Wednesday 13 January 2010

Northampton Craft Fair - 31st January 2010

I am very much looking forward to taking part in a new Craft Fair venue in Northampton at the Tetley Stand Conference facility at Northampton Saints Rugby Club which is located in the center of Northampton itself.

The Show's Organiser David Smith is an old hand at organising such events and the day looks to be a really fun exciting one with such crafts as jewellery artists, mosaic pictures, fine art photography, handmade cards, clocks, ceramics, handmade soaps, baked goods and much much more on offer.

Doors open on the fair at 10am and will run until 4pm with admission a very reasonable £2. With free parking for 2,000 vehicles at the venue it should be a really good day out, so come along and say hello.

Click here to have a look at some of the wonderful products, craft and artwork that will be available on the day.

My biggest concern with such a fine array of beautiful goods available will be to try not to max out my credit card buying beautiful things to take home.

Tuesday 12 January 2010

Mini Magic

I fell in love with the second set of Secrist mini sculpts when they first appeared on the scene. I missed out of the first set completely, they sold out very fast but in some ways I don't actually mind that as the first set were in truth more difficult to do. On the first set you didn't have any pre-done eyes and painting realistic eyes onto a tiny 6 inch mini sculpt is a challenge to say the very least.

The second set featured 3 sculpts, one sleeping and two open eyed of which Belle, pictured here was one. This time the eyes were already done, which I imagine lead to more than one sigh of relief.

You would be mistaken in thinking that creating a doll from one of these tiny sculpts is any easier or less time consuming than a full sized sculpt, of anything they are more so because the tiny little details really require close attention and care when working on them.

although the mini sculpts came with their own very cute little outfits, it's always nice to add something individual and handmade and as luck would have it, I got that opportunity when I tested out a crochet pattern by Ceinwen Clarke that was going to be featured in the December 2009 Issue of Hello Dolly Magazine. After making the snuggie pattern up twice in full size i was inspired to make a mini version to fit little baby Belle.

Belle has recently gone off to a new home in Lithuania but I can see more minis in my future they are so much fun to do.