New Gallery Outlet

I've been very excited by the amount of contacts I've received from doing the Art Fair at Godolphin House a couple of weeks ago. Most exciting was a call from this gallery asking me to call in with some of my work. I went to see them yesterday and they've taken loads of it. They have some of my very favourite artists in that gallery so I'm chuffed to little mint balls to be in there as well.

That, as they say, is all :)

Selling my Ashford Country Spinner

I keep telling the kids that if they get new toys they have to get rid of some old ones to make room so by the same token I have to get rid of one wheel to make room for Vicky Lou :D

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260156616228





















The Country Spinner drew the short straw because I can still use my Traditional with the jumbo flyer for plying. It's a fab wheel - ace for making chunky yarn and I'll miss it. Look at that bobbin - 2.2lbs capacity!!!!

Anyway - there's lots of interest, an opening bid of £40 and 6 days to go so if you want it bid quick!

Pricing!

Got back from Fibrefest last night. After an initial feeling of doom regarding the lack of signage (which meant we couldn't find the place and ended up driving around for ages looking for it) it turned out to be a very well organised event with lots of people attending. It was great fun and as usual a joy to meet other traders and tutors etc. Chrissie from Brightdyes was there with her lovely mum and her gorgeous and really cute boys and Woolly Wormhead was there teaching a workshop. It was so nice to see them and the three of us ended up camping next to each other. Our camping set up was only marginally small than the entire camp for climate change but I thought if we're going to be camping we may as well do it in comfort!

The two days trading wasn't so lucrative for me and I actually broke my mantra of 'The Customer Is Always Right' and was a bit rude to a couple of women. It really pisses me off when people claim that my work is unreasonably expensive. It's hand made, it's well made and it takes a hell of a lot of time and a measure of skill. Would we expect someone doing a 9 -5 to be paid less than the minimum wage? Would we heck as like - there's endless campaigning to make sure that employees rights extend to a decent, living wage. Why then are craftspeople expected to do it for love and buttons? I had this discussion with someone at the last fair I did in Cornwall. She'd massively underpriced her ceramic pots and she claimed that it was acceptable to so that because 'She enjoyed making them' By that logic if someone enjoys working behind the till at Tesco they should be paid less than someone who doesn't! Doesn't work like that does it? As designers, makers, whatever we have a responsibility to price our work realistically, ensuring that perceptions of value regarding hand made work don't stay skewed. We have as much right to a decent living wage as anyone working for an employer. So, next time you see a piece of handmade work and think it's too expensive spend a moment thinking about how it was made, the uniqueness of it, the skill it took to make it. Then, if you still think it's too expensive bugger off to Ikea and buy the same mass produced factory shite as everyone else! ROFL!

Rant over.

I'd like you to meet the most recent addition to the Cledry household

She's called Victoria - Victoria Louet! She's the newest folding wheel.

Could I afford it? No.


Am I head over heels in love? Hell Yeah!

Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated!

As usual blogger has done some extremely weird things with the spacing of this post - I hate blogger)


Should I bother apologising for my extended absence? Would anyone believe it? Is there anyone still bothering to check this blog? lol

I have been so unutterably busy for the last few weeks that I've been having to check my diary to see if I've booked in any time for sleep!

Last weekend saw me trolling my wares at the Hidden Art Design Fair at Godolphin House. It was a lovely venue with a very professional layout and a proper shell scheme. Although I can't claim to have made my fortune I now have a massively extended database of potential customers, a new gallery to supply and a couple of enquiries from magazines wanting to feature my work. I also managed to secure 2 dates for providing workshops for some local textiles groups. All very positive. The stand looked the best yet - here's a pic

And my new 'ranges' of work seemed to attract lots of attention (and a couple of orders)

Here's the new style bags

And a random shot of a stripey coffee cosy and mug cosy set :)

I'm off to Fibrefest on Friday - no rest for the wicked eh? There's 11 weeks between Fibrefest and the next show (Eco Design Fair in London in November) so I'm going to treat myself to 2 weeks off to catch up with some much needed design work and finding out if my friends remember who I am. Buying them coffee and cake usually does the trick - lol.

There's a very exciting development potentially in the offing which (if it happened) would mean lots of spondooliks and quite a bit of recognition but I don't want to talk about it in case I jinx it (rolls eyes @ self)

So, my lovelies - if any of you are coming to Fibrefest please pop by and say hello (Faerynuff - looking forward to seeing you there :) )

Fabric hair Clips

Much as I love making things from 100% wool I also really like dabbling with synthetics - bad cledry! I have a penchant for bondaweb and all things shiny. I've got various shows and exhibitions coming up and I found myself rummaging through the 'sparkles' box instead of getting down to making felt. I really love messing with the sewing machine and the iron and it doesn't feel like work at all. I can often be found totally absorbed in my workshop when I should be cooking tea or something! Anyway - here's a hair clip. The pic doesn't show the sparkle off to it's full effect but you get the gist

I'm in the middle of making some blue ones. They'll also be brooches and the offcuts make really nice cards. Result!

Big Green Gathering and felted soap workshop

Just a quickie to say I'll be at the Big Green Gathering this year. I've never been before but I've agreed to do a felted soap workshop for Brigit of It's not Easy Being Green Fame. She's started a charity with the aim of buying land in the UK for community projects etc - this is how she describes it

"The aim of the charity will be to raise money to buy land in the uk. This land will be used in a number of sustainable ways...to encourage biodiversity, for local communities to grow produce, and to set up areas where people can run and attend courses on low-impact living. The land use would in time generate more cash to be ploughed back into the fund to buy more land."

So, I've offered her a felted soap workshop to be held at The Big Green Gathering. It'll be by donation and it should be great fun. If you're going or know somoene who is pop by and say hello or jump in and do the workshop. Details of times etc have to be finalised but at the monment we plan to have it on the Thursday around midday.

Hope to see you there.

Hand felted handbag and some Gotland curls

I made another bag from the Oldmill batts. It was just as lovely to work with as it was before so I've ordered some more

Again, it's stripy on the inside

I also washed some Gotland lambskin curls that Dave bought me at Wonderwool. We can shear the Gotlands twice a year - once in December but I couldn't wait that long to find out what the fleece wil be like.

Look at that! Isn't that just gorgeous? It's like the colour of storm clouds and feels like gossamer. The plan is to spin it to a DK and knit it up with some Dorset into a winter hat each for me and him. I can't wait. Sometimes I think I need to get out more as I get so excited about wool. It's the cat in me - lol