Ilkley Christmas Arts Market (12 December 2009)

I had a great day in Ilkley on Saturday! It was the Ilkley Christmas Arts Market run by Jo Whitehead, aka Glassprimitif, and as before, it was a very well run affair. The Riddings Hall is a lovely venue - plenty of natural light, small enough that you don't feel lost in it, but large enough to allow for a good number of stalls (I believe there were 20 or so there on Saturday).


Trufood Catering were there again, with their lovely homemade scones and keep-it-local, keep-it-real ethos which fits so well with the market itself. My other half, Greg, was there as always to help carry boxes, and keep me in cups of tea through the day!

Here's me with my wee creatures all laid just before the doors opened. (I had to abandon the banner half way through the day because it kept coming unstuck and falling off - might need to resort to velcro soon...)

There were some fabulous people there, and once again, Swirlyarts had a stall. Swirlyarts is Lynsey Serle, and is the powerhouse behind the Cuteable website, the best resource on the 'net for all things cute! Definitely worth checking out her shop on Folksy. And I am hugely indebted to Lynsey for furnishing me with a fantastic square of fake grass she picked up from her local scrap store. She saw it at the beginning of December and immediately thought of me! I am so chuffed, as it is a perfect addition to my display, and the perfect habitat for my Wee Horses. (Another big thank you to Lynsey for commission the Star Wars Cats - I think she liked them :)

Later on in the day, I moved the flock of Wee Sheep into the paddock, after the Wee Horses were all sold!

I bought some fantastic Richard Scarry gift tags from Lynsey on Saturday - my sister and I grew up with Richard Scarry and loved the stories of Lowly Worm, Huckle Cat et al, and I know my sister will just love these on her Christmas presents!

(By way of correcting an earlier omission, here is the fantastic funky retro chicken I bought from Lynsey at the last Ilkley Arts Market in October. We actually arranged a trade - some Rainbow Cats for a Chicken. Fair swap.  I love this chicken! I'm sure we had curtains made out of this fabric in the 70s... And he's now filled with quinoa, so I'm very glad I've finally found a use for it!)

Saturday was the day for Christmas shopping for me, and I was spoilt for choice! To my left was Cathy Emmott, aka Dear Emma. I bought this fantastic bannister bag embroidered with sweet little birds on a wire - you can see it in the top picture (second bag from the front).

On the stall across from me was Sarah Westwood. I first came across Sarah's work at the British Craft Trade Fair in Harrogate in April this year - I thought her work was unique and fun then, so it was a real privilege to be able to admire her work for the whole day!  I bought two of her cute wax tiles for my nieces, both with sweet little bird designs.

The tiles are about 6cm square and have a mount plate on the back to hang on the wall. Sarah was featured in Cuteable on 14 December - click here for more information.

There were many other great artists, designers and makers at the market, including Jane Carlisle's beautiful silk collage art under the name of AJC Designs, and Gus Wright's fluid and organic ceramic work. And a special mention goes to Carol Coleman, a Textile Artist who runs Fibredance and who had the stall to my left. Her work is beautifully three-dimensional and tactile.

As for me, this was my most successful fair of the season, and I sold about about 50 pieces, including some of my commission pieces. And I know I've said this before, but one of the great joys for me is meeting so many amazing people, both fellow crafters and the people who come to the fairs who clearly have an appreciation for art and creativity. It energises me, and I am thankful every day that I had the courage to make the break and leave the legal profession. I now feel alive for the first time, and although there are ups and downs, I wouldn't swap any of it for the world (not even for a funky chicken!)

Star Wars Cats (b.8 December 2009)

What is thy bidding, my master?...A huge thank you to Lynsey of Swirlyarts and Cuteable fame, who commissioned these three character cats a few weeks ago - I stayed up until 3am this morning to finish them off, I was enjoying myself so much!

When Lynsey first asked if I could do three characters from Star Wars, I leapt at the chance. After all, not long before, I had made some AC/DC Cats, so I felt sure I could find enough obvious features to make them recognisable as both cats and Star Wars characters. And that really is the key to making this type of commission, and that's the reason why Han Solo didn't quite make the grade - it's a little hard to put a leather waistcoat on a cat with no arms :)

Luke Skywalker made the first appearance. I used flesh pink Sculpey III clay for the body, and then cut a thin sheet of white clay for his wrap-around jacket. I also wrapped a thin sheet of beige clay for his trousers, and gave him a pair of hard-wearing sandboots. Whenever I think of Luke Skywalker (and I did quite a lot when I was much, much younger), I see him in this outfit, with his ridiculous utility belt and floppy blond hair. And so that's what I gave this wee cat! He has both his light saber and his binoculars, and extruded yellow clay for his hair.

Next came Princess Leia. I'd been looking forward to making her because of the iconic side buns she wore in the first (fourth?) film. Again I used the flesh Sculpey clay and carefully wrapped a thin sheet of white clay around the body to reflect her rather chaste dress. Because her neck line is pretty high, I made up smaller than usual chops which I placed over the top of the dress. Internet research revealed that Leia's belt was silver and not black (as I had first thought), and although I've never consciously been aware of what she wore on her feet, I have given her some dainty white shoes. The hair was the fun part! I made up some thick extruded clay and coiled it round into the buns. Then I extruded some much thinner clay and created the very severe centre parting she wore in the film. I was in two minds about putting cat ears on, as my thinking all along is that they would have been obscured by the buns, but when I tried them out, they worked much better than I had expected. Et voila!

Last, but certainly not least, came Darth Vader Cat. I had in fact tried Darth Vader Cat Mk I last week, but something wasn't quite right. I had included white chops above the triangular mouthpiece and had given him a fluffy pink light saber, but it all somehow made him look more cute than menacing. (Now that I see them side by side, the one on the right looks more like a policeman! I will leave the choice up to Lynsey as to which one she prefers, but my vote's for the cat on the left!)

So I started over and left out the chops, focusing instead on getting helmet and eye surrounds to the proper shape. I used 4mm black onyx beads for the eyes this time to reflect the large bulbous eyes in Darth Vader's helmet. Two short logs of silver next to the mouth piece completed the look, and I finished him off with two coats of gloss varnish to give him an uber shiny finish.

For the rest of the week, I'll be making up Christmas stock for the Ilkley Arts Market on Saturday, but I'm itching to have a go at Yoda Cat! Watch this space....

A Weekend of Craft Fairs!

I had such a great time at the Ilkley Arts Market on Saturday 10 October! It was a lovely day, the venue was perfect, with lovely natural daylight and fantastic homemade cooking by Trufood Catering. It was so nice to meet such amazing, creative people (click here for details of all stallholders - Lynsey (aka Swirlyarts) and STACS Designs are pictured below), and the whole day had such a lovely atmosphere that I know this will be a successful event for years to come.

My wee beasties seemed to go down well - all in all, I sold nearly 40 pieces, and I completely sold out of Highland Cows! I heard the phrase "stocking filler" a number of times throughout the day, and the keyrings and mobile phone charms proved to be very popular. I was up until 1am making more stock for the following day's craft fair at Pudsey.

The Pudsey Craft Fair on 11 October (run by Artsmix my new employers!) was my first outdoor event. The weather was a bit grim to begin with (thanks to Helen of Riddles for the tip about using clingfilm as a 'wall' for the side of the stall!) but it soon perked up. It remained windy for much of the day, but I think I was in quite a sheltered spot, so I'm pleased to report that my wee beasties were not scattered to all four corners!

The turnout was not as great as we had hoped, and sometimes that's just the way it is. Those who came along certainly enjoyed the great display of arts and crafts on offer, and Pudsey Market will continue to be a great venue for promoting local arts and crafts. And I sold out of Highland Cows again - a chap bought two and wanted the field enclosure as well, so I'll be going back to doing a Blue Peter with lolly sticks and double sided sticky tape soon!

Thanks so much to Greg and Jo (who had come all the way up from Cambridge to support me this weekend!) for being there, moving boxes, fetching tea and brownies, giving lots of moral support, and for generally being fantastic people!