Crochet tonight!

Crochet by Michelle Green

 It's the crochet workshop tonight when anyone can learn the basic crochet stitches.

It may take a bit of practice before we can produce something like the wonderfully colourful examples pictured above but I've put Michelle's work on the blog for inspiration!

Tricot Too used to stock a crochet squares coat by Odd Molly. It cost hundreds of pounds but it was my inspiration to try to crochet. I won't ever give enough time to make a coat out of my 'Granny squares' but a bag is achievable...!

Next Thursday is the Make a Fairy workshop which I'm really excited about. Yesterday I was making fairies in the shop and refining ways to get everything made within our two hour workshop time slot. It is possible. I can visualise lots of fairies suspended in the window at Handmade Happiness. 

This time I must remember to photograph peoples' work at the end of each session. My big regret from the first three workshops is that I forgot to take photographs. Please can someone remind me!

Yesterday a friend told me about 'Buy a Card Week.' Apparently if everyone who visited a little individual shop like mine bought a card they would be contributing to keeping it open.
Lots of people are kind to compliment Handmade Happiness but they aren't necessarily aware that whether or not they buy anything the rent still has to be paid and if everyone just says 'What a nice shop' but doesn't think to buy anything then maybe the next time they visit the shop will have gone.

I hope to keep the shop going until I drop unconscious over my desk but... just in case you were wondering, most of the cards in Handmade Happiness are £2-50 - ie less than the price of most supermarket or High Street cards! And they show the work of local artists.

Embroidery Inspiration

Nichola Gotel's embroidered skirt visiting Handmade Happiness yesterday

Embroidery with felt and leather discs by Nichola

Neil's patched jeans visiting Handmade Happiness yesterday

Jeans patched and embroidered by Carol Smith

I love it when people improve their clothes with a bit of embroidery! It gives things that designer look for very little extra cost and must be so satisfying to do.

Yesterday I was excited to see two examples of decorative embroidery visiting the shop, so inspiring for my workshop in August called Five Decorative Embroidery Stitches! 

The white skirt which Nichola Gotel made herself has lazy daisy (sometimes called chain) stitches on it interspersed with sewn on discs of felt or leather with tiny rocaille beads scattered throughout. She made it to wear at a wedding, the clever thing!

Carol Smith, who embroiders the nude and semi-nude brooches for Handmade Happiness is responsible for the patches on her husband's jeans. The close sewn running stitches are called Sashiko I think and are used to heavily patch clothes in the Japanese Boro tradition when nothing was wasted and fabric overlaid fabric to decorative and practical effect.

I saw a picture on Pinterest of a toddler wearing overalls (ie. dungarees without braces but just round neck all in one) made from a pair of adult jeans. These would look great with a couple of patches on them in child-friendly soft cotton. I can just see Juno being the coolest kid on the block wearing them!!

Today I made good progress on the fairy wing front and I now know how we're going to make those in the fairy workshop. This morning I've been going through my fabric to find fabrics suitable for fairies. Hard to believe how much glittery, sparkly stuff I've hoarded over the years! 

August Craft Workshops

Delicate papier mache bowls I made

Waiting for those papier mache bowls to dry out.

Firstly here is the list of Handmade Happiness craft workshops for August: 

Thursday August 6th:  Make a Fairy
Thursday August 13th: Make a Bracelet
Thursday August 20th: Five decorative embroidery stitches
Thursday August 27th: Sew an Applique picture with Pam Dew

The cost is £10 per person to include a glass of wine, tea/coffee and snacks and materials.
Venue is Winton House, Petersfield from 7pm to 9pm. Please book and pay at the shop.

I was planning a papier mache bowl making session as well. I tried out some bowls as you can see and found they took at least 24 hours to dry out. Not much good for a two hour craft session especially as they are difficult to take home when sticky and soggy!

So we'll do embroidery instead. I love the Japanese 'Boro' stitching so that will be one of the inspirations for that session.

In case you are interested I used torn pieces of white tissue paper (the gift wrapping kind) and diluted half and half PVA glue to make the bowls above. I still have to paint them and add some Dutch gold leaf to the inside of one so they aren't ready yet. But they were easy to do. Just remember to cover the mould object with cling film before you lay on the soaked tissue so you can peel the bowl off easily. And then wait .... and keep waiting until at last they are dry!

By the way if you want to learn how to crochet there are still some places left on our crochet workshop on Thursday July 30th same time, same place.  Pam Dew will be tutoring the class and I'll be there to help.

Thinking Fairies

'My Fairy Box' by Jenny Stacy

Velvet flowers at Liberty

Maybe fairy clothes should be made entirely from flower petals, leaves and acorn cups, and their wings from dead dragon flies or butterflies. But we've got two hours on a Thursday night to make a fairy and our ingredients will be: netting, lace, calico (for the bodies), sequins and sparkly bits.

Yesterday in the shop I drew a tiny little person and cut two from calico and then it took me all day to hand sew round it with tiny stitches and turning it inside out to stuff it - well you can imagine how difficult that was. Now it is stuffed and ready for clothes and hair and face and wings but no way could we make that fairy in two hours. 

I hand sewed this fairy because we won't have sewing machines at Winton House.  What I can, and probably will do is to hand out the fairy pattern to people who come and also make a load of little nude fairies on the sewing machine which people can dress and give hair and a face and wings to. 

It's the arms and legs that are so hard to turn inside out and stuff. You can get round this by giving fairies pipe cleaner limbs or wire wrapped in embroidery silk threads. Flesh coloured pipe cleaners would be useful but I don't think they exist. Or you could wrap glue soaked paper strips round wire or drinking straws.

I've given the wings a lot of thought. When I regularly made fairies my friend Bee made the wings with water soluble fabric, machine embroidered with irridescent threads. They were great. Now I'm thinking that we'll stiffen pre-cut fabric and sew the wings on. I've got lots of see-through glittery 'fairy' fabrics already and will get netting or tulle as it's known for the dresses and full tutu skirts.
Faces can be drawn on or embroidered with embroidery silk strands for hair held in place with a crown of tiny flowers perhaps.

I can imagine a 'Make your own fairy' kit for the shop now. Thanks for bearing with me while I was thinking fairies.  

Making bunting

Lots of bunting for baby's room made by Jenny Stacy

Big flags each with a pom pom at the tip. Bunting by Jenny Stacy

 I've just made a long line of super-size bunting for my grandaughter's nursery. I had been saving the different fabrics over the years and it was fun to put them all together. 

I like double-sided bunting. Usually I put different fabric on each side. Sew them up on both sides, inside out and then turn right side facing and stitch cotton tape over the top edge to hide the raw edges. Easy but surprisingly time-consuming!

The painting and collage workshop last week was very successful I am happy to say. Everyone got lost in the creativity of painting papers and glueing down their choice bits to make their pictures from. Just wish I'd thought to take a photograph of the finished pieces. 
We may well repeat the collage workshop later in the year.

Meanwhile there is the crochet workshop on Thursday July 30th and in August I'm planning to hold: Make a Bracelet; Make a fairy doll; Make a brooch and Applique a picture. Maybe I'll meet you there?!

Collage talk

Wedding invitation for a ballerina bride by Jenny Stacy

Same bride and another invitation by Jenny Stacy. I made them all different.

Love the colours in this one. This is the size we'll do our collages on Thursday. Postcard collage by Jenny Stacy

Card for Handmade Happiness by Jenny Stacy

Autumn card for Handmade Happiness by Jenny Stacy

A more abstract collage for Handmade Happiness by Jenny Stacy

Thursday night is collage night. I've got bits spread over the kitchen table. I've painted lots of sheets of paper and torn them up and I've selected pictures from magazines to use for sample collages. 

There are still places if you want to join us at Winton House 7.9pm on July 9th. Just swing by the shop to book or ring 01730 267711. Exceptionally the shop will be open today, Tuesday.

On Thursday night it's you who will be painting the papers, tearing up appealing pictures from magazines and embellishing your collages. I've bought loads of blank postcards which could be framed or posted to your nearest and dearest when you are happy with your collage on the front!

New knitted purse from Kate Box

New purse design by Kate Box

Padded with a Liberty print lining and strong metal zip the Kate Box purse sells for £24.50

Nuno felted wraps by Karen Head

Soft wraps in  soft colours by Karen Head

Shades of blue wrap by Karen Head in the window with duck cushions by Tanya Williamson

New in the shop are wraps in shades of blue and one perfectly white wrap - lightweight yet warm if need be - ideal for a summer wedding from day into night.

Collage workshop

Collage by Jenny Stacy - post card sized

Collage by Jenny Stacy

Collage card by Jenny Stacy

Lots of collage postcards by Jenny Stacy

Regular readers will know I like nothing better than making collages. And next Thursday July 9th I'll give a workshop on making them at Winton House in Petersfield. 7-9pm £10 to include materials and a glass of wine.

We'll start off painting papers, maybe adding a bit of gold wax or glitter or the odd button or bit of embroidery. Then we'll tear out any pictures from old magazines that particularly appeal to us. I'll bring along old stamps and bits of fabric people might like to use. If you want to join the fun drop into Handmade Happiness to book your place.

Last night Karen Head, felt maker gave us an excellent workshop on Making a Felt Flower. Everyone made a pieces of felt with silk fibres in and then cut it and shaped it into a flower. Most people achieved two or three flowers in the two hours and everyone had a good time. Thank you Karen. Handmade Happiness sells Karen's nuno felt wraps - I'll photograph them in the shop today so you can see how clever she is. www.karenhead.co.uk

Butterfly brooches

Butterfly brooches made by Jenny Stacy

More butterfly brooches by Jenny Stacy

Butterfly brooches made yesterday by Jenny Stacy

I enjoyed a sociable day in the shop yesterday. The fan kept everyone cool and the conversation flowed. It was a man asking for a card with butterflies on it that set me off making these in the afternoon. 

First I drew a small butterfly and a bigger butterfly on paper and cut these out as my pattern. Then I found my bag of velvet scraps and some bits of painted silk and needlefelted some of these to pieces of Glen Wellstead's dyed wool blanket pieces. (These are sold in the shop for £4.50 a bundle.) Then I pinned on my paper patterns and cut round them.  Gold glitter glue finished them off, outlining the wings and colouring in the body. Now I just have to sew on the the brooch backs.  

I wondered whether to sew on some tiny glass beads or to do some embroidery on them. But this takes time and would make them more expensive. So I've decided to keep them simple for now. Nearer Christmas I can enjoy myself really going to town with beads and embroidery on the butterfly brooches for party season!

In the window this week

The work of various talented local makers in the Handmade Happiness window

No changes yet to the 'washing lines' display format at Handmade Happiness

In the top picture you can see Jill Poole's wren postcard £1; Ali Cooper's bowl and spoon and her heart jug directly below; square decorated tile coaster by Samantha Robertson.

Blue knitted socks by Gill Green £20;  star card by Sue Inglis £1.95;  cat and bird felt brooches by Karen Boller £9.50 each; white ceramic night light by Sam Robertson £14.

 Blue heart coaster by Eileen Brown £5; painted notebook by Sheila Barrow £24.50; and grey mug by Justine Jenner £15.

Next Thursday July 2nd is Karen Head's workshop on felt making and then making a flower from it. If you want to join us from 7-9pm at Winton House the cost is £10 in advance to include materials and a glass of wine and tea/coffee. Book at the shop during opening hours.

Carol Smith, who makes the embroidered nude brooches,  has kindly designed and made posters and flyers about the workshops which you will see throughout the town from today onwards.

MADE at West Dean

Queen of Sweden roses from my garden now

Love roses, especially when they have a strong scent as well as look beautiful. This bush was from David Austin.

Yesterday I visited the Design and Craft Fair at West Dean. Around 100 stalls in the beautiful setting of West Dean Gardens and West Dean College. An event I had been looking forward to.

 I found some talented craftspeople there.  Check out www.justineallison.com
Justine's paper thin porcelain is amazing. Another ceramicist, www.sianpatterson.co.uk 
uses beautiful colours on her fine stoneware vessels. I'd love to have these peoples' work in the shop.

Becky Crow's complex pictorial silver jewellery is also extremely clever www.beckycrow.co.uk   I also like Sue Gregor's colourful resin earrings www.suegregor.com 
Teresa Green's hand printed clothing is nice www.teresagreen.co.uk and Rachel Larkins has tiny dolls. Her display is like looking inside her imagination. www.rachellarkins.com

I like to find items that have that handmade energy and spontaneity about them. You feel the makers' excitement in the things they make and you sense they are on some kind of creative journey very personal to them.
Those are the people whose work I want in Handmade Happiness.

Shop thoughts

Wayne Osborne has now painted my A board - front...

...and back. Hand painted by Wayne Osborne 

Now that Handmade Happiness looks refreshed on the outside I want to refresh it on the inside too.  The main window has too many little things in it. As one customer said,'You don't need to come in the shop if you can see everything it sells in the window.'

My intention was just that - to give a sample of what Handmade Happiness sells through its window display but now I think it would be more fun to go down the Anthropologie route. To have something quirky and attention grabbing in the window which is not necessarily for sale but is just intriguing and talk worthy.  I'm remembering the curtain of used fruit tea bags in Anthropologie's window and, on another occasion the chandeliers made of re-cycled plastic cups and plastic cutlery. 

I'd like to make a life-sized rag doll, perhaps wearing some of the shop products, wacky brooches, knitted socks, a cashmere cardi.... I can picture how fun it would look...

 In fact as much fun as small children have walking through the pictured 'A' board. I wouldn't want to stop them. I wonder if they missed it while it was being painted at Wayne's studio?

Facelift for Handmade Happiness!

Passing cars will notice Handmade Happiness now!

Wayne Osborne of Osborne Signs Ltd starts hand-painting.

Above the door. This space was previously blank. What a waste!

I'm really pleased with the way the words 'gifts' and 'art' look in a shade darker green.

When Handmade Happiness first opened three and a half years ago I spent very little on signage and ended up with black writing in just one of four spaces. I wasn't happy about it and realised the short sign made the shop look smaller than it is and less noticeable than it could be.

 On Monday Wayne Osborne, one of just a few sign writers in the country,whose 
company is based at Midhurst, made good use of the available space with paint my mother would call 'chartreuse' ie a yellow/lime with a dash of black and the kind of clear joined-up writing that I wanted.

I'm really pleased with the way the shop now looks. Thank you Wayne - check out lots of other signs he has painted on www.osbornesigns.co.uk  He's taken my 'A'board away to re-paint. Next step is puting a sign up on that flag pole you can see just above the door. 

Tomorrow, Thursday, is the knitting get together at Winton House - 7 to 9pm. If you are coming and haven't told me you are definitely coming please email me or ring the shop tomorrow - 01730 267711 so I don't underestimate numbers. I am looking forward to a relaxed evening in good company. Just sorting out what yarns to take from the ridiculous amount I seem to have accumulated over the years!

Weaving and knitting by Gill Green

Silk mix scarf woven by Gill Green

Knitted socks by Gill Green £20 with larger cat by Sue Inglis £9.99

Knitted scarf by Gill Green £24

From left: Scarf by Gill Green £24; cashmere cardis by Seonaid Noble £95 and large blanket by Kate Box £99

Gill Green walked into Handmade Happiness with a box of her woven scarves and knitted socks. It was a nice surprise and I am delighted to now be her stockist.

The Knitting Workshop is on Thursday night. There are still a few places left if you want to join us.
Hope you had a nice weekend!

My weekend

Younger daughter Sophie lives in Harpenden and on Sunday we went for a scenic walk there along a river created by a natural spring. We thought we saw a kingfisher - just a flash of colour. The water was so pure and clear you could see all the fish - trout apparently. 

On Monday I went to London and enjoyed the feeling of being an international traveller at St Pancras railway station, home of Eurostar and a mini Fortnum and Masons. I imagined travelling back and forth to Paris where my second Handmade Happiness store will be based...!

In Covent Garden I looked round the Gudrun Sjoden shop.  Strong colour cottons in big prints. The clothes are cheerful and fun and layered. I liked the way Gudrun's clothes' designs are pinned up on the wall on large sheets of paper and the simple rose motif painted on the floors.  It's Swedish but has stores all over the world.

At Waterloo station these giant dinosaurs were getting photographed a lot. I was en route to daughter Amy's house where I look after baby Juno so her mum can work. Juno may only be 11 months old but she's in training. I may need her to work in Handmade Happiness, Paris one day!! 

Learn to Knit on June 18th. Workshop news.

Cardigan pattern by Erika Knight. Shawl in made up pattern. Both knitted by Jenny Stacy for first grandchild.

Close up of Erika Knight's cardigan design

Another Erika Knight pattern knitted by Jenny Stacy

Simple baby socks knitted on just two needles

 The first craft workshop on Thursday June 18th 7.30pm to 9.00pm at Winton House in Petersfield High Street will focus on beginners' knitting. Learning to cast on, knit, pearl and cast off. 
There will be no class the following week as the room is booked by another group for every third Thursday.

The second craft workshop on Thursday July 2nd is on felt making. Specifically  'Making a Felt Flower'. Karen Head, who makes the amazing nuno felted scarves in Handmade Happiness will lead this class.

The third craft workshop on Thursday July 9th is on paper collage. Building a picture with paper you've painted and drawn on and torn pictures from magazines. Jenny Stacy will lead this class.

There will be no craft workshop the following week as it is the third Thursday of the month.

The fourth craft workshop on Thursday July 23rd is on Learning to Crochet. This class will be led by Pam Dew who makes the stunning quilts for Handmade Happiness and crochet bags.

Every Thursday night except the third Thursday in the month will focus on a different craft.  Future sessions may include cushion making, printing, embroidery, doll making, lampshade making basically whatever customers want to have a go at, as long as there is enough demand.  Towards Christmas we will make presents, make Christmas cards and Christmas gift wrap and tree decorations. I'm excited already!

To book for any particular class, or all of them contact Jenny at the shop or by email. The fee is £10 payable on the night to include basic materials and a glass of wine and tea or coffee.