Big Sunday Colchester 6th September

I'm super excited to be taking part in the Big Sunday in Colchester, this Sunday 6th September, alongside Made In Colchester! Big Sunday is a free festival taking place in lots of venues throughout the town and there will be music, food, performance, craft and lots more to see and do. You will find me on the Made In Colchester stall at The Waiting Room- come and say hi if you're heading down for the festival, I'm really looking forward to a lovely day celebrating all the town has to offer. See you there!

 Lauren Kelly will be selling her beautiful prints alongside Made In Colchester

Tracy Owen is the artist behind Curious Paper and you can meet her wonderfully curious paper creatures and people at the Big Sunday. Each piece is handcrafted using beautiful old papers and cloth

I will be selling a selection of my upcycled fabric jewellery, displayed in my vintage suitcase

Life Lately

I just wanted to share with you a little look behind the scenes at what I've been up to. Life lately has been very hectic as I'm working lots at the day job, but I'm still beavering away working on a new Fair Isle jewellery collection for the Winter and I hope to be able to share some finished pieces with you soon.

 The weather here has been lovely too so I'm trying to go on regular walks and work out in the garden when I can too. After the bank holiday weekend I will have more time and I'm looking forward to getting back to the blog as normal- I've got lots of ideas to share with you! Until then, here's some pics of life lately...

I'm working on a larger Fair Isle piece which I'm quite excited about- I'm hoping that my idea will work and I can share it with you soon if it all comes together!

Made In Colchester have their first collective exhibition in the Slice cafe in Colchester and it runs until 12th September. There is a lovely selection of work from collective members on display including artwork, jewellery, prints, photography and paintings, all made in the Colchester area. I'm very proud to be a part of it! If you're local, Slice cafe is on Culver Street West in Colchester- a good excuse to go out for lunch!

Regular readers will know that I've been trying to get out for more walks lately and it's certainly helping at the moment- although things are crazily busy, getting out in the fresh area is a great stress buster! I took this pic whilst walking along the canal, daydreaming about what it might be like to live on a boat

I can't take credit for these beautiful flowers, these are all pics I snapped in Mr Writer's parents' garden. Such amazing colours!

Hope you are all enjoying a lovely August!

The Made In Colchester Summer Fair

On Saturday 4th July I took part in the Made In Colchester Summer Fair at Colchester Arts Centre. It was such a lovely day with a great atmosphere and very busy so I didn't get a chance to take a lot of photos, but I wanted to share a little look back at the day and introduce some of the Collective members and their handmade work, all created in the Colchester area...

Brilliant prints from Lauren Kelly. The hard thing about the day was being tempted by all the lovely work on display!

Ar and illustration from Ella Johnston

Prints, cards, cushions and bags from Daisy Courtauld

A beautiful display from Tracy Owen

Stationery and illustrated gifts by Holly Trill

My display. I'm still enjoying using the vintage suitcases to display my brooches and they seemed to draw attention!

We ran drop in workshops throughout the day and they were all very popular. I taught 6 lovely ladies how to make felt beads- they all said how much they enjoyed it so I got a bit of a buzz from that. It's definitely given me a push to carry on planning a workshop programme- watch this space!

There was live acoustic music playing throughout the day which added to the great atmosphere. The Arts Centre where the Summer Fair was held is a former church that is now used as a music and event venue, so the acoustics are brilliant.

As if that wasn't enough, there was also a pop up cafe run by collective member Caroline Rhys-Lewis, serving lovely homemade cake and savoury goodies. I treated myself to a piece of caramelised apple and ginger cake- it had to be done!

 The Collective members enjoyed the day as much as the visitors and if you came along to support us, thank you very much. I'd also like to say thank you to the founder of The Made In Colchester Collective Lucy Hook-Child and to all the members of the group who put so much effort into making it such a fab day. We're now planning the Autumn Fair for Saturday 19th September!

If you'd like to find out more about the Made In Colchester Collective and keep up to date with news and events, check out our website here

Made In Colchester Summer Fair, Saturday 4th July!

I love being part of the Made In Colchester Collective and I'm super excited to say we are about to hold our first collective event! Come along to the Made In Colchester Collective Summer Fair on Saturday 4th July at Colchester Arts Centre (behind The Mercury Theatre) and meet the more than 20 artists and makers who make up the collective. Shop for handmade clothes, prints, jewellery, artwork and much more, all produced in the Colchester area. There will even be a pop up cafe and live acoustic music- it's all set to be a great day! 

There will also be free drop in workshops throughout the day. I'm busy preparing the needle felted beads workshop!

11am Card animal making with Hanne Mannheimer

12pm Handmade stamps with Daisy Courtauld

1pm Needle felted beads with Louise Dawson

2pm Monotype printing with Lucy Hook-Child

Find out more about the Made In Colchester Collective and the members on our blog here and check out our interview with Colchester Life!

 Hope to see you there!