Crafty Thinking.

I have been a 'crafter' for 50 years or more....long before the word crafter was invented. Back then we were creative people who simply made things which other people preferred ( if they could ), to buy.

I have been a professional crafter since my early twenties. This meant that what I made was sold to the public in such quantity, that it paid the mortgage. Many of the companies which were founded when I was young are still going. They were founded long before many of the present proponents of the crafting revolution were born! Many fell by the wayside after a good run at it. Nowadays, I don't consider myself a professional, as I have retired and I just play at it. But I still consider myself ( if you will forgive the unashamed plug ), professional in the execution of what I do.

There has been such an explosion of 'crafting' lately. The television and magazines are full of it. Everyone, we are told, can do it. Hmmmm can they?
Everyone CAN MAKE SOMETHING. Not everyone can be an artisan. Certainly, not everyone should sell to the public.

I only sell at craft fairs at Christmas, nowadays. The rest of the year frankly, is not worth bothering with. Years ago I could sell what I made all year round. I tailored my production to the season, as a good craftsman should. Sadly, however, I have watched, over the last 30 years, the British craft industry, dwindle to a pale imitation of its former self.

So, not only has the word 'craft' it seems, changed its meaning but the world of British craft has changed beyond all recognition.

Back then, there were a great many small companies producing original, beautifully handmade goods with the sweat of their brow and blood of their thimbleless fingers ( or those of their outworkers.) The public demanded no less.
If the item was not well made, fit for the purpose and original - it did not survive their scrutiny. They did not buy it. The company would have gone bust. So the British craft industry thrived.

Then, the world began to open up - people started to travel more. They went to the Far East on their hols. They realised that they could get things made there much more cheaply. They brought things back with them ( as folk have done ever since the ark pitched up on Mt. Ararat! ). Companies which began to have things made abroad, turned up at fairs. The death knell sounded for those makers who spent their days hunched over a table, pouring their soul into their hand made items. The Trade shows I attended began to be filled more and more with foreign goods. It was hard to compete. It was impossible to compete. Gradually, public taste was changed, they became more fixed on price and less on quality and originality.
It was rather a chicken and egg situation. Do you offer the public what you think it should have, do you if you like, educate the public or do you follow trends and go with the flow regardless? It's a tough one if your inclination is to stick to your old fashioned values and remain a 'craftsman', an artisan.

Many of the goods coming in from abroad were tatty and badly made. They used inferior materials and were produced in less than ideal situations. Still, because they were encouraged by magazines, the T.V. and advertising, the public bought into this idea. The General P became much much less discriminating as a result. That lack of discrimination is still here with us today. Only much worse because, with the explosion in the U.K. of those producing hand made goods, we now have a whole strata of poorly made, unoriginal run of the mill British items. Sad.

I shall probably lose friends with the publication of this blog post. Especially if I air my views on Facebook, which I think is rife with this sort of thing. There are many super hand made items on Facebook - don't misunderstand me. But there are equally, a great many poorly made, badly thought out, trite ( If I see one more hessian heart tied up with string I'll scream!), overdone, unoriginal items out there. And not cheap either.

No apologies to http://www.etsy.com/listing/101801470/50-off-shabby-chic-stuffed-hessian

Nearly every fair I go to, there is someone, who has been 'crafting' for a mere few months, producing an idea that has been done to death, that wasn't their idea in the first place. The magazines make me smile. " Here is a craftsperson  who is making  THIS.... oh how lovely! They have been doing it a WHOLE YEAR..and now they are established. " Piffle. Nine times out of ten there is very little skill in what they do, it's not original as I say and, having made a study of how long these people trade...they are here today gone tomorrow. I could give you a list of advertisers in the back of these magazines who were plugged to within an inch of their life on the web but who, now are NOT FOUND items when you Google! The saddest thing is, these people are clogging up the works and diluting the pool.

So let's hear it for the truly CRAFTED item. One that has and will stand the test of time. That is not so simple and banal that it can be copied by anyone with a needle. One that has been thought up and is produced by someone with some SKILL and DEVOTION to what they do. These people are out there. Please Joe Public - patronise them and not those ideas that are pathetically brainless in their idea and execution.

I have watched the 'craft market' decline with foreign imported goods. I have watched its resurgence - its regeneration with the bring back 'knitting and crochet' revolution ( yawn ) - all very well but do think of something original and different please and make sure you are good at it before you foist it on the public- and I have watched the type of goods on offer slide into a mire of unoriginal thought and poor craftsmanship. I'm upset by it. I'm also irritated by it.

Let us make an analogy. Let's take the craft market ( already under threat because of the prevailing climate of jitteryness about the economy,) and liken it to a sponge cake. You can cut slices of that cake - it is after all only so big a cake, thickly or thinly. If you slice that cake thickly you are more likely to get a whole piece. If you try to slice it thinly, it will fall to pieces. See what I'm getting at?

We have a situation where there are too many 'crafters'...the cake is slicing too thinly and we are all the poorer for it.

When you go out to look for handmade goods, please keep in your head the fact that the word 'craft' in its dictionary definition means and I quote from the Oxford English.....
" Skill in doing or making something, as in the arts; proficiency.To make or construct (something) in a manner suggesting great care or ingenuity. An occupation or trade requiring manual dexterity or skilled artistry."
And with this in mind, look at your purchase with a clear idea of what you are buying. Don't be influenced by the herd. Think for yourself.

Felt Pretty

I am sitting at my computer at 1. 50 in the morning. It's not something I would normally be doing, you comprehend. But for quite a bit of pain in the bits and pieces, I would be snoring my head off along with my husband and dog.

It's not conducive to sleep. Neither is their snoring..but I digress.

In my post Thrifty Thinking I showed you the few small decorative boxes I had made for friends for Christmas, to contain bath bombs and the like. One good friend will be getting something a little bigger and more unusual.

Take one ready made Christmas stocking from Hobbycraft. Cost - about £2.50. You couldn't buy the felt for this.
Onto this rule diagonal lines and then make inch squares. Sew with a chain or running stitch. I used gold foil thread but plain is fine.
Using some dark green felt cut a circle which is about as big as a tea plate. If you like you can scallop the edges to make it more tree-like. Offer this up to your stocking and draw a line around it where you think it should go.

At the junction of each square sew a sequin...colour optional, but leave the squares inside the tree blank. No point in adding sequins here.
Cut out, in paler green felt about 25 small leaves - some facing one way, others the opposite way. Onto these sew with fairly large stitches, some veins, with dark green embroidery thread. Sew these to the green tree shape, positioning them carefully, some over the edges. If you are clever you can do this job in one process.

Leave a largish gap in the middle of your tree. Between the leaves sew with large stitches and with green embroidery thread, pine needles, here and there. Then add some red sequins to look like holly berries.

Cut out, in cream felt a bird shape which will fit into the middle of your tree. Cut his beak ( 2 ) and his wings ( it's up to you how many layers there are - I have four ) and his tail in a separate colour. I used brown. I also used a different brown for his face and the darker version for his crest for the top of his head. Sew with embroidery thread, the feathers of his tail and wings. Make up the two parts of the beak in yellow felt and stuff lightly. Close up the beak and embroider the central line. Cut another piece of cream felt for the back of the bird and lightly slip stitch around him leaving the bottom open so you can lightly stuff him....Hmmm stuffed partridge....)...not too fat now.
Close him up.  Add the beak as you stitch around him. Stitch on a black bead for an eye. If you like you can embellish him a little with red thread. Sew all the pieces of the wings together and add the tail.

Cut in yellow felt, eight pear shapes ( two each pear ) so you have a pair per pear < sorry >.
Slip stitch these and lightly stuff them.Close them up and then with brown thread make a semi circle and an inverted V shape at the bottom of each to indicate the indentation in the bottom of the pear.

Now sew all these to your tree shape, but leave some parts of the bird ( eg. his tail ) and the pears free of the backing.

Before you stitch the tree to the sock, add sequins and beads here and there for a bit of sparkle.

In brown felt, cut out a tree trunk - three branches at the top is sufficient. Sew this to the bottom of the tree. ( Make sure you leave a space for this when you sew on the leaves and pears. ) Pad this very lightly and slip stitch the bottom.

Cut out a banner in cream making it bend a little. You will also need two wavy ends, ( you can find patterns online ). Stitch the running thread and then the words and sew this over your tree trunk.

Add a wavy edge to the top of the stocking ( cut out a paper pattern for this - you'll find it easier to measure, ) and add sequins where ever you like.

Finally make a bigger pear with two padded leaves and add this to the hanger which is sticking out of the top of your stocking.

This stocking is based on one which is a kit from Bucilla ( I am informed no longer available - that is why I made my own ) which was HORRENDOUSLY expensive here in the U.K.

I made this one for about £5.

And about 24 hours of work, over a week.

Tremendous fun and pretty result.
Do you think she'll like it?
I think she would like it even more if I put a nice little something in it don't you?

Happy stitching!

Light Fantastic!

Last year when I came to take out my Christmas lights ( and I have five sets just for the tree alone ), I found to my dismay that two of them had gone kaput.

I bought another set but found that, when they came, they were rather short and were really only fit for the very top of the tree.
So this year, I am being prepared and am buying early for Christmas....I'm concerned you see, that the best lights ( those I inevitably want ) will sell out and I'll be left high and...well... dark.

I've ordered some sweet little red berry lights from my friend's shop and have ordered these from John Lewis to be delivered to my local Waitrose store...how convenient is THAT!

I thought they looked rather like real cones.

Blow me...this year I looked at my lights ( I shan't be caught out twice I can tell you....) and ANOTHER set has gone. This is the beautiful set of complex lights that look like mini chandeliers - the set everyone comments on when they walk in my sitting room as I string them up along the mantelpiece.

It's a conspiracy!
These lights I had from Linda Barker only 5 years ago and they weren't cheap I can tell you! Luckily my very handy husband made them work again but still a few at the very end remain unlit. There is nothing we can do, he says.

My mantelpiece with the lovely chandelier drops...working

We are being encouraged to be green and to go for LED lights as they burn less energy. They are however much more expensive than the old fashioned - "look for the white bulb, take it out and swap yer bulb and bingo! they work again type". It's possible to buy this kind of set for £3.99, LED sets are £15.00 upwards.

Are we being LED up the garden path do you think < sorry >?


So, I shall bite the bullet and buy. But I won't be happy if they too go kaput in five years time!



I rather like these too!

Rather like little violets I think.

The tree with five sets of working lights.

I stumbled upon these...oh how I would love to add them to my collection of old Christmas decorations.....but they are all the way over in America...and would probably cost a packet to ship.

They're little foil light reflectors. I have a set of late 19th century metal candle holders for the tree rather like them. They would be good tree fellows I think? But no.....

A garland from Cothele house in Cornwall 20, 000 dried flowers.......

Now if was really pulling out the stops! THIS is what I'd do.....

A garland made from flowers with hanging lights. Apparently it takes three men to get them in place!

Cothele...a National Trust House in Cornwall.

I don't have three men and I don't have a house as fine as Cothele!
We'd be doing more than just gathering rosebuds! Phew!