Ilkley... And Beyond!

Last Saturday found me up and about at an absurdly early hour for a weekend.  The things I do for my art...  But a chilled-out train ride later and I arrived in Ilkley.  It's a very cute little town.  Almost reminded me of the Cotswolds, for you southern reader-types.  Setting up my table on my own was easier than I thought it would be.  I was half expecting Jo (the organising lady) to send a rescue party for me as I got lost under my enormous table cloth.  The problems of being a bit wee, eh?

 

The awesome Katherine came to help later in the day and brought some yummy sarnies for lunch, and helped out with the tons of sales.  The picture pendants and earrings were very popular again, but I sold a lot more semi precious items this time around.  I also took a few commissions!!

There were some awesome artists there as well, so I had a lovely time scoping out their tables.  Teazle Handmade Handbags were gorgeous.  Her table was right opposite mine, and I was eyeing up this but in a fabulous teal/turquoise colour.  I had to stop myself as I have more than enough bags already!!

The lovely Lucy from George and Lilly was next to me, selling her cute handmade felted items, and doing a roaring trade in her try-it-yourself felting kits.  I'd seen her before at the Reetsweet fair at Leeds Corn Exchange, so it was nice to put a face to a name!

And Jennifer Duenas, who I'd met at Saltaire was also there, it was lovely to catch up with her again!

So all in all a successful day! (There was good cake too).

And so on to the next one...  A friend at work is taking part in the Round The Island Yacht Race, in aid of the Ellen Macarthur Cancer Trust (basically, who can sail round the Isle of Wight the fastest).  She has been making a few items of jewellery as favours for her forthcoming wedding and so she asked if I would help out with a jewellery sale at work.  Of course I said I would love to help out!  So last Tuesday, Julie, me and a couple of office WAGS set up our wares in one of the meeting rooms.  I had taken my camera to take a few snaps to show you, but what a muppet, I totally forgot and my camera lay in the bottom of my bag all day!!

By the end of the day we had raised almost £150, which will be matched by our bosses!

To find out more about the boat race, check this out:  www.roundtheisland.org.uk
And for the Ellen MacArthur trust: www.ellenmacarthurtrust.org

If you want to sponsor our mental brave colleagues you can click here!! charitiestrust.org

And finally, next stop... Morley!!  I had an e-mail from the organisers asking if I was still attending the show next weekend.  It's a good job they reminded me, as it wasn't in my diary! Oops!!

I have also secured a stand at the Wakefield Craft Market in August and September.  This is on a MUCH bigger scale than I have worked to previously, so it's going to be a huge challenge!  It will be on Union Street in the town centre on the 3rd Saturday of each month.  This time it's 2 tables, and as it's outside, I am having to re-think my display and layout (with help from my Dad!).  Not only does it have to be bigger, it also has to be easily transportable and fit into a suitcase, as I will be travelling on the train, but it also has to be wind-proof!!  Thinking hat is on!!!

Handmade At Ilkley

So... there's now less than a week before my next show at Ilkley, it's come around so quickly!  I'm looking forward to it, after the success of Saltaire, and this time around, now that most of the prep work is already done, there is a lot less that needs doing!  It will also be nice to get to see somewhere new; it's shameful that I've lived in glorious Yorkshire for so many years now, and a lot of these little towns and villages are still new to me!

I'm also excited to check out some of the amazing work of the other artists exhibiting there too.  Check out The Arts Market's blog!

(Also, I didn't realise how many famous people came from Ilkley - Jilly Cooper, Alan Titchmarsh, Richard Whiteley, AND what's-his-face from the Kaiser Chiefs!!).

Having done most of the prep work already, I've had more time to play around with new ideas and designs.  I've made a few items for friends, including a set of earrings and necklace in rhodonite (a lovely dusky pink) for a friend at work, to wear to a wedding.  But rather stupidly, I forgot to photograph them before I gave them to her!  I was also commissioned to make a necklace for Katherine.  She gave me reasonably free reign over the design, saying that she wanted something with a picture on it, of something architectural.  So off to work I went, and came up with an Eiffel tower/postcard affair...

It's a bit blurry, because the actual finished size is only 2cm across, but you get the general idea!  I wanted to incorporate a few stones and sparkles with it too, so decided to add a few freshwater pearls and Swarovski crystals in tones of beige, grey and orange (sounds an odd combo I know, but somehow it works!) to pick out the colours in the image.  I really hope she likes it, I'm so pleased with how it turned out!

In addition to making lovely things for my friends, I also hassled the ever-obliging Jasmin at Jasmin Studio Crafts for her help with an idea I've been mulling over for some time.  Charm bracelets!  I can't believe I didn't think of that before!  Jasmin sent me a goody-bag of some of her smaller-sized glass cabochons and pendant settings, as I wasn't sure what size would work best.  I had THE best fun looking for ideas, this time I was looking for themes rather than individual images.  I've only made a few so far, but if they go down well at the shows then I will definitely be making more!

Butterflies with carnelian and lapis beads

"love" with freshwater pearls, silver hearts and blue and yellow Swarovski crystals

My favourite! Afternoon tea anyone?  Vintage tea cups and yummy cupcakes, with freshwater pearls and rhodonite beads

There were a few sizes which Jasmin sent me which didn't really work as charms as they were ever so slightly too big, which meant they were too heavy to be comfortable to wear as a bracelet.  However, one small trigger clasp later and... ta da!!!  Bag charms!  I went with a purple theme here, as the picture I had used was pretty purple and yellow pansies, and my gorgeous friends Katie and Laura had given me a massive bag of purple glass beads as a birthday present.  What a treat!

This is literally a one-off, as the butterfly and dragonfly charms came from a couple of necklaces I had which had broken.  Nice to put them to good use!!

And finally...  another make.  Not jewellery this time, but a housewarming gift for my sister.  I think these are so cute, even if I say so myself!

So, that's me off comms, got yet another idea floating around... laters alligators!!

Awww, how lovely!

The lovely Jasmin at Jasmin Studio Crafts has featured me on her latest blog post!  Take a look:

jasminstudiocrafts.blogspot.com

How nice!!