The Handmade Festival - September 2019

The Handmade Festival was a great show to exhibit at and we were incredibly lucky with the weather too. Three days of September sun put everyone in a buying mood.

The companies on either side and in front of me were lovely so I went home having made some new friends like Adam and Justine from Fantasy Wire.

The Handmade Festival is hosted by both Channel 4's campion of Craft Kirstie Allsopp and Liz Earle from Liz Earle Beauty Brand and brings an inspiring collection of creative people and skilled makers to celebrate all aspects of both contemporary and homemade craft. The three day festival encourages everyone to get hands-on and learn new skills in workshops or have a great day out shopping from over 200 designer makers.

It was lovely to meet Kirstie in person and to catch up with some old friends especially Lorna Syson who used to have a studio on my corridor at Cockpit Arts in Deptford. I also met some new customers who were happy to be photographed wearing their new purchases.

For the show I created some new aluminium bird and flowers brooches from offcuts of aluminium gathered from other projects. The brooch concept is of Victorian cameos but instead of portraits of people the brooches have brightly coloured birds as the protagonists surrounded by layers of floral prints.