Annual Break

The shop at 9a Dragon Street next to Disking and Tara Interiors

Please note that the shop will be closed from Thursday May 23rd to Friday May 31st  re-opening on Saturday June 1st.

I would hate anyone to come from any distance to find it closed.

It will be open tomorrow Wednesday May 22nd 10am to 4.30pm

Apparently the shop nearby that was Wild Damson and then Tallulah Fox is to be used by Petersfield Museum as offices while the museum is undergoing a year long re-furbishment. We don't know yet what is coming into the premises that was the JSW restaurant opposite our shops.

Garden and shop

It's May so peony time in my garden. So beautiful. My favourite flower.

New in the shop. Pure cotton knitted wash cloths

New Aran cabled cardigans in all sizes for children up to 10

Camilla Flint's lovely dancer drawings.

Shop flyers and textile jewellery

Received more shop flyers with updated information

Sewing felted elements together

Added a bit more - on the way to becoming a necklace. The colours look different against blue.

While this country waits to see what is going to happen in the future and the feeling of uncertainty and unrest persists little shops like mine are struggling. I am determined to keep Handmade Happiness going and in between customers I am making items to sell.

This necklace is similar to necklaces that Bee Mellor and I made a while ago and, once it is complete I'll do some felt flower brooches. I used to make a lot of felt flower brooches and they did sell well. It's funny the things you make and then forget for a few years while you focus on making other things. 

Textile jewellery and dolls and buttons have always been what I make. And although I'm not planning to make buttons again it is good to come back to felt again after forgetting it for a while. 

Happy making everyone!

New at Handmade Happiness

I've made some medals out of all that felt. These are just waiting for dangly bits to be sewn on.

New leg warmers from Kate Box and more of her popular wrist warmers!

New felt brooches from Karen Boller. £9.50 each.

Handmade Happiness is lucky to be supplied by some really talented local makers. I think this is why it has kept going for so long when other independent shops in the town have folded. People know that they will find something unique and beautiful at HH so they come here for gifts and for nice things for themselves. 

There is also an excellent range of cards mostly showing the printed works of local artists. Jill Poole who does lovely mixed media art of birds and flowers has just re-stocked with lots of new card designs. 

Isn't it funny how you find out things by chance sometimes? I was lucky enough to see a poster showing a local business networking group meeting up the following morning. I went along and it was brilliant. Women supporting each other and men too of course although in fairness it was mostly women who showed up. I am so pleased to find this group. It meets monthly and although I had to leave early to open the shop, just to see all those bright, enthusiastic people made my day!

Colourful felt and What is this?

Made some reversable felt this morning

The iris are out in the garden

I dug this up while gardening but what is it?

I dug up this glass object and I'd love to know what it is. It says Empire Made on it  so could be over 100  years old, and has an opening at one end. It's only two and a half inches long (6 cms) so it's not a baby's bottle as has been suggested. I reckon it once held a medicine or vaccine. What do you think?

I must clean out the dirt with a pipe cleaner. Sorry but you are seeing it freshly dug up !!

I love these iris. A friend gave me one and they've spread.

I made the felt this morning;  Experimenting with lots of different colours to see if it could be completely different on the reverse. I used to make flower brooches and/ or wrist warmers out of these pieces of felt but it feels like the wrong time of year for that so perhaps I'll just save it for colder weather.

Making paper flowers and trying to make wax seals

Painted crepe paper flowers by Jenny Stacy

Handmade paper roses by Jenny Stacy

Experimenting with wax and stamper

Some craft experiments are more successful than others!

I was pleased with the way these painted crepe paper roses turned out this morning and I've painted more crepe paper to make more.

However the other day I wanted to make some wax seals. The local art shop had the wax but not those metal stamps to press into the hot wax. I decided to try with a wooden stamper with a rubber image and it didn't really work as you can see above... I will have another go.

I don't know if you have ever tried stamping into gold wax. You light the end and drip it onto (in this case wax proof ) paper so you can remove them afterwards. I became a bit over-confident after the first few seals and managed to drip the hot gold wax over both hands. Luckily I had a sink of water nearby and plunged my hands into it. The strange thing is that the wax stays on the skin for a while. Anyway no lasting damage I'll just be more careful next time and hopefully next time I'll produce some better seals I can actually use!!