Craft & Design Month at Greenwich Market

We are now in the middle of Craft & Design Month 2011, a national celebration and promotion of crafts across the UK sponsored by Craft & Design Magazine. Greenwich Market are supporting this with special Friday events to promote local craftspeople. Last Friday featured toys gifts and stationary and the 27th will showcase homes and interiors, but this Friday (20th) is the Fashion & Jewellery event, which naturally I'm attending along with other GM designer makers Coco Barclay and Red Dolphins.

To celebrate this occasion I have chosen Friday to launch my new men's range - Beorc. The designs use silver and leather as well as other organic elements to create subtle wearable jewellery and accessories, packaged in it's own, entirely recycled boxes. In addition to this dedicated range I have a number of items that could be worn by both men and women.

photo: www.bdcthomas.com

The featured makers will be showing in the market garden, but there will be many of the other, regular traders around the market, covering a gamut of handmade and fairly traded items.The market will be open from 10-5.30 as usual, so grab the chance to pop down and support British Crafts.

Lighten Up and Follow Your Heart....

A double bill this time as I have 2 things to talk about in this episode.

Winter Look

Firstly as the days are getting longer and we are actually packing up in the light at the market, I decided it was time to brighten up the stall. During the winter months we jewellery hawkers rely heavily on our lighting to grab peoples attention. There is also a sense of needing richness and warmth during the cold dark days so from October onwards the stall covers are predominantly chocolate brown. Strangely this also seems to make the lighting more dramatic.

Spring Freshen-up

However as Spring comes (and there is now blossom on some trees) people want to be reminded of the light sunny days to come. At this point it is time to go back to the cream cover and give the stall a freshen-up. My signage had suffered over the year and was looking decidedly tatty so I have invested in a couple of nice dark wood frames, to give some info about myself and the company and also to explain the methods of working I use and promote the repair service. The other addition is the embroidery in the triangle on the front of the table. My very kind friend Lez had my logo digitised so that she could embroider a piece for my Christmas present and after much humming and ha-ing amongst my Greenwich colleagues, we decided this was the best spot. Looks fab don't you think. The other little touch in the photo is my Valentines Hearts - which leads me on to my next topic......

Ah yes Valentines Day is nearly upon us! (or Hallmark Day as my less than romantic friend calls it) For the true romantics out there though there is some special stuff going on. From the Friday onwards the market will be decorated in a most "loving" manner and right through the weekend there will be special features culminating in the Valentines Market on the Sunday.
To celebrate I have produced some special edition necklaces, "Love Buttons" Featuring a fine silver heart button with coloured craft wire "stitches",  there are two colourways: pale pink with a weave finish on the button or red with a satin finish. Each necklace comes with a matching gift box, ready to give and they are strictly limited to 2 of each colour.

I will be at Greenwich Market on Friday 11th, pop down and see them in the flesh.

Open Studio Down, 2 more events to go.......

It's going to be a busy couple of weeks! Without really registering I have managed to book 3 events in 10 days..... glutton for punishment? Maybe, but it's a great time of year to be out meeting people.

Tidy for once!

This past weekend, we had the Second Floor Studio Open studio event. If you have read previous posts you will know that most of last week was spent getting myself, the studio and most importantly the jewellery ready. By about 3pm on Thursday I figured that there was not much else I could do so went to see if anyone else needed anything. Chaos reigned, but luckily we managed to get everyone sorted for the 5pm deadline.

This year's display

This time I did get to have a wander round and see who we now have on site. The project has grown immensely since the last open studio in May and in addition to my cake-eating friends Lisbeth Lund and Miles Campbell, we now have fabulous crafts people such as stained glass artist Sophie Lister Hussain and Milliner Katty Janneh.

Many thanks to everyone who came down over the 2 days especially Sid from Syddenham and the lovely Mo Thompson. Hope to see you again at the next one in May 2011.

In the meantime, I'm only 2 days away from the Christmas Market opening at Greenwich Market

And now the end is near.......

Well actually it's over!!! I'm officially a completely self employed Jeweller (sort of by default).

Last Thursday was my final day of work and I think for everyone it was kind of exciting and sad in equal measures. I had only worked on that site for three years but the guys I worked with were the best group of people ever. For other people it was the last day of 12 years on that site and many more at other locations. The company used to be a job for life. People grew up, married, had kids and retired all with one company, but after the announcements that came out in the last couple of weeks of our time there, I think most people were glad to be getting their redundancy when they were. Everyone was excited about life outside.

And not to rest on my laurels, the very next day I took a stall at the "world renouned" Greenwich Market. Greenwich is quite bohemian in some repects and the covered in market sits in the centre of town, between the Martime Museum and the Cutty Sark (and there's another story!!!), surrounded by trendy boutiques and bars.

This would be the second time I had done the market, but the first stall I had done entirely on my own (OH normally comes for moral support/heavy lifting purposes). When selling "luxury" items such as jewellery, you are very aware that people have less disposable cash right now, and my first time at the market had been pretty dismall. This time however, I did much better and recieved lots of nice comments, which really boosted my confidence. It made me feel like I was doing the right thing. So now it's full steam ahead - I'm doing the Pantiles Sunday Craft Market in Tunbridge Wells on the 5th October and intend to do Greenwich Market as many Fridays as possible. If you're around, come and have a chat!!