2024

January started off way busier than usual! I had a mad few weeks of making my copper aluminium decorations that were themed along the Twelve Days of Christmas. The website kept going ‘kerching’ which was very strange and I found myself sending them off across the globe!

February is always a quiet month, these are the weeks when you hope to sit and come up with future ideas.
It’s also the time when planning is started for FolkEast Festival in August.

March often brings about the start of markets & fairs, ours began with a Spring fair at the Assembly Rooms in Norwich, followed by Local Makers Market Samples & Seconds sale at the Old Shoe Factory. I was also pleased to be part of Converge in Framlingham, a pop up gathering of makers at the old Con Club.

April we worked towards the Old Hall Spring Fair! It’s a great venue where you can do a couple of good walks, take some time out for coffee and cake and have a browse at 50+ makers in their old cow shed! It was a brilliant event.

May we had another Local Makers Market at The Forum in Norwich and we were also part of a group show at Little Bentley church hall with Anglian Arts Project. Ed also had a couple of letterpress workshops, where you can come and have a go at setting your own type to produce a poster! You also get a simple lunch plus cake and refreshments.

June we had another visit to the Old Shoe Factory with Local Makers Market, we love this venue and it’s great to catch up with old and new stallholders and customers. Ed also had an exhibition at The Canteen in Southwold. A lovely place to go and eat or have a coffee and you can also pop into the library if you fancy finding a book to read.

July we were still waiting for the weather to improve, it hadn’t quite been the Summer everyone was hoping for? We went off to North Norfolk for a fair in Blakeney, it’s a beautiful part of the world with incredible coastline and landscapes, well worth a visit if you’ve never been? We also became part of the new co-op with Craftco, an exceptional little store showcasing beautiful crafts in Southwold, an exciting venture for us to be involved with, a shop that has been close to our hearts for many years.

August sees us racing towards FolkEast Festival which is in its last year at Glemham Hall. We have a Marquee full of talent and an Art Arcade that encircles the marquee with gazebos bursting with amazing makers. And of course I mustn’t forget the music!!

September sees the re-opening of Craftco which has been refurbished with new shelving and a lick of paint to accomodate the different layout, as we are sharing our space with Tourist Information. We get of to a brilliant start with lots of customers coming in and letting us all know how much we’ve been missed, which is really lovely!

October was a quieter month with stints in Craftco but no markets or fairs.

November was a busier selling month with three markets to get ready for! The first was Old Hall on the road into Southwold, a festive affair with lots of stallholders. We then had a two day event at The Cut in Halesworth which is their Xmas Grand Bazaar, so many talented makers and artists with a bit of vintage thrown in too. Then we finished off with Local Makers Market at the shoe Factory a lovely Christmassy market in Norwich.

We are now in December and will be in Craftco doing the odd day to cover the shop leading up to the new year, we hope that 2025 will be a good one for all our makers who supply us? Happy New Year

2018!

It’s March already and next month we are at our first fair of the year find out where we will be in our events section!

We haven’t been idle though, new brooches have been made based on tattoos, technology and gardens, and some new designs are going into the Norwich Castle Museum shop, they are based on the Norfolk Shawl Industry and the paisley designs that decorate the fabric!

FolkEast & beyond!

FolkEast festival fell over three days mid August at Glemham Hall Suffolk and was, as always great fun, but a lot of hard work.

How can you feel so tired when all you’ve done is put your stall together and then stood and chatted, explained the ins and outs of free machine embroidery or tin can nib pens and hopefully sold your work to all of the interested customers that wander in and out of the brilliant Art Marquee!!

If you’ve never been then let me whet your appetite with all of the different arts and crafts that are going on, you will find prints, paintings, paper cutting, stained glass, ceramics, jewellery, instrument makers as well as vintage stalls, knitting, crochet and felting! 

Many of these stalls hold daily workshops so no one is miserable or bored and if it’s food and music you’re interested in then you are so spoilt for choice.

We absolutely love the festival and it’s one of the highlights of our year find out more by going to www.folkeast.co.uk

In September we took part in our first Open Studios Art Trail as part of Old Dairy Studios in Beccles.

Over a week 13 artists opened up there work places and welcomed the public in! We kicked off with the Private view at the studios in Beccles, feedback was great and a good weekend followed with a quieter week, still it’s a learning curve and you can always tweek things for up and coming events, on the whole we all felt that it was well worth doing!
Find out more about the artists by going to www.olddairystudios.co.uk

Towards the end of September I was asked to do the Reach Festival near Cambridge. It’s a wonderful traditional village with the pub, village hall and Church right at it’s heart.

The village green was a hive of activity with stallholders setting up. An eclectic mix of makers were there on what was thankfully a dry sunny but rather windy day. 
Apart from having to hang on to my gazebo occasionally I had a very pleasant day of appreciative comments and sales.

It’s been a busy few weeks of stitching, making, painting  and updating the web site shop, if you have a gander you will find new fruit, veg, moths and button brooches plus watch out for the Christmas section to be up dated!!

Ahead there are a few up and coming fairs which you will find in our events section, if you happen to be close to any of those it would be great to meet you and say hello.

Thanks for reading!!