My Purchases at the Craft Show

After having a day’s rest, I was finally able to unpack my box of goodies from the Craft Show on Thursday. Please see my previous post for details of that, and it will make sense of this post, hopefully!

I mentioned that I got some Really Useful Boxes. These are such a clever invention! Somebody has really thought about this. They are lightweight and strong, transparent (so you can see what’s inside them), many different sizes and shapes, stackable, and have clever locking handles that keep the lids on. They are infinitely versatile and definitely Really Useful! I was delighted to find a stand at the show that had them, and decided to buy a few to start me off. I’ve had a shopping basket open online for them for a couple of weeks but preferred to see them in the flesh first.

I bought 2 long thin ones which are designed for standard rolls of paper.

I am highly delighted to discover that they fit exactly into my old wooden shelving system. If I want to get other boxes, say twice the height and half the length, I know they will fit too. I have separated my rolls of paper into gift wrapping paper, and art paper. So great to have my paper rolls organised at last, and not collapsing all over the place any more!

Then I got 2 smaller, more square-shaped ones, for general storage.

Eventually I want to get rid of this old computer desk as I no longer need it, and it sticks right out into the room. It is piled high, mostly with boxes of mixed media stuff, and I hope one day to get more organised and store this stuff better (more Really Useful Boxes??)

I’ve had my reserve supply of glues and double-sided tapes, foam tape, foam pads, etc. rammed into a cardboard box (like most of the stuff in my somewhat chaotic ARTHaven!) and decided to get a box for those.

At the show, I also bought some more Pinflair gel glue and photo glue as I get through a lot of this, and some more double-sided tape.

The other box, the same size, I bought with 2 organiser trays. One tray goes in the bottom, and the other sits at the top, with a flange around it which rests on top of the box, and the lid holds it in place. This one I have filled with all my Stickles, alcohol inks, Distress Stains, glitters, Rub ’n’ Buff, etc.

I stocked up on quite a few Distress Stains that I was missing, and have yet to put labels on the lids of these.

I bought a few smaller ones for pens, brushes and pencils, which are on the shelf above my main work table, in easy reach.

It will be really nice not to have that heap of stuff in that corner, which kept collapsing every time I tried to reach for anything!

Finally, I bought a really dinky little one to keep Sheba’s accessories in – her spare blades, blade holders, embossing tools, etc.

For some time now I have been following Colouricious on Youtube – they produce high quality videos of workshops and interviews with textile artists, all of which are so inspiring. I was delighted to see that Jamie Malden was at the show with a Colouricious stand, complete with her famous Indian woodblocks for fabric printing, so I treated myself to some! They also print well on paper, I am told.

They are hand carved in Indian hardwood and make a beautiful impression. You can see them on the Colouricious website.

Jamie loves to embellish her printed fabrics with machine embroidery. Years ago I tried my hand at free machine embroidery but then got into other things and never really followed it through, but I am keen to try again, so I picked up a few gorgeous shiny rayon and metallic threads at the show, along with a new, slimline embroidery hoop.

Finally, on Stef Francis’ stand, I bought a few things for mixed media art and creative embroidery – she sells amazing silk products, both dyed and undyed, including silk cocoons and silk carrier rods. These latter are formed during the silk spinning process (see my previous blog post for details) and they can be used to create amazing effects in one’s work. I love it when things that would otherwise be considered rubbish and thrown away are turned into something beautiful!

These silk carrier rods are in the bag in the centre, with the cocoons on the right. At the back on the left is a sheet of mulberry bark (bleached – it is a buff colour naturally) which can be teased out – like the rods, it is softer when damp – and dyed, and used for backgrounds and textures, and as a substrate for embroidery.

At the front is a skein of sari ribbon, created from strips of sari fabric from remnants left over in the manufacturing process – mixed fibres, gorgeous rich colours with the odd splash of metallic fibre – no two skeins are alike! Good enough to eat!

I love shopping at craft shows, because you never know what you are going to find, and what ideas are going to inspire you. I always go armed with a list – things to stock up on, like glues, cardstock etc., and I take a list of colours of things that I have got, and what gaps need filling (e.g. Distress Inks) so that over the past few shows, I have now managed to get the complete set of Distress Inks, re-inkers and Distress Stains, which are all bread-and-butter materials which one can’t do without! Last year on one stand was a huge bin full of Stickles, and I bought loads of them in different colours. Most stands have excellent offers, with good reductions when you buy in quantity, and of course, at the shows there is no postage and packing to pay. There are great bargains to be had, with many things being sold at special show prices.

It is also lovely to be able to handle the things “in the flesh” – now that our local craft shop has closed (not that I was able to get to it very often) I have to do nearly all my shopping online, and it is not always easy to judge the quality of things unless you can see them and feel them.

For someone virtually housebound unless my hubby takes me, it is also the most tremendously enjoyable day out for me! I just love mingling with all the “crafty” people, exchanging ideas, chatting, having a good laugh, learning so much from the demonstrators, and just being caught up in the general atmosphere of the show. In my experience, most crafters are friendly and generous with their ideas and their time, and it’s great to spend time with them.

We only have 2 shows a year in Exeter, and it is unlikely that I shall ever make any of the big ones like the NEC or Ally Pally, but I value our local ones so much! Roll on September!!

Craft 4 Crafters Show

On Thursday my hubby took me over to Exeter for the day, so that I could attend the annual Craft 4 Crafters show at Westpoint, the exhibition centre and county showground. Of the two craft shows, this is the better one; Creative Stitches and Hobbycrafts is very good, and I wouldn’t miss it, but I think the quality of creativity is higher at Craft 4 Crafters, with more interesting exhibitors, although some appear at both shows.

Just as the Creative Stitches show back in September was made special by my meeting up with my friend Wendy, Thursday’s show was equally special because I met two different lots of friends! Lucy from the Black Cat Forum had said she was going on the same day, and we bumped into each other for a chat, and I also met a friend from Bristol and her husband – she is a fellow M.E. sufferer and we first met at the Naidex mobility show in Birmingham about 3 years ago. It was a lovely surprise to bump into them, and we arranged to meet up at lunch time, and we had a great time.

As usual I took quite a few photos, but this year most of them were taken at Stef Francis’ stand. Stef started her unique silk and fibre business about twenty years ago when doing a City and Guilds course and could not find the colours she wanted, so she created them herself, and the business grew from there. She has a vast selection of many different fibres and silks for the creative embroiderer and textile artist, and her website is well worth a visit – be prepared to drool!!!

Here is a general view of the display wall on the stand, showing the various projects that Stef has made up, to show what can be done with the products she sells.

These are a couple of the necklaces she makes, made from silk cocoons and silk carrier rods. I fell in love with the Harlequin necklace!

This is what she calls her “Sushi” bag, also made from silk carrier rods.

These exquisite, tiny purses are made from the shells of walnuts, covered with fabric and embellished with embroidery, beadwork and tassels.

I was particularly taken with this richly textured embroidered panel which has made full use of the potential of the silk carrier rods, both in their entirety, and cut and unravelled and rolled again. The photograph does not do this piece justice; it shimmered with metallic thread as well as the natural sheen of the silk.

Here is a selection of dyed silk carrier rods for sale on the stand. These dimensional pieces are formed during the industrial spinning of silk. Fibres flying from the spinning machine tend to wrap themselves around the rods of the machine, and periodically they have to be slit and removed, so as not to impede the operation of the machine. They are quite hard as they still contain the gum from the silkworms, used in the formation of the cocoons, but they soften somewhat when dampened, and can be separated out, pieces cut off, and then rolled again in the shapes you can see in the embroidered panel above. Like all silk, they take dyes extremely well, and in the photo below you can see the richness of the colours Stef has given them. She also sells them in their natural state.

As well as selling many forms of silk, Stef also supplies bamboo fibre, which is very soft and fine, and easy to work with. You can see from this picture that like silk, it takes dye well.

Here is the display of threads of all types and colours on Stef’s stand. Drool-worthy or not?!!

When I could finally tear myself away, there was plenty more to see. At the back of the hall was a display of quilts. Here are a few of them.

After visiting my friend Lucy from the Black Cat forum a while back, I was keen to start collecting Really Useful Boxes for my ARTHaven. She has loads of them and I was very impressed with them! They are really a modular storage system – the boxes will stack, and the various sizes can mix and match and stack together, and you can get organiser trays to go inside them. I started a shopping basket on a website and it’s been open ever since – I decided to have a look at the show, and low and behold, there they were, so I bought a few to start me off.

The eggcraft ladies were at the show again, but told me that there weren’t many new ones this time that I hadn’t already photographed! This exquisite little carriage and pair was a new one, though.

I was delighted to find that Colouricious had a stand at the show this year. I am a subscriber to their Youtube channel; they regularly produce high quality videos with interviews with textile artists and workshops. Jamie Malden was there, demonstrating her famous Indian woodblock printing technique, and I succumbed and bought some of the woodblocks! I am assured that they work equally well on paper. They are hand-carved from Indian hardwood and are very detailed and high quality. It was lovely to meet Jamie in the flesh, having seen her often on the videos!

It is in association with this that I am keen to try my hand again at free machine embroidery. I did some many years ago but never pursued it, as I got caught up with other things at the time. Once you have printed your fabric, it just shouts to be embellished in so many ways! I bought a “starter” selection of various machine embroidery threads and a new embroidery hoop.

One thing I did this year, for the first time, was to attend a workshop. Alison from Ali Crafts was there with her husband (I bought some Distress Stains from him later on) was doing several workshops, and I opted to do her Tim Holtz Stamps and Stains workshop, working with Distress Stains and rubber stamps. It was tremendous fun, and this is the card I came away with:

The piece at the top is my practice piece, which I liked so much that I am going to make it into another card.

We started by swiping a piece of white ribbon with the Distress Stain of our choice (in my case, Dusty Concord). This way, you can make a matching ribbon for any project! Using the same Distress Stain, I then swiped across a piece of white card. I went over the bottom part again so that it was darker. She then produced a clock face mask and we used a Cut & Dry inking pad to go over this with Distress Ink in the same colour. We then added a texture stamp, and the bird stamp, and trimmed some card for matting and layering, adding half a small paper doily as an embellishment. I opted to colour mine with Barn Door Distress Stain, and finally assembled the whole thing onto black card.

The “sunflowers” in the practice piece were created by smacking the Distress Stain bottle down hard onto the card – it makes a fabulous spatter pattern once the pad is fully primed! Adding a texture stamp at the bottom looked like foliage. Again, I used Dusty Concord and Barn Door Distress Stains for this. (The mottled background was created by spattering water from my hand onto the Dusty Concord Distress Stain before I did the “flowers.”)

Finally, I can never visit a craft show without photographing the glitter! I will end up with a whole folder-full of glitter photos at this rate – all more or less the same!! Unfortunately the photo really doesn’t do them justice – you can imagine how very glittery such large quantities of bulk glitter would be! I bought a few little packets, including the black one at the back, which was absolutely gorgeous…

I shall do a separate post with pictures of the things I bought.

I had such a wonderful day! My longsuffering hubby was happy to take me, and spent the day with his brother, catching up on a few watercolour projects he’s working on, and they had lunch together. We had a meal in our local pub before coming home, and then I crashed out and have been pretty well worn out since then! It was worth it in spades, though. Spades full of glitter!!