British Wildlife

Spring is in the air and it's nice to be able to get out into the countryside and enjoy some of Britain's finest wildlife. It's inspired me to make some brooches and finger puppets celebrating some of my favourite creatures. I've even been making a mobile with some "city birds" hanging down (pictures to follow when it's complete), and I've plans to make versions with different birds of prey, and maybe little garden birds.

Here's a set of finger puppets...



And a mallard...



And finally a fox. I've held off making foxes as they're such a favourite with crafters that I thought the market might be saturated, but I couldn't resist giving a brooch a go when I saw how nicely the finger puppets came out. And I think he's pretty darn cute...




All available in my etsy shop here

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Get the London Look

I'm sure that anyone who works in retail will well know that EVERYONE is jumping aboard the British nostalgia wagon this year in celebration of the Jubilee and Olympics. And I've noticed a lot of crafters doing the same. So I've decided to do a small "London" collection of brooches, even though I am the most anti-London person I know. I have similar views to Alan Partridge on the subject. It's okay for a day-trip but then get the hell out.

Any way, I thought I'd go for some of the stereotypical London souvineer images, one of which is a British post box, a brooch I've made in the past but which no-one ever seemed to like as much I as do. Maybe the boost in British nostalgia will help it's popularity.



I've also gone for a London bus, mostly because the postbox red colour fits in nicely with the first brooch. I did try a phonebox too, but I didn't think it looked very good. Here's the bus...



I've made an obligatory queen's head brooch (incidentely have you heard that 1st class stamps are going up to 60p each...eeeek!). I tried to make one of these before Christmas as a customer requested item from a royal family fan, but the outcome looked like Old Mother Hubbard. I'm not convinced that this try is much better, but here she is...



And finally a pigeon! I think this one's my favourite...



Rule Brittania. And all that.

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spring clean!

I've finally picked up a needle and thread (and felt) for the first time in MONTHS. Crafting is going to be really important to me when I'm on maternity leave, and the dream is that I'll contribute to the household income when the maternity pay dries up (I think I'm going to take a year off work, half of which will be unpaid) through crafting. I know it'll be tough, so I need to make as much as possible now, so that later in the year all I'll really have to do is list and promote it online. My focus will have to move off craft-fairs onto selling online, although that being said I'd like to squeeze a few in before baby is born.

So, as well as starting some new sewing projects, I've been looking through my existing stock. I took a handful down to testspace pop-up shop at the corn exchange for their final weekend, but most of it is going online. I'm sure many crafters are, like me, trying to have a final push before the end of this financial year.

ALL stock in my etsy shop is 10% off if you use code SPRING at the checkout. Currently listed are items I've already photgraphed, but there'll soon be plenty more added. So it's the perfect time to bag yourself a bargin!

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lucky number 7's!

I've just finished a nice bulk order for number 7 brooches for John at the record label WIAIWYA for his singles club. Lovely!








If you'd like to join the singles club for a nice dose of indiepop and lots more thrown in, take a look at the blog here


Always nice to do something different. It's made me think about doing custom letters at craft fairs spelling out names, or just using initials. Might look nice.

x

picture perfect

Liam's created some new badge "promo-shots" for me. Some of them have little tiny plastic people gazing lovingly at them, and all of them are bloomin ACE. Some I've listed on etsy (so go see! www.amypanda.etsy.com) and here are a couple...










I love them!!

xxx

this little piggy went to market....

Yesterday was the grand debut of my Leeds craft market career. It wasn't a total failure, but it wasn't a total success. It was just too quiet. And too cold....I thought that my feet were going to fall off. I did make more than I spent on the pitch though and it was worth it just for the nice feedback people gave and a couple of good contacts which I made. I absolutely love the buzz of seeing reactions to my work especially as invariably people at least smile at them. Also usefull to see what sells well...my 50p bookmarks sold out and the cards were pretty popular too. There's a market in October in student-ville (Headingly) and I'm going to buy a 10 quid small stall there. The people who run the market I was doing are called "artsmix*" and they're moving their market indoors for the run up to Christmas. I think there are about 5 markets run by them between now and Christmas and I'm fairly sure I'll do at least 4 of them (possibly not the first indoor one as I'd like to gauge how busy I should expect it to be and also it's a bit early for the Xmas rush).

Here's a photo of Liam behind my stall...



and another of the stall....