Something Just to Start: