Odd dolls and other ephemera

Designer Laura Long was brought up in Brighton surrounded by antique shops and dressed in jumpers made by her grandmother, she  developed a love for traditional crafts and collecting vintage treasures.

A 1st class honours degree in textiles at Central St Martins combined with the time I spent in Ireland working with fashion designer John Rocha, enabled her to explore and develop her  love of traditional Irish crafts. From lace making and crochet to Aran knitting and knot work, the fascinating stories and history behind each craft never cease to inspire.
This combined with the nostalgic roots that she has  towards Brighton and her  childhood has formed the backbone of her collections. Her work is a collection of knitwear, jewellery, gifts and doll like creatures. She has written a book called Knitted toy Tales published by David and Charles. It is a unique approach to knitted toys with a vintage style that will appeal to adults as much as children. Laura is starting a knitting club from her studio at Cockpit Arts every Friday morning from 10-12 starting on 9th April.  To contact Laura 0207 2422721 .uk  www.lauralong.co.uk

Tags: designer, knitting classes, maker

An embellished mohair beret

I have been writing a great deal about others creative endeavours and have ommited to write about my own. Or even to actually make anything. Well it was getting to me a bit, so today I decorated an old  mohair beret using Dylon gold glitter paint. If the beret had been felt it would have been simple and straightforward but decorating a mohair one was a bit of a mistake. The hairs come away from the base and with it the glitter and the stuff that holds it. So this is not my most successful make , but you live and learn. Before using a glitter pen have a practise first because if you press too hard it gloops out in a splodge, well it sounds like a wet fart.  If you don’t press hard enough you can’t see the  marks you have made. My daughter Jess modelled it for me but as she was in the middle of cooking supper she wasn’t best pleased. Here is a picture of her wearing the beret. What inspired me to make musical notes on  the beret was a pair of pencil drumsticks that I was going  to sew at the centre of the beret like the knitting needles in a previous blog. In the   event I left it as it was. 

Interesting ideas

Back to the Country Living Fair. An intriguing, although not new, idea detachable bra straps. The thing about www.milume.co.uk, they have done it better than any I have seen in the past. They make straps in very pretty prints, plus surprisingly pretty floral knickers.Coming from a family of preserve makers, I was very excited to discover The Jam Jar Shop.  They set up a year ago  working from home in their garage sending out a  few jars to retail customers  and have  developed into  a warehouse based on-line company employing twelve staff and sending out over a million jars per year. They are now the biggest retailer of glass jam jars in the UK and look set to double their  sales in the coming year.
There is  a range of jam jars and bottles plus jam making equipment never offered before to the retail
trade plus  an informative and interactive website. The majority of their  jars are made in the UK with up to a 70% recycled glass content, which is entirely dependent on the amount of glass collected through the recycling schemes. They  launched  The Guild of Jam and Preserve Makers at the Country Living Fair incorporating SwapCrop, a community project to utilise the nation’s garden fruit and vegetable harvest. In addition, they will be announcing a FreeTree project -a free fruit tree awarded each week to any group or individual who makes an impression with  their reason for needing a tree and their future plans for preserving the crop from it. I save all my own jars, so so won’t be buying  jars, but their newly designed red and white spotty lids and their spotty labels, on which there is room to write, are  spot on! Not to mention perfect for re-vamping old jam jars.                                         
For more information contact
Jam Jar Shop
Rosemary Jameson
tel 01572 720720
email
web www.jamjarshop.com

Tags: bra straps, jam

Knitwear designer Marilyn Thomas

I  have just discovered the work of Marilyn Thomas who  creates works of  art to wear. If you like colour you will love her cardigans  that are knitted and then felted, they combine intricate pattern with bold panels of colour. Instead of buttons the cardigans I saw were  held together by large kilt type  pins.  Her web site is www.marilynthomas.co.uk 01603 720486

More from the Country Living Fair

I was going to load these on to my blog yesterday, but my internet connection was down, so this is a day late. Sorry everyone. Sharing the stand with Carey Marvin, see yesterday’s blog, was Monica Boxley who is a designer of jewellery and accessories she has a shop in Twickenham and a web site www.monicaboxley.co.uk I particularly liked the shirts shown here made out of vintage scarfs.

Tags: vintage

A visit to The Country Living Fair

Despite its reputation as a bastion of the green wellie brigade, The Country Living Fair is all that, and  much much more. It is like going to your favourite farmers market at the weekend with lots of crafts and goodies thrown in. Not everything is wonderful but it is very easy to spend lots of money and have fun tasting things and trying things on.  I took so many photo’s of different stands obviously with the owners permission and their web site details so here are a few of my favourites. I spent some time talking to Carey Marvin an embroidery and embellishment artist who started out as a painter.  She buys and recycles garments and transforms them. As her card states ‘ anything a needle can pass through can be embellished and through the process transformed. Nothing is wasted.’ Her business goes by the inspired name of ‘Let it Fray’ her details are carey..uk her mobile number is 0774 048 7128. The fair is on until Sunday Venue: Business Design Centre, Islington

Opening Hours:
Saturday 27th: 9.30am to 6.00pm
Sunday 28th: 10.00am to 3pm

To access the latest press information, find out about the show features or for details on how to get to the Business Design Centre please visit the Country Living Spring Fair website: www.countrylivingfair.com.

Let it Fray

Tags: Country Living Fair

Quilts and Quilting

Last Saturday after I had been to the Knitting and Stitching show I visited the V & A to see their quilting exhibition. The exhibition has a great title ‘Quilts 1700-2010 Hidden Histories,Untold stories’. Although the V & A has an extensive range of quilts in its textile collection and was able to call on others from other museums “The exhibition does not set out to create a seamless history of British Quilt making, nor does it intend to provide a catalogue of changes in textile design and manufacture. Instead, it navigates a path between myths, misconceptions and actual histories surrounding professional and domestic quilt production in Great Britain.” Quote by the exhibition’s curator Sue Prichard in March/April issue of Selvedge Magazine. Much of the work is  exquisite, but often within the historic work lie the tragic stories of its makers. The back of some of the quilts have been displayed so the construction is easy to see. One of the most moving parts of the exhibition was a film made at Wandsworth prison where many of the inmates are locked up for 23hours a day and so they have taken to stitching and are part of the registered charity  ‘Fine Cell Work’ . The show is from 20th March 2010- 4th July 2010 at the V&A www.vam.ac.uk 020 7942 2000

The final section of the exhibition shows many art/craft quilts. Quilts is a very loose term to describe some of these fabric art pieces. Many of the makers of these pieces have been winners in ‘The festival of Quilts’ which takes place from 19th to 22nd of august at the NEC in Birmingham. tickets from 01473 320407  www.twistedthread.com

A necklace made from lots of broken pieces of jewellery

My lovely, and very glamorous, niece Hannah sent me a broken necklace that she loved and used to wear all the time, saying’ perhaps you could do something with it for your blog’. And why not! So I looked at all my old bits of jewellery and took out all the broken bits and thought I’d create something new.  I even used some Eiffle tower key rings that I bought in Paris last year and baubles from a 1980′s braclet. The easiest way is to make loops  from fine wire, available from jewellery suppliers or buy split rings or reuse the old ones from the bits and pieces you are using and taking apart. To form the rings from which to hang trinkets you will need round nosed jewellers pliers. To cut the individual  rings you will need jewellers snips, and to close the rings it is worth investing in some flat nosed pliers- jewellers ones are best as they are small and easy to use on small pieces of jewellery.

Some magic ingredients

Necklace modelled by the carpet

Gina showing it looks good being worn

More from the Knitting and Stitching show

I have written books on papier mache, decoupage and 3D decoupage, and yet I came across something, new for me, called decopatch. A cross between decoupage and patchwork? The man demonstrating the craft told me the very thin 20g/m2 thick paper is also very strong and when the glue/varnish is applied, unlike tissue paper, it doesn’t disintegrate. The varnish glue is a white paste that becomes transparent on drying. To be honest it looks like PVA glue to me. I said as much to the demonstrator. I think  on large areas and applied with imagination it could look great but on small objects I am not sure I would be bothered. The range of papers was vast and as a craft it is as easy as cutting and sticking.

A few of the lovely papers available

I love this bonkers tree

For materials and information go to www.decoupatch.co.uk

More from the knitting and stitching show

Yesterday’s blog dealt with the stitching element of the show, today’s is to do with knitting. There were many yarn companies  in attendance, but 2 in particular drew my attention. The first was Rachel John , who knits in a truly big way. Her needles, which she makes herself, are enormous and one can knit a rug with them.  As you will see from the picture below you will need somewhere to rest whilst you are knitting as the resulting work  can be quite heavy.

Big knitting

Rachel knitting

To buy yarn and needles contact Rachel on www.racheljohn.co.uk or 01453 828 010

The second knitting company to catch my eye was Toft Alpaca. This company is run from Dunchurch in Warwickshire where they keep their own Alpaca sheep, run courses and sell Alpaca yarn and patterns. The wool is as soft as any you will feel and it comes in those lovely natural sludgy colours that so suit an English complexion. The designs are sophisticated and modern and beautifully packaged. Long fingerless gauntlets, slouchy hats and wide  headbands are just a few of the items in their range.

Toft Alpaca

www.toftalpacashop.co.uk       01788 810626    enquiries@toft-alpacas.co.uk