Craft Fairs

So. I have had a smart phone for about two years,  and it has taken that amount of time to link it to this blog. Now I can be more regular with my posts, spelling errors and all.

I have been giving craft fairs a go since the summer. So far I have been in two venues in Helmsley,  Hutton Le Hole,  Beck Isle Museum and 1940s weekend in Pickering, York and Castle Howard. It's been a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to trying out new venues this year.

I did have a few challenges that I managed to work my way around. I can't drive, so the fairs I chose were dictated by good public transport, which also meant my entire display had to be portable. Luckily my stock is small, and can be pinned to boards that fit snuggly in a hand luggage size wheely case. My mum gave me 2 black velvet cloths and battery powered LED lights, and I bought 2 old brass picture frames for 50p from a charity shop. Everything is boxed up or on a board, which makes set up and pack up super quick. I got Moo mini business cards, paper bags from ebay, and some photos printed from Lidl, which only cost 5.27p each and look really nice as part of my postal order packaging. Luckily for me, appart from having to buy more silver stock, setting up cost me less than £20.

I want to talk a bit more about this feature box. I am so pleased with it!!! I bought it for £3.50 from a charity shop and donated back the crayons it came with. I gutted it and sanded off the chalk pastel stains from the inside of the lid. I padded it with calico and fleece on board, lasercut my name for it, and the best part, added an LED strip - I felt like a wizard when I successfully soldered it all together!!!

Throughout the season I have been able to tweak my stock and displays a little. What was more difficult was working out how best to talk (or not talk) to customers, and what stall positions work best for different venues.

This year I hope to be a bit more organised and maybe expand on my catchment area a little bit. I'm crossing my fingers for Whitby hopefully!

New Etsy Listings

I have been making new things and listing them on Etsy this afternoon. I'm trying to get products online that has been popluar in the craft fairs I have been taking part in over the summer. Hopefully I will get more uploaded over the next few days.

Wedding Guest Book

As it has recently been this lovely couple’s anniversary, and I managed to retrieve the long-lost photos, I thought today’s long overdue blogpost could be about a guest book and some other things I made for a wedding. When I first got the enquiry email, a long time ago, I thought this would be a great opportunity to see to my book binding craving. Other than my tiny enamelled books, I hadn’t been able to make anything of a normal book size since university. 

The guidelines given were sage green, cream, lacey edging, and paper cutting, and I was also to make place cards, pendants and fancy packaging for the bridesmaids.

The cover for the book features a little hand embroidery (the nail biting part - never again!!) and green ribbon which I wove into some gorgeous handmade lace. I envisaged lacy cut bits all the way through the book, and I used my cameo silhouette cutter to add little half pages and pockets with paper inserts.  

Then I thought - sweet!! I can make a box for this!! So I made a box with their first initials on it, and it made me happy.

 

 I thought tags would be the way to go with place cards because after the wedding they could have potential for another uses for the guests.

Packaging

Think I've solved a problem with my pendant packaging. I've been trying to make all of my  jewellery designs fit into pillow boxes because they're pretty and they keep down the cost of postage. However, it sort of ruins the great unveiling for a customer when the chain has gotten tangled in the box and the pendant has twisted in transit. Up until now I have been using the standard square jewellery box with padding to avoid this issue.

This envelope is my tiny game changer. It keeps the chain secure but this poppy pendant can still peak out to greet it's new owner. It is now compact enough to fit safely in a pillow box for the post. 

I know it's just an envelope, but it makes me feel like a genius!

I made this

I worked out the best way of displaying my work on the go and it turned out well!! It's all about embroidery hoops from now on...

Also got out the trusty Cameo Silhouette for its case, I even gave it a magnetic bag clasp. Now I wish it was acceptable for clutch bags to be made from cardboard. 

Oh and I have been doing a bit of Etsy reshuffling. These are just a few pieces that will be listed soon.

Sorry guys it's been a while...

I am a bad person, for the last 7 months or so I have neglected E-Blogger for the likes of Instagram. As you may have noticed I don't give out much in terms of written content, so you can see why hash-tagging instead of stringing a sentence together appeals to me.

I've been up to quite a bit over the past few months, a lot of making and working and the odd bit of selling. I have a biggish project on the horizon which I will reveal once it's set in stone.

I also went to Sri Lanka, which was pretty gorgeous. There was beach and blue sky as expected, but oddly enough the pictures I took were mainly of  textures. In fact I have more images of tree bark than of anything of actual interest to a normal person. So that is what I will leave you with for the time being, my exciting collection of walls and floors. If you need me I will be hash-tagging my grammatically inept heart out elsewhere. Enjoy.

 

Poppies!!

Tiny Poppies ready for ear studs, took me a week to work this pattern out!!!

Etsy, as usual

Put some more listing up on Etsy, have a browse....

https://www.etsy.com/shop/SteffiGlaves?ref=hdr_shop_menu

GIVEAWAY TIME!!!

I'm doing a Facebook Giveaway! Click on the link below, which will take you to my Facebook page, then like and share the photo for a chance of winning this little crocheted pansy pendant. 

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https://www.facebook.com/steffiglaves/photos/a.686916508004963.1073741830.685052951524652/973015502728394/?type=1&theater

Keep an eye out for more pansy pendants listing soon on Etsy.
Next flowers for me to obsess over will be daisies and garden anenomes...ooh and maybe the odd snowdrop or two..

Hares & Hedgerows Open Sign

A small warm up to the the shop sign I will be painting some time in the new year.