Fair's fair...

...I promised on Facebook to tell you all about the Pennine Christmas Craft Fair the other weekend, so I will!  I love craft fairs...and the Pennine one is my favourite so far.  It's run by a mother-daughter team named 'The Anns' who take care to ensure that all us crafty people have everything we need.  '1 table + demo + rail', it said on a ticket left at my stand.  Yup, I got all that!  And MORE...

I also got a chance to show off my work...some spiffy new designs...my lovely packaging...commissions...and a little surprise just for fun! Heehee...

'Nuther fair, and a revamped display! The dark background helps my work stand out better.

And I also got a chance to catch up with all the wonderful crafty friends I've made since first attending this show at Easter. These events are all about showcasing the crafting community's labours of love, so I think it's be appropriate to bring some of that spirit into my blog by telling you about the people (and their work) I've come to know and love.

First up is Claire Fairall, who makes the most mesmerising array of woolly felted pod bags and drop purses.  I could admire the beautiful colours, smooth curves and wonderful textures she creates forever, but we always end up deeply engrossed in conversations about life, loves, our hopes, cats, children and anything else you could pull out of bags as magical as these... her bubbly daughter helps out too!  Claire proudly told me that Emma now knits almost as quickly as her mum, and no longer needs to look at what she's doing.

One of the rare moments that Claire put her knitting down that weekend, to pose for me...

Hm...looks like I've started alphabetically, so I'll continue this way...then no one will think I love them any less for putting them further down the list...*grin*

The first time I saw Paula Mallison's mouthwatering sweet treats was during a new summer fair held by the Anns in the gardens of Castle Ashby House in Northamptonshire. I sort of thought 'Ooh, cakes!, then wandered off 'cos I wasn't hungry'...

(yes, yes, that must be a first for me..)

I went back for a second look later, and, despite informative signs about how Paula makes these Cracking Creations, I just stood mesmerised by the pretty colours and scrumptious-looking jelly glaze for several moments before spotting a wick on one of them. A...whut? OHHHH...they're candles!!!  Wow!!  uhh yeah...that explains the sign.  I felt like such a dumb*ss.  Paula told me she's done everything to try to convey that these are cake candles, but nothing seems to work.  Customers still approach the stall saying 'Oh, what lovely candles (when she burns a few samples), now which cake would you like, darling?', and ladies walk away with a bag of goodies while their husbands ask when they can eat them... 

And who wouldn't want to when they look like this?

Selling like hotcakes, I should've snapped a pic earlier... O ~ O

Ceramic artists Tim and Julie always stop by for a friendly chat whenever they pass me at the fair.  They specialise in 'hand building' and Raku firing, and offer pottery courses on the outskirts of an fishing village overlooking the sea in their garden and workshop in Croatia.

Delicate, rustic and beautiful...and the pottery ain't bad either! Spot the armour on top left of the picture too...

This is my favourite, I don't know if Julie minds me calling it the 'Loudhailer' (like those twisty ones of Dr Seuss and Horton fame), but I've threatened to adopt him one day and display him next to a little Who from Whoville.

'Oo, hello!', cried the startled visitor when she spun round and spotted this little fellow.

Speaking of surprising discoveries, The Moon Up Above produces silver and bronze jewellery that have been compared to an amazing archeaological find without all the muck. Check out the picture below! I love the caged bird (I think the cage is open at the back so li'l birdie can fly off anytime...which is a bonus)

Have you been to any craft fairs lately where there're ceramic artists, armourers and silversmiths?

Nadine (the artist formerly known as The Silver Queen) and her husband Peter (also her sales rep) were far too shy to pose with their sophisticated new display, but they're never too reserved for a good ol' chinwag about EVERYTHING under the moon above.  Now, that's what I call brand consciousness!

Like museum showpieces, but you're welcome to touch and the jewellery is highly wearable!

'Toughness' and 'delicacy' springs to mind with both The Moon Up Above and another jeweller called Satoko who's adapted traditional Japanese origami into a resilient and modern collection of necklaces, brooches, rings and earrings.  Her work is coated with three layers of lacquer to toughen and waterproof the jewellery, then set with cord, silver, and sometimes, Swarovski crystals. Satoko's Origami Jewellery also produces origami jewellery from sheets of metal polymer clay that are then fired and burnished by hand.

Satoko with her personal sales rep, Chris

Last jeweller on today's post with Lady Luck Jewellery, by Claire Vize. I love her 50s and 60s American-inspired work best, and just HAD to take a picture of her hair that day. I own plenty bandanas 'cos they come in so handy with keeping my headspin beanie on when I break, but here's a new way to wear them indeedy! Claire also hosts the Contemporary Craft Shopping Experience in Warwickshire, and is a Folksy newsgirl. It's great to meet crafters who work so hard to give all the rest of us a big boost! Now if only it were chocolate...hehehe...

Pretty polymer and lucky lady ;)

By the way, Claire's fair is on TOMORROW! That's Sunday 5th December, 10am-4pm. So set your Satnav to CV31 1XN and head on down if you're in the area, ok?

With all these goodies on offer, you might need another bag (in addition to Claire's felted beauties)... what about Joanne Potter's lovely arm candy? Melikes a hearty middle for Christmas, Santa baby! *beam* 

Now in its 5th year, Pennine Fairs has become such a hit that they expanded, offering more stalls and quality craftsmanship to you lucky Northants!

The fair has now expanded into Hangar Two! Hangars are very big places y'know...

Determined window shoppers are gonna have to put up a hard fight, or observe wartime austerity until their next payday...

A miniature biplane on display in the hangar.

Gutted that you missed all this?  Well, don't forget the Contemporary Craft Shopping Experience. 


OH. BIG NEWS!!! I'm also going international!!! The YWCA in Singapore will be organising a Christmas Bazaar which will be held at Fort Canning Lodge on the 18 December 2010, 11am-7pm. Please tell all your friends. Come say hello to Sock 'N' Soul, Darn Stuff and meee!!! 

Just so all you Singapore-based peeps don't feel left out      > U <


So what's your date to remember, boys and girls? 5th for UK peeps and 18th for Singapeeps. Don't forget yah? xxx

Nudi Frolics

For those of you who may have assumed that commissions should be based on the peeps receiving them, here's a little inspiration...

I'm sure you've seen a sock, or several...'cos who hasn't, right? You might have seen a nudibranch, but I bet you've never seen a sock nudibranch!

Ooo, here's our first sighting...

These underwear and versatextile creatures are enough to make one go googly-eyed with surprise...

Hmm, this one has a familiar features though...remember him?

No?

Here's a hint...

The face that launched a thousand (blog) hits.

Yup, if you've been following Danyilin's escapades all over the Americas, tasty bits of Asia, Rome-antic Italy (coming soon!), and, now their, uh, other escapades in Maybe Baby, it'll come as no stunner that these nudis were requested by the frolicksome couple, based on a couple of beauties they photographed off the coast of Indonesia. This pretty pair were specially selected from the Lembeh Straits, a hotbed of slinky li'l nudis shakin' their tail feathers at the eager photographers.

Attractive nudi pics taken by Danyilin, who'd seen them all.

These nudis preferred to bask on pebble bay, at my parents' front yard.

I thought I'd enact a fantasy, nudi-style that Dan would approve of - like Apollo being chased by Daphne, instead of the other way round.

Daphne gaaains on him as they round a bend! *in my best F1 commentator voice*
My dad would be so proud...

Aaand she's caught up! She's onto 'im!

Oh. Oops. *cheeks turn bright pink* Uh, yeah! Customised sock critters are fun for everyone! 

*HAND COVERS SCREEN*

Nuffin' to see here, folks, keep movin' along...

until the next post! > U -

    

There's a sock to fit every soul...

A few of you have asked about customisations recently, so I thought I'd blog about it so you can make informed choices about your *ahem* Christmas shopping (& take advantage of my free delivery offer!) *plug plug*

The answer to this is a resounding YES!!! I'll customise anything you'd like me to. This applies to stock dolls and commissions (see what I did there? hehe)

• You can get any stock doll personalised for the usual price plus an extra £10-20 typically. 

Customised Stock 'N' Soul *wink*

• You can commission one, which allows you to opt for virtually anything your soul desires. Because there's no limit to what you can request, it's kinda difficult for me to put a price on it right here. So if a commission is what fits your shoe best, please get in touch with details/pictures/likes/hobbies/addictions etc that you'd like me to sock up and I'd be more than happy to give you a quote. Orrrrrr you could give me a budget and I'll give you some ideas that'll fit the bill.

The options are endless...I've made realistic action figures...

Hey, that's me!! (no, not *me* me, it's UK Bboy Champs solo winner, Mouse)

Here's lookin' at ya, kid!

I've also made close friends, their hair, the clothes they wear...

and favourite pet!

Couples who hold hands on happy occasions...

They can also unhold hands on unhappy occasions, but no one wants to see that

Sock 'N' Sole ('cos it's the one and only) can also hold other things... I've borrowed this picture because it's amazing that my work can be a part of the big things in people's lives.

Look ma, BOTH hands!!!

These gifts are not just for Christmas, they're for life. 

OOF!!!                         *gasp*                         *HALP!* 

I've just been smothered by a buttery pile of corniness.

Sorry. Normal service will resume in next blog    > . -

Tag, you're it!

I've been feeling pretty smug about my Sock 'N' Soul packaging lately, as some of you can probably tell. It's almost completely homemade, 'cept for the box, and with just under 2 months to Christmas in a still credit-crunchy UK, I think pressies should be all about the personal touch. It's easy peasy to make stickers at home like the ones on my boxes, which you can use to label parcels with 'Dear Mum, Happy Christmas! With love from, Su', so your Gran doesn't open it to find the same box of choccies/ bath smellies/ Whittard's tea selection you got for both of them...

Or how's about 'Dear (insert boyfriend/ girlfriend/ spouse/ partner's name), Happy Christmas! With love from (it'd NEVER happen to me *angelic halo*)' so your Dad doesn't open it and wonder why you got him Saucy Charades. See? These babies can get you out of many sticky situations! 

You can turn them into gift tags, envelope & parcel seals - imitate the way girly shops like to wrap everything in pink tissue with an equally pink sticker, so you can plop it into a nice bag instead of finding the right-sized box for it, or giftwrapping an awkwardly shaped gift. There's definitely something about coloured tissue that adds a bit of luxury. Lip seals? hehe...not for dry winter skin...I mean, the ol' cutting-out keeps the family occupied *and quiet!* when everyone's home for Christmas.

If you get Christmas money and, err...buy yourself something in a box which you'd like to photograph for your thank-you letter, I put DJ in the spotlight of my trusty desk lamp to minimise the shadow.

About the stickers:

• Decide what you want on them; you can do one-offs or whole sheets of the same thing.
  
• Get yourself some boring white office labels for the stickers...8 to an A4 sheet is a decent size to work with.
  
• Enter the measurements of your labels using the Mailing Label Wizard on Word - NOT THE STICKER MEASUREMENTS - it's a fiddly task so this'll give you more flexibility and save you doing it more than once.
• Design your sticker. Coloured text can look very nice, but you can use logos, clipart, etc to be more fancy shmancy. Straight edges make life easier. It's better if the design doesn't fit exactly on the label, because your printer doesn't print exactly where you told it to; so always leave a spare few millimetres.
• Print the labels out with a good ol' inkjet.
• Cut with a penknife and ruler (or freehand if you REALLY need to distract the hungry hordes while Mr Turkey is defrosting).

Slice 'em nice

Store in a cool dry place.

Stick them on card, string 'em up and that's what makes them tags, or X'mas deccies if you're feeling the post-Nativity blues!

I'll tell you next year whether they keep longer than the Christmas pudding. Hehe.

'It's been a long time...

...I shouldn't have left you

Without a strong rhyme to step to,

Think of how many weak shows you slept through

Time's up, I'm sorry I kept you...' - Eric B. and Rakim

 Welcome to my brand spanking new blog!! 

This is one of my favourite tunes. So favourite that I chose it at our wedding ceremony while Andy pretended it was his favourite too. Wanna hear it? Try this! Some beeeeooootiful breaking too...

Considering I've got a range of BBOYS called Sock 'N' Soul, I've been dying to use it in connection with them too. It'll take me a while to figure out how to animate my souljas to 'I know you got soul', so I thought it ain't a bad thing to name this blog after it for now. I'm lovin' the new flavour *dances around the beautiful clean webspace, jump on new design features...change the tempo (that's template in new school blogspeak)* Haha!
Now to serious blogging, bizness and breaking...
I promised earlier this week on my Facebook page to show off the new packaging for my Sock 'N' Souljas, so show it off, I sure will...

TA-DAAAAAAAH!!!!

Have a look at my new school Sock 'N' Souljas here! £30 each. Shout if you'd like one, 'cos some of them are off to Kong at CV1 this week...
Here's a bit in my noo skool b-log about the bboying (bgirling for me) that inspired me to come up with those Souljas in the first place.
Here I am at the UK BBoy Champs freezing in front of their backdrop. Free photos! Uploaded online the next day! Gotta be done...

 I *ahem* borrowed this from Sony Ericsson 

And last weekend Andy and I were at Just Jam in Newcastle helping our friend Andrea run a stall at the hip hop market tied in with the event. She kindly lent us some room in return, so Sock 'N' Souljas had an unexpected outing too. Yippee!

I was pretty taken by the set up at the event. This lighting is pretty cool!

Usually at these events the bboys battle each other, sometimes in crews (you can so tell that it's a male-dominated dance form) until the winner emerges in the finals. However, on this occasion...

The lovely Andrea got to sell some T-shirts...

We got to watch some battles...

Pose by the funky Dance City backdrop and boombox...

Though our photography is not as hot as the Sony Ericsson pros =(

Sock 'N' Soul & Darn Stuff got to go on tour...

And some happy bbuyers got to take home the Sock 'N' Souljas!

So it was a win-win event all round!    > u <
Heyy, I've promoted quite a few clothing labels here today...notice the product placement..? Right, one for me too!
My Sock 'N' Soul hip hop tees can be viewed on my website or on Facebook. Please email me if you'd like one, I accept payment by bank transfer or Paypal.