Cor! Look at the legs on that Klimt sheep! The KAF Folksy Party!

It's not very often that you get the chance to say, "Cor! Look at the legs on that Klimt sheep!",  but Saturday was one of those times! Jo from Glassprimitif organised a Folksy gathering in Keighley's only gallery (please correct me if I'm wrong!) the KAF. Keighley Arts Factory (as it is otherwise known) is a fantastic space and nine Folksy sellers were given the opportunity to sell their handmade work amongst the latest exhibit – a flock of fantastic sheep all painted in the style of famous artists! Kandinsky and Klimt are my definite favourites…

I've already shown you my stall, the other Folksy exhibitors were: Ruby Spirit Designs,  Mrs Sew and Sew, Quernus Crafts, Angels & Butterflies, Print for Love of Wood, Adeegan, Pamdas, My Furoshiki and Swirlyarts. A great cross section of the handmade loveliness that you can but on Folksy!

It was a fantastic bit of 'social'. You don't get it in the insular world of the internet! It was really great to meet Folksy artists face to face whose work I'd already bought. It was lovely to meet the people behind the blogs that I read and to put faces to names. Everyone was absolutely fantastic and all day was an absolute pleasure!

Jo pulled out all the stops and not content with her seamless organisation, she did a spot of baking too (I'm sure that other people did some as well, but I was too busy eating cake to catch all the details – sorry! Rest assured it was all very delicious!)

After the initial cakefest, Jo hosted the first workshop, an introduction to Wax Batik. It was all very messy and great fun. Luckily no one burnt themselves on the hot wax!

After lunch, Jax from Print for Love of Wood held an introduction to Letterpress Printing. It was great to finally have a go. Ruby Spirit bought an old Adana press from eBay 18 months ago, which we still haven't got up and running, but this brief intro has really made me want to go for it! Very inspiring!

Jax brought three old printing presses with her (one was from the 1880s) which were all fully operational.  I was the guinea pig and got to ink up the Adana and set some wooden type. 'Hello!' seemed to be the word of the day, so I went for that…nice and simple.

Here's my feeble attempt at printing! The paper slipped, so it's at a rather jaunty angle – rubbish – and I didn't try to sort out the kerning. I love the dirtiness of the vintage wooden type, though. I really don't think that Jax has got anything to worry about!

All in all a fantastic day! Many thanks to Jo and everyone involved in the organisation, and to everyone who turned up (and even bought prints from me!)

Here's to the next one!

Oh, and yes, the Klimt sheep really does have very good legs!

Never Mind The Geometry of Black and White Football!

There's nothing like a snappy blog title to attract the attention! I'm included in two brand new Etsy Treasuries this week :)

A massive thank you to taylorseclectic for The Geometry of Black and White…

…and rachellucie for Never Mind The Football!

KAF Folksy Party – My Table

Yes, that's me looking very pleased with myself / gormless*.


My first ever table was at the KAF Folksy Party on Saturday. I thought I could make a couple of blog posts out of the day (well there was loads going on!), so this first post about my stall.


I just wanted to keep it simple – plain hessian and simple frames. I have so much colour going on in my work, I didn't want anything distracting from that.


I bought a new (well, it's new to me!) pre-loved giclée printer a couple of weeks ago. This has opened up the ability to simply create something and print it, without relying upon someone else to output my work for me. If you're familiar with my shop(s) a lot of the work will be recognisable, but some pieces were created especially for Saturday.


:D


*delete as appropriate.


Oh, just for the record, I HATE the new Blogger updates. Please accept my apologies for the ridiculous amount of space between the paragraphs. I have no idea how to fix it. It's late. I should be in bed! :)

From Britain with Love

My red Button Heart popped up on From Britain With Love last week. Many thanks to Nicola from Ugly Be Gone for choosing one of my items to promote her lovely site!

Best Party Ever

A huge thank you the the very wonderful and talented inaluxe for including my Carousel cards in her Etsy Treasury 'Best Party Ever'. You can take a closer look and even leave a comment or two by clicking here.

**UPDATE** Yay! This Treasury made the Etsy Front page on Saturday night, I was just answering a comment from Linden and clicked through and there it was! Lovely surprise! :) Thanks again inaluxe for including me.

Find Out About Folksy Party!

I'll be organising my very first handmade fair table this weekend – no longer hiding behind Ruby Spirit Designs – a craft fair of my very own. Lordy!

Jo from the Keighley Arts Factory is holding a Find Out About Folksy Party in Keighley on Saturday 26th June. The Arts Factory is a contemporary arts gallery and will be open for their current exhibition Shorn Keighley as well as letting twelve Folksy sellers sell their handmade goodies to the gallery visitors. Me being one of them!

As well as copious amounts of tea and cake, there will also be two free workshops for any visiting Folksy folk.

11am to 12 noon Decorative Wax Batik led by Jo Whitehead of Glassprimitif
1pm to 2pm Letterpress Printing led by Jacqui of PrintforLoveofWood


It's going to be an absolutely fantastic meet and greet session and will be fantastic putting faces to names!


Folksy sellers who will be exhibiting and selling are: Me (of course!) | Ruby Spirit Designs | Mrs Sew and Sew | Quernus Crafts | Northfield Primitives | Glassprimitif | Angels & Butterflies | Print for Love of Wood | Adeegan | Pamdas | My Furoshiki and last but certainly not least…Swirlyarts!

Keighley Arts Factory
North Street, Keighley, BD21 3DF

I'll post some pictures of the event on Sunday! :D

Etsy Storque

One of my greetings cards multipacks has been featured on the Etsy Storque today :D The post is all about the very fantastic Make Lounge in London (who have stocked some of my Just Add Cake cards in the past) hosting the Etsy Craft Party on Friday 18th June. Thank you for the mention!

Bad Taste Inflatable Sinking Feeling

Yes. That really is a 30ft high inflatable 'Sinking Titanic' bouncy castle. Spotted on the way to see relatives on the outskirts of Blackpool a couple of weeks ago.

Words fail me.

!

POP pop POP!

Sorry! I know it's probably very boring reading, but when I have chance, I really like to keep a record of the Etsy Treasuries that I've been featured in. It's very flattering to have an item picked, but I'm well aware that it's usually the only time that I blog! So not very interesting if you're not a Treasury fan! :p

Thank you AREjewellery for featuring my Ringo! notecards in POP pop POP! Please feel free to have a peek and leave your comments here!

Hello June!

Another inclusion in a beautiful Etsy Treasury for me today! A massive thank you to thelittleprints for including my Zen Earth cards in her Hello June collection. Please click through and have a peek.

Hello to hello handmade

The very wonderful Sophie from jodii contacted me recently to let me know about her brand new site. It's called hello handmade and is a wonderful mix of blog, gallery, market and competition site. Sophie has a great eye for design, her blog (sadly no longer updated) was always an inspiration and she even featured me once :D but…now there's hello handmade. Wow! What can I say! It's a beautiful, clean, well designed site with truly fantastic products.

hello handmade curate exhibitions that last for two months and each one has a different theme. The second one starts in July and is called 'High Summer', you can participate here. You get a great space that links to your online shop, and an interview/feature on the blog. Fantastic!

I've managed to bag a space for the first month linking to my Etsy - brilliant!

hello handmade will also be hosting competitions and a handmade market in Hamburg on 31st October!

Good luck with your new venture Sophie, it truly looks brilliant!

Cuteable!

Short but sweet! I've been featured on Cuteable today! Yippee! Lots of photos and a great write up from Lynsey – thank you so much! Click here to see the full post.

The Monochrome Set

Wow, wow, wow! I'm in a new Etsy Treasury featuring all UK products, 'The Monochrome Set' by memake (named after the very fantastic eighties band). Beautiful, thank you for including my Concentricity design! Let's hope that this is a front pager! You can have a closer look and even add a comment or two here.