Mad Market Hares (and other creatures)

March is shaping up to be a Mad Month with no less than THREE markets booked!

On Saturday 5th March I'll be setting up shop at Art Junky
Phoenix Gallery, 10-14 Waterloo Place, Brighton BN2 9NB  11am - 5pm

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/event.php?eid=165745120138529

On the following Saturday, I'll be back at the Makers Boutique
St Nicholas Church, Dyke Road, Brighton, BN1 3BF  11am - 4.30 pm

http://www.qype.co.uk/place/1623901-Makers-Boutique-Brighton

And finally (after a weekend having a lie down), I'll be sampling a brand spanking new market event - excitingly slap bang in the centre of town - Craftaganza
Fabrica, 40, Duke Street, Brighton BN1 1AG   Saturday 26th March, 11am - 5pm.

http://brightoncraftaganza.wordpress.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brighton-Craftaganza/120260968041892

http://sozowhatdoyouknow.blogspot.com/2011/01/brighton-craftaganza.html

Bearing in mind the need to replenish stocks, I couldn't resist the temptation any longer and paid a flying visit to the Tottenham Court Road branch of Paperchase which has an entire section devoted to the gorgeous handmade papers I use to decorate my jewellery.  I haven't bought any new paper for over a year and was getting pretty tired of the old batch, so I feel sure that this little lot will be a rich source of new inspiration and some hot new colour combos.

This is actually just a small selection - I nearly passed out at the till when the guy totted the whole lot up.  Oops.

So I'm going to be making more birds, hares and owls, thusly:

As clearly illustrated, my work space is total chaos, but I like working with everything close to hand, although it's often frustrating when my scissors or tweezers disappear under a sea of ripped up paper.  Annoyingly, the studio heating is kaput, so everything's taking longer to dry.  Might have to use the top of the tea urn instead.

Also, I'm desperately hoping my postcards will be ready in time, though officially not due 'til the 8th, apparently.  I'm giving MOO a try - they print small runs of designs and you can use multiple images, so you're not stuck with 423 postcards of the same thing five years later.  Here's a sneaky preview:

I've been using the jewellery in collages made from scanned paper and drawn elements to create images suitable for postcards. In lots of shows, especially the Open Houses, people like to come away with a little something, even if it's not the actual jewellery, so I came up with this idea to design cards that were more than just photos of the pieces themselves.


Some work better than others, but I'll be interested to see how they go.

Owls, baby! Plus an insight into the creative workings of a crafter's mind . . .

It's a week of firsts for Shark Alley - first craft market of the year (and the first time at Makers Boutique) and first blog!

Having a stall at the market was fantastic for feedback and seeing which pieces people were drawn to and the time I'd spent grubbing around St Ann's Well Gardens for rustic twigs to make a 'tree'* for the bird earrings and necklaces to hang from seemed to pay off!  I'd also spent time and money sorting out the packaging and just generally trying to make the whole lot look smart and desirable.

 Makers Boutique, St Nicholas Church, Brighton, 12th February 2011
(* tree not pictured)

But the best bit was hearing a girl remark that her friends were always buying her owl jewellery, which set off a huge glowing light bulb in my head.  Following on from the folk birds, owls would make perfect subjects for my papier mache creations, being compact shapes with distinctive eyes and lots of scope for decoration, so later that weekend I got scribbling in the sketchbook . . .

After selecting the most pleasing shape, there followed a week of frantic making as The Muse hit big time.  The first efforts are always a bit hit and miss as I work out what works best (I never pre-design - just make it up as I go along, with each piece providing ideas for the next) but I'm pleased with the results - a range of brooches and necklaces.  The lovely owl shapes will also be perfect for the next idea - a range of cards and postcards using the pieces in a creative way, which I'll be working on this week.

Owl brooches (featuring beads rescued from a couple of those semi-precious gemstone bracelets that were popular a few years ago and found lurking in a bag in my studio).