Someone who has a hand on the pulse of all that is handmade is events organiser Sarah James, known significantly for her work on the Contemprorary Craft Fair as well as many other creative ventures.
Please tell us you who are and what you do?
Sarah James. Director of The Contemporary Craft Fair, Made by Hand at Tredegar House and www.madebyhandonline.com
http://www.rachelgornall.co.uk/
How long have you worked in the creative industries?
17 years-blimey! I’ve been a maker (ceramics degree from Glasgow School of Art), information assistant at the Crafts Council, Craft Development Officer for Calderdale Council, West Yorkshire, gallery owner (Made, Clifton, Bristol) then events since 2003 with a brief period of co-director of the Devon Guild of Craftsmen and currently working on new online retail site, directory and info portal, madebyhandonline. Also managed to produce 2 children, Ella (10) and Lewi (6).
http://www.christianoreilly.com/
Craft / handmade has had a troubled reputation in the past, how do you think things have changed in the last few years and why?
So many things have changed. Lots very much for the better, some things are very worrying indeed. One of the most recent and most powerful changes has been the use of social media and blogging to market and galvanise support and to spread news and campaigns so quickly. Groups set up on Facebook have left many of the government agencies way behind. The word “craft”, even though I and many others have tried to champion the phrase, still appears not to have broken away from being lumped in with poorly executed and amateur things. Hand made is a stronger and more positive description. Marketing and presentation has improved but has a long way to go. Makers are generally a lot more organised and many are extremely professional but communication with customers is often a secondary thought to the making, which is undertandable as there are many pressures to take into consideration. But with so many cheap and almost free options available to market work and events, there really is no excuse. My longer term concerns lie in the closure of so many skills based courses up and down the country. It’s fundamental to the future of the industry which has really shaped up so much in recent years.
http://www.virginiagraham.co.uk/
How significant to do think the current move towards handmade is to the economy and do you think it will last?
Regardless of the other issues, I think it is a very exciting time to be a maker and I think that handmade has massive potential. The market for craft is changing and the way people buy it is changing too. The recession had an big effect on the private gallery sector with a lot not surviving and publicly funded galleries are under increasing pressure. There is a strong movement towards selling directly to the public either at large, qaulity events or on the internet. It’s interesting how the recession and made the market respond in such a positive way. I think it’s a very exciting time and that I believe the market for buying handmade will go up and up.
What advice would you give to a new designer just starting out in business?
Invest in good photography-I cannot stress how important this is. From getting into magazines, being selected for exhibitions and events, without good clear imagery you are making life very difficult for yourself. Pool your resources, club together and buy studio time with a recommended photographer. Get a business card made, with an image of your work on it – Moo and Aubergine produce good quality, short runs and quite reasonably. Get a Facebook page and link it to Twitter-update daily and spend 20 seconds to get a lot in return. I use my Facebook pages like a constant stream of relevant and hopefully interesting info! Good presentation is expected from the start. A website is also a must and can be practically free with so many software packages available and with good photography you can manage with very little at the start.
Do you find the general public prefer to buy handmade over high street equivalents?
Obviously, we’re not beating the highstreet yet! There is a groundswell for authenticity, uniqueness, integrity and individuality as consumers become increasingly interested about how, why and where things are made. There are a lot of similarities to the food industry and how as consumers we have become more demanding of the quality and source of what we eat – it’s slowly becoming the same with the things which we want for our homes or what we wear. It’s all about the strength of the brand – How do I want to be defined? Do I follow the crowd or do I want to have my own style. Handmade is almost an “anti brand” brand! The kudos is the uniqueness and not the label put upon it.
Is there more independents like ourselves can do to improve the perception of handmade?
Punch above your weight. Be professional, well presented, tell your story and communicate with your customers – A clear approach is needed to sell products that are preceived to be expensive -when really it’s more about explaining the value. Simples!
www.madebyhand-wales.co.uk
www.madebyhandonline.com
www.craftsatboveytracey.co.uk
Today we talk to the creator of the Handmade Crafts Directory UK who has personally seen an increase in people joining the directory and asked him for his views on handmade….
Please tell us you who are and what you do?
I’m Matt Chatterley and I’m one of the directors of Mattched IT Ltd, a Web & Software Development agency based in Hampshire. Amongst the online handmade community, I’m probably better known for our free (well, advertising supported) project “Handmade crafts Directory UK” which is aimed at helping provide ways and means for makers to promote themselves.
How long have you worked in the creative industries?
I’ve worked in software for about ten years – if you count the web as a creative industry! I grew up with a crafts business in the family, though, which is why I’ve always been a big fan of great quality handmade goods.
Craft / handmade has had a troubled reputation in the past, how do you think things have changed in the last few years and why?
The recent downturn has definitely had an impact on the general perception of crafts – lots of great kids activities which might have been previously labelled as boring (or sadly “too much like hard work”) by parents have started to become fashionable again – mainly because they offer great value for money!
The community has been quick to seize on this and most areas have seen an increase in the number of craft workshops and courses being offered – which in turn seems to have fed a growing demand.
Sites like Makers Online, our own directory, Etsy, MISI and all the others have also helped to provide a platform which serious crafters have been able to use to start re-establishing the reputation of British Handmade – that the level of quality is high and it’s hard to find anything to beat something made with so much skill and care.
Mainstream media attention (e.g Kirstie’s Homemade Home) and other factors such as the Campaign for Wool have also helped to raise the profile of Heritage crafts, which is also important.
How significant to do think the current move towards handmade is to the economy and do you think it will last?
Although I answered most of this above, I think it’s worth saying that I’m fairly optimistic that the upturn for handmade will outlast the economic recovery. While some pockets of people still believe things will be “back to normal” soon, I prefer to say that economically speaking, what is happening right now IS the norm – I don’t believe a return to the days of abundant, cheap credit is ever going to happen.
I suppose to a greater extent, it depends on how firmly crafters can embed themselves into local and online communities.
What advice would you give to a new designer just starting out in business?
Be prepared for a lot of very hard but very rewarding work! Running your own business (whatever the field), is about 10x harder than you suspect – even if you’ve done all your research very carefully. It is, however, extremely rewarding when things go well!
Do you find the general public prefer to buy handmade over high street equivalents?
I’m going to say ye-es.. a reserved yes! I think, given the choice and if price were not a factor, most people would choose handmade over high street equivalents. The problems are obviously trying to compete on price and getting the choice to them – if you’re visiting somewhere for a day or two, it’s easy to find the high street but not always so easy to find good places to check out what is on offer from local crafters.
Of course, there will always be a segment of the population who don’t care – or who are mainly price motivated – you encounter them in all industries and to a large extent they will never go for what they see as ‘premium’ options.
Is there more independents like ourselves can do to improve the perception of handmade?
A personal bug-bear of mine is websites for full-time craft businesses (obviously). A lot tend to look very home-made and unprofessional. I’m not advocating a dry corporate approach (far from it – take a look at our directory – it’s not exactly corporate; nor is it perfect), but it’s always a tragedy when you see a dodgy photo on a website that looks a bit wonky – of a product which you suspect in other light would be amazing.
It’s getting easier and cheaper to build better websites all the time, but I suspect this is one area in which crafters might benefit from speculating a bit more. Then again, I’m bound to say that, aren’t I!
http://www.mattchedit.com/
http://www.handmade-crafts.co.uk/
Today we hear from Jewellery Designer Rachel Lucie about her thoughts on the perception of handmade…
Please tell us you who are and what you do?
I design and make silver jewellery using semi-precious beads, pearls and Swarovski crystal. I aim for a clean contemporary look, but take my inspiration from vintage design. I sell online and in several galleries.
How long have you been a jewellery designer?
2.1/2 years
Have you found it hard to compete with high street shops?
I do experience it directly at craft fairs with people who are looking for a bargain, and don’t realize that handmade semi-precious jewellery will not compare price wise to Accessorize or M&S. I find I need to have designs that not fashion orientated, because that is where you meet the big chains head on, and they will win. But, with a mind to create something that is a little bit different or offers something extra, some people do appreciate it, and there is a market there. Then you’ve just got to find those people!
Do you price your work to fit in with your competitors or at a rate that suitably reflects your time and skill.
Pricing is such a hard thing to get right! It’s very hard to place a value on your own work (not easy for us modest Brits!) so I tend to use a table to work it out for me. I feel less worried about a piece turning out to be expensive, because I know it’s all in the figures.
In general, I think I am fairly near. The problem comes when you are competing with people who are doing it as a hobby and are just looking to cover their costs and a bit extra. That’s a hard one.
Do you buy handmade?
Not as much as I should, but then, with 2 small children, this is not the time in my life to be investing in beautiful things that I will either never get the use out of, will get ruined or aren’t hard wearing enough for family use! We often lack the time or money or opportunity, but this is only a phase. We do always make a point on holiday of buying something locally handmade, and have built up quite a collection of special and loved objects around the house. As the kids grow up, I hope to do lots more of this!
How significant to do think the current move towards handmade is to the economy and do you think it will last?
Potentially, it is very significant, but it is so hard to call as society is so complex, and there are so many factors that lead to people’s buying choices. I think only time will tell. I do think that the fact that it has been rather in vogue to have programmes on either crafts or small niche businesses currently is fantastic, and can only help the cause. Often people just don’t realise what is out there until they are shown it. (Master Crafts or Mary Queen of Shops). The current economic climate and the increasing realisation that we can’t keep buying plastic tat forever is also making people think about what they can do and be creative themselves. It can only be a good thing! People are starting to ask how things can be made so cheaply, and we know this often comes at a cost of other people elsewhere in the world. People will only realise the value in something handmade which may cost more when they realise that it can last and therefore provide value for money that way.
What advice would you give to a new designer just starting out in business?
You obviously need to start from making something you enjoy, but you then need to think hard about how much money you can concievably make to be a viable business. Or is it something you will do along side another job. Are you making a product that people will want to buy? (tough question, but important!) Can you sell it for a price that reflects your effort/time/materials versus the value people want to pay for it?
Do a lot of research about what similar products are out there, how are they sold (eg online or craft shops etc), how much are they sold for. Try a little market research – ask friends, friends of friends etc.
Do you find the general public prefer to buy handmade over high street equivalents?
I think there are a lot of people who don’t really care, on the face of it, but that is usually because they are unaware of the benefits/value/range of products out there. A larger amount are into the idea, but perceive it as not for them, or not affordable.
Is there more independents like ourselves can do to improve the perception of handmade?
Tough! I suppose be accessible, talk about what we do, show people the value in what we do, get people involved – it’s great fun to do! Let’s face it, in times like these, a bit of recycling and good old fashioned thrift or mending etc is a sensible and eco friendly too.
website: http://www.rachellucie.co.uk
email: mail@rachellucie.co.uk
twitter: http://twitter.com/rachellucie
blog: http://rachelluciejewellerydesigns.blogspot.com
This week we are running a series of interviews discussing the rise of handmade and whether it can compete with the high street. Firstly we speak to Susan Morrow of Handmade and Fabulous who led a PR campaign with UK Handmade to attract the attention of Mary Portas of Mary Queen of Shops Fame. You can see Mary’s response here.
Please tell us who you are and what you do?
My name is Susie Morrow. I am a jewellery designer maker working in precious metals and using semi-precious and precious gemstones to create highly individual pieces.
Have you always been creative?
Well not really – my teachers wouldn’t let me do an O’ level in art as they said I wasn’t good enough. I ended up getting an A’ level in art though (I never listen to teachers) and getting onto an Art degree, but I ended up doing a degree in chemistry instead (long story!)
When did you first start making jewellery?
About a year ago. I like to start at the hard bit first and work my way backwards. So, I taught myself to solder and use various metal working techniques, from the very start. After that you have much more scope in what you can do and where to take your designs. I am still on a learning curve though but I love it.
Do you buy handmade? Who are your favourite designer / makers?
I do, I buy lots and always try to choose handmade for presents. My favourite designers, include but are not limited to (and I have pieces from all of these makers):
Janine Basil – for hats and headbands (perfectly made)
MrsGknits – Anything woolly (she knits beautiful things)
Konnie Kapow – for cards (I get all of my cards from KK now)
I Heart Fink – clothes (they design their own fabrics, screen print them, then make them into clothes)
ClareBears – teddy bears (beautiful and characterful)
Quernus Crafts – for my doggie in polymer clay
You recently lead a PR drive to reach Mary Portas – what gave you the idea?
I was sitting watching one of her shows (drink in hand of course) and it suddenly hit me that her techniques could and should be applied to the handmade industry. Mary works with the highstreet, with big brands, but tries to get unknown brands into the same mode of thinking and looking at their business as a brand. I thought that Mary would be perfect to help us brand ‘handmade’. I also had the idea that handmade items could be sold alongside mass produced in high street shops. However, not in the way that Jo Malone tried to do it, i.e. finding handmade products that could be mass produced – rather in finding a sales model that could accommodate the uniqueness inherent in many handmade products, but present them in the medium of the high street. I have never understood why we must mass produce goods to sell them in accessible venues – there should be room for local production and mass production to work alongside each other, to give greater choice to the buying public and at the same time create sustainable business models for designer makers who cant mass produce.
Were you surprised by the response?
No I wasn’t because when I saw the ground swell of support from the handmade community for the campaign, I just knew she would have to respond of look really bad. The handmade community must have brought an large amount of traffic to her twitter account, website, blog and forums during the campaign, so she couldn’t really ignore it.
What can independent designer / makers learn from this advice?
Mary’s advise was sound, in the main. The handmade industry really do need to step up their game in terms of professionalism. Marketing seems to be one of the areas that the industry is most lacking in. Making your photo’s of your products beautiful and clear. Learning how to merchandise and create stories around your products to enhance their uniqueness and add value are
key elements that Mary spoke of. However, one of the points she didn’t grasp was that a lot of us are doing this part-time while holding down other jobs and often bringing up small children too. It can be incredibly difficult to run a part time business to the best of your capabilities under these sorts of circumstances. The handmade industry needs to have either an organisation, or a group, that can advise people entering the space about best practises. I’m hoping that the Mary Portas campaign is just the beginning of our industry standing up and saying to the buying public, ‘look
at what we do, isn’t it fantastic and aren’t you glad you have this choice.’
Marketing is often one of the biggest headaches for people setting up a small business. Not only can it be expensive, it can also take up a great deal of time. For people running courses, classes or workshops there’s a new and free site that could help save both money and time.
Ooh.com is a site where anyone who offers courses, classes or workshops can list them for free. If you run courses you can register with the site and then upload all the details of your courses, include prices, dates, costs and even photos and YouTube clips. Unlike other listings sites, you can also take direct bookings and payments from customers. People coming to the site looking to book courses can search by category, country, date and price.
Emma, Marketing Director at Ooh.com says, “We believe it’s the many individuals and small businesses who are offering some of the most interesting things to do out there, and these are the people we really want to encourage to list on the site. It’s free to use the site, and already people have listed over 600 very diverse craft, creative and design courses, making it our most popular category on the site. We’re really excited by this as, like Makers Online, we want to support and encourage creative people in the UK. We hope Ooh.com gives them a free marketing tool they can use to promote their courses and classes to a much wider market than they might be able to reach on their own. We also hope that if someone is an expert craftsman or designer and they’re looking to pass on their skills and earn money from doing so, they could set up classes up and sell them on Ooh.”
People searching for creative courses on the site might find jewellery making courses, sewing surgeries, art classes, pottery tuition and much more.
Contact details:
Email: emma@ooh.com
Twitter: @oohdotcom
Are you a craft blogger? Would you like to try a craft course or workshop and then write us a review? If so, Ooh.com might pay for you to go and do it!
People have listed (for free) over 660 craft and creative classes, courses and workshops on Ooh.com – from learning to screenprint a handmade book and basket weaving to sewing surgeries and pottery classes. And now they are looking for people to review some of the craft fantastic activities going on.
So if you’re a craft blogger, search the Ooh.com site, find something you’d like to do and review, and then send an email to emma@ooh.com. Just tell Emma which activity (up to the £50/$70 mark) you’d like to try and include a link to your blog.
It really is that simple! So have a look around the site and get in touch….
Another way to deal with craft fair displays is to go round your local charity shops and find pretty and unusual objects to show your wares on as Teresa from Mimi Pearl shows…
For display I use a selection of vintage glasses, jewellery boxes and mirrors to display my wares – all charity shop finds – NO plastic in sight!!!
I think it all fits in with the pretty and vintage inspired jewellery & hairpins, the bunting and boudoir bags, are made from a mixture of vintage, recycled and new fabrics also.
For jewellery, I make my own soft pouches from a mixture of new and recycled fabrics – usually cottons – that have either been passed onto me or I have bought, instead of using boxes. I figured
this way, customers will have something useful and pretty to store their Mimi Pearl jewels in (plus it has my printed ribbon on it, so a great way to advertise). Sometimes people buy as gifts and want a message adding – so I make card tags from recycled card off cuts and decorate with odd bits of ribbon and lace that I cannot use for other projects. My mum is a seamstress and often sends me offcuts of fabric from alterations, and bags of trimming off cuts – so these all get used.
See more of Teresa’s work…
http://www.makers-online.co.uk/artist/mimi-pearl
http://mimi-pearl.blogspot.com/
Craft fairs are a great way to promote your business and meet your buying public, but getting your display to not only look good but stay within the eco friendly ethos can be a challenge. Acrylic displays are functional (and I have a few myself) but there are more creative ways to show off your work, as Evie from Milomade proves…
When it comes to craft fairs, you don’t want to be spending a lot of money on display units and pieces to showcase your work. I invested in a few of these stands from a well known furniture store..
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/80136622
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/60136623
You can see them in action in the photo above, but I’ve pretty much made everything else or chosen to use things I already own to give everything a more handcrafted look.
My display boards.
I managed to source a couple of cork bath mats a couple of years ago and I painted these with white emulsion and added a stitched red thread kind of dotted line around the edge of them that echoed my branding. My ‘too good to waste’ motto was painted along the bottom and my Milomade logo at the top. I simply glued a piece of 2” wood down the centre of the back of each board and then attached a shelf bracket to the bottom so that they would stand up. I had to bend the shelf bracket a little so that the boards would lean backwards a little. Because they’re made from cork boards, I can pin loads of stuff to
them and have used them at every craft fair I’ve ever done.
Papier Mache Boxes and Badge Board.
We eat a lot of tomatoes and they always come in small plastic boxes. Luckily the plastic is recyclable otherwise they wouldn’t make it off the shelves and into my basket, but I tend to hold onto the plastic boxes rather than put them in the recycling bin as they’re so useful. I use them for storing buttons and scraps in my studio all the time. But to jazz then up for a craft fair, I covered two of them in papier mache and painted them white – they’re now very durable and a little bit of handcrafted niceness to display my badges and other items in.
Here is when you really find out that I throw nothing away. We had an old futon which fell apart and so the wood got repurposed into a bench as well as many other things and the mattress got stripped and the padding within it bagged up for future use – I’ve made countless cushions out of it, but also found it pretty handy when making a badge board for a craft fair. I had a piece of old perspex lying around, a nice big square of it , so I covered this in foam from the futon, I then got some black fabric and covered the foam with it – it was all sewn quite randomly and messily at the back, but that didn’t matter. It became a nice sturdy cushioned board on which I could pin loads of badges for display.
Plastic Pipes are handy!
A while back I used an offcut of a plastic pipe we’d bought to fix something or other to display my hair bobbles. It was white which meant it fitted in with my display. I just needed to sand and smooth off the edges and attach it with a bit of elastic to my display units. I’ve since found a different solution to displaying my hair bobble, but I didn’t throw the plastic pipe away. I’ve managed to adapt it and I’m going to be using it at my next craft fair to display some necklaces. I recently bought a shop keepers dummy which I painstakingly covered in red fabric: http://www.milomade.co.uk/blog/2010/06/craft-faircrazy-part-1/. It has a thin pipe running down it’s core and my plastic pipe slot on top of this perfectly. So my shop keepers dummy now has a very strange ‘head’ – the plastic pipe comes out the top of in and after cutting a groove into the top of it, I’ve been able to glue a piece of wooden dowl, also found lying around the house, to the top of it to form a ‘T’ and can now hang necklaces form either side of it. I need to paint it white, but not got round to that yet.
Other stuff I’ve repurposed…
- A wooden mug holder can easily be transformed to display bracelets/bangles. You can hang them on all the little arms that stick out.
- A wooden kitchen roll holder can be used in much the same way. This is simply a sturdy stand with an upright pole sticking out of it. I’ve use one to display my elasticated bracelets and it worked really well.
- Cigar boxes and biscuit tins are nice to use as they give your stall a vintage look and feel and if, like me, your products are made from recycled materials then using old tins and boxes is a nice touch. Here’s a fab tutorial on how to convert a cigar box into a ring display. http://www.milomade.co.uk/blog/2010/03/tutorial-tuesday-ring-storage/
Homemade card display stands for jewellery.
I’m a member of the Cookson Gold Forums http://www.cooksongold.com/forum and often chit chat with other jewellers about how they display their work. If you visit this blog post you’ll see some really lovely simple card stands for necklaces and earrings and downloadable PDF template: http://boojewels.blogspot.com/2008/11/free-necklacedisplay-bust-template.html
They’re really easy to make and also adapt – I’ve adapted the design to suit my products and have a whole batch made up to use at craft fairs for both my earrings, necklaces and bracelets.
Read more about Evie and her craft fair experiences http://www.milomade.co.uk/blog/
http://www.makers-online.co.uk/artist/milomade
We all know how it important it is when buying things at a supermarket to try and find ways to reduce the amount of packaging we purchase with our goods, but when it comes to the day to day running of your own business it can be harder to incorporate, especially when selling online involves sending your goods through the mail or at craft fairs and shops where items need to be wrapped up to protect them.
You can find out a lot of information on recycled packaging on Business Link, but we talked to Evie of Milomade and Lynsey of Swirlyarts about how they deal with their own packaging needs in a more creative way.
Evie: When I first started Milomade I didn’t really need to think about packaging as I was mostly selling to friends and family and a few things online. It’s when I came to do my first craft fair that I really started thinking about what to do about handing over the goods sold to the customer – how would I wrap them? What would the customer expect? How could I do this sustainably?
As my motto is ‘too good to waste’ and my work focuses on recycling/upcycling I thought it best to approach my packaging in the same way. I’m a big fan of origami, so I played around with a few ideas and eventually came up with my Gift Bag design that wouldn’t need to rely on glue or sticky tape and could be made out of a page from an old magazine. I could use different sized pages to make different sized bags to suit my different products. It wasn’t suitable for everything, but worked brilliantly for most and the customers loved them. They were attracted to my products and loved the idea that everything was recycled and when they purchased something and found that it then got put into a little gift bag, also made from recycled products, they were even more delighted and impressed that I’d thought through the ‘whole’ process. You can see the tutorial on how to make a gift bag here:
http://www.milomade.co.uk/blog/2008/11/tutorial-01-how-to-make-a-gift-bag/
and here:
http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/gift_bag_made_from_a_magazine_page
As my product ranges have developed, so has my packaging too. I started making envelopes and notebooks and these needed to be protected at craft fairs and in shops selling my goods to avoid them getting tatty and grubby. So I searched around for biodegradable bags to put them in – it was a lengthy task as at the time there weren’t a lot of companies providing biodegradable stuff. I eventually sourced someone on eBay selling biodegradable corn starch cello bags and bulk bought a huge supply. This supply ran out earlier this year and I was disappointed to find that the seller no longer deals on eBay, so I started a new search, but this time around there were plenty of suppliers to choose from. I opted for two.
Firstly www.eco-crafts.co.uk. Not only do they do biodegradable bags in all shapes and sizes that I could use for my envelopes, notebooks, paper garlands, notecards, confetti etc, they also do a great range of boxes made from recycled card – so I’ve now started using their pillow boxes for my Jewellery collection sales. They also do good recycled blank card stock and all of my notecards are made from the cards I buy from them as I can buy the cards, envelopes and bags knowing that the whole package is eco-friendly.
Secondly I use www.wfdenny.co.uk as they are specialists in biodegradeable and compostable packaging. Ok it’s mostly food packaging, but they have a great range of ziplock bags in different sizes that are perfect for my packs of badges and gift tags. They also sell plain brown paper bags in different sizes which I’ve stocked up on to use at craft fairs.
Find out more about Evie at www.milomade.co.uk and http://www.makers-online.co.uk/artist/milomade
Lynsey: From the moment I started Swirlyarts back in 2006 I knew I wanted to to be as environmentally friendly as possible. This manifests itself in many ways! For a start about 85% of the products I make use recycled/upcycled or repurposed materials and I’m trying to get that percentage higher all the time! For example I have a local charity shop that isn’t allowed by management to sell any books that are damaged (missing or coloured pages/missing spine etc) and they have to pay their local council to take away any waste they accumulate. This is where I step in as I take away some of the books, give them a donation (as I’m not officially allowed to buy them!) and I then use the books to make my products. If possible all of the book is used. The covers are filled with reclaimed paper and turned into notebooks (the paper comes from the scrapstore which is donated by local businesses who are changing their headed paper/have moved), the pages of the books are used for envelopes and the remaining bits of paper are used for stickers or gift tags. If I have any offcuts of paper from making the notebooks I keep those to make mini matchbook notebooks that I give away as an extra with orders.
Likewise I save the scraps of material leftover from chicken making to make my business cards and I have recently started saving the tiny scraps of material to become softie stuffing! Nothing gets wasted in this house! The backing for my gift tags comes from cardboard that would go into the recycling (cereal packets mainly) although I don’t use any cardboard that has been next to food or in the fridge/freezer so I don’t reuse all of our cardboard.
I do have practical things that I do too such as having a separate bin in my craft room for recycling which is taken downstairs and put into the recycling bins on a regular basis. This removes the temptation just to put the recycling into the the normal bin to sort later…… I’m also lucky that my craft room is located at the top of the house so is nice and warm most of the time and it has a skylight above my desk so I use natural light a lot which saves on electricity. I also reuse padded envelopes that are sent through to me and I also make my own from bubble wrap (saved from the fruit and veg aisle – with permission!) and thick book pages. I also save security envelopes to make gift tags and stickers.
Find out more about Lynsey at www.swirlyarts.com
Going green isn’t easy. Sourcing materials and suppliers involves a lot of research and patience (and possibly money) but if you believe in what you are doing then it is worth it.
Rose Sharp Jones is one such designer who takes her responsibilites as a textile designer very seriously and as a result produces original, quality handmade goods you can be confident will be eco friendly, as well as being completely gorgeous!
Chunky Mittens Long: Hand crocheted using undyed British wool
As a designer I feel it is important to be aware of where the materials I work with have come from. A lot of environmental damage is caused by the textile industry, and as a textile designer I wanted to minimise my negative impact on the environment.
Reclaimed chair repaired and then upholstered using organic wool and fabric.
One of my intentions during my recent MA course was to make my work as environmentally friendly as possible. I carried out a lot of research into organic and sustainable yarns and materials which enabled me to produce my entire collection from such resources. I also incorporated found furniture pieces which I restored and reupholstered.
Cotton Mittens (white): Hand crocheted using organic, fairtrade cotton. Vintage button fastenings.
After completing my course I wanted to continue using these materials. I have since set up a business producing a collection of hand made interior products and wearable accessories that are all made from organic and sustainable materials. All wool I use is organic, and where possible I use British wool as I feel it is important to support the native wool industry. The cotton yarn I use is organic, fairtrade and dyed with environmentally friendly pigments.
I also produce a collection of screen printed fabrics made using organic cotton and water based printing inks that are environmentally friendly.
Find out more about Rose…
http://www.rosesharpjones.co.uk/
http://www.makers-online.co.uk/artist/rose-sharp-jones