New fabrics and designs

!!!UPDATE!!! My current blog can be found here www.bilberrywoods.com/blog

If you are after a pattern for the mice below, visit my Etsy shop www.etsy.com/uk/shop/BilberryWoods

The last couple of weeks I've been designing owls and mice in new fabric combinations and lavender hearts with different animals that can be personalized with an initial. The hearts are still under development like many of my new items, but hopefully, in the next couple of weeks, they will be ready for the production.

I also visited once more the lovely Mill where I get all the fabrics from and managed to take quite a few ends of rolls with me....

Now I have lots of fabrics to make all sorts of things – a Kingfisher, a Frog and some white and red Christmas decorations etc.  And by the way, the pig I designed some time ago and said I would take a picture to show you isn't that nice after all... There is something about it that I don't like, but I don't quite know what.... So there will be no photos until it looks like a proper pig.

But back to the owls and mice which I think are working well in my newly purchased fabrics.

I must have made nearly twenty different owls and ten mice before I was able to make my selection of eight owls and four mice. The trouble is that I have to make them up, at least up to this stage before I can say which combination works and which doesn't! Sometimes I complain that I'd like to see the item perfectly in my mind before it is done and could skip this stage altogether to save some precious time, but then again I think it is the vital part of the creating a new item and when unexpected surprises happen...

The reason I was making these owls and mice, is that there is an amazing possibility for me to go truly international with my animals if this latest deal goes through! I won't say more about it now, in case I jinx it somehow by talking about it aloud (well, writing about it), but I will certainly let you know when I know something solid and then you can see the finished items.


Another activity that has taken up my evenings has been madly picking raspberries from our garden.

I would say that I almost have obsessive-compulsive disorder when it comes to picking berries: I simply cannot leave any into a bush, impossible!!

So therefore I've had to go every other night and pick raspberries for about an hour and a half at the time to get all the ripe ones picked! This is the amount I picked one night alone...

Then there is one more thing I'd like to show you from our garden since it is pretty much the same colour as the raspberries: this wonderful rose that I've never seen with some many flowers before! 

It has had absolutely no attention what so ever, no pruning, no feeding and look at how it is blossoming!

The end of the branches look like bunches of grapes and I think it is absolutely fabulous! One of those small pleasures in life.

Farewell

A.W. 

 1937–2010

The wind of heaven is that which blows between a horse's ears.  ~Arabian Proverb

Back From the Fair

The Contemporary Craft Fair was fantastic: great people, great venue, the sun shone brightly everyday and the sales were great!
But that is a lie. The first part is all true, but were the sales that great after all?
No. But then again there seems to be this strange way of justifying things, "it's your first time, if you cover your cost you are doing extremely well and if you actually make any money on top of it, you are doing really well and are extremely lucky." Hmmm... You see, I'm not sure if that really is doing well? But according to that I did do very well...

But isn't the whole point of any business to make money that will then pay the bills and leave you with some extra to enjoy life? Or have I truly misunderstood the concept of having a successful business altogether? Help me, have I lost my mind?!! Trying to make money out of pretty things, and worse, not even useful things, I must be insane!

I tried to quiz my fellow exhibitors about their sales and how well they are doing, but it is very hard to get the truth out of them. Nobody wants to admit that it isn't great (alltough you can read it from their faces), because they have just trekked across the country, camped in a field with a portaloo next to them and smile at people when they think their beautifully handcrafted items are too expensive.

 I love when customers ask you how long it took you and you lie, topping up the hours, but even then they exclaim: "Is that all?! And then you watch their faces when they calculate that you are pretty much getting the minimum wage, but even that seems too much for them. I suppose we shouldn't be making any money at all! The love of what you are doing should be enough!!

And then there are those poor people who don't sell anything at all and nor do they take any orders, but "the feedback has been amazing", they say. And worst of all they are so happy about it! But slowly even their smiles are becoming more forced as the days go by. And yeah, you can pay your bills with a good feedback, can't you!!!

Now, I must apologize for all of those who feel that I am letting the-ever-happy-crafting-community down, but isn't it time to face the facts or am I the only one feeling like this???!!! And surely there are other people outside the craft makers that feel short exchanged?

But, to finish with a bit more positiveness, there were people who were making money and are actually making money out of their craft businesses. So I suppose it just takes time like everyone is telling me and I am clearly not patient enough. So more patience and more hard work and we'll get there....
Plus I have to add here that I really did have very nice time there and the people around me were most fantastic and so funny. So all in all I did have a great weekend! xxx

Less than a week to go!!

Somehow it is Friday, again!

Plans for the Contemporary Craft Fair are going well. As always, I would have like to do more, but I think I'll have enough stock....

I'm very excited to get down to Bovey Tracey next Thursday and set my table amongst so many other lovely things! If you visit the Fair's website you can click through the exhibitors websites and oooh what a wonderful things you can find!! The danger here for me is that I might spend all that I earn (and hopefully that is lots and lots!) and I also wonder how on earth will I manage to stay by my table when there is soooo much to see!

And not to mention about the workshops: jewellery making, basket weaving, woodcarving, felt making etc. etc. If I was clever enough I would have organized someone to look after my stand day after day whilst I would be spending my days attending one workshop after another! Maybe next time.....
And I suppose I should mention here, in case someone is thinking of attending one of the workshops, that for most them you need to book in advance, but the website will have all the details.

There is also Materials and Making Avenue, a place to buy artist's books and materials, beads, textile supplies etc. so that you can start making your own creations!

I am not too sure how clear this map is (due to my lack of technical abilities), but I thought it would be nice to show it to you. I'll be at the British Toymakers Guild tent, so come and see us there!

Pink and White

The week has once more flown by nearly as fast as the House Martins that are speeding up and down the green fields and making our fearless Terrier jump every time they pass. I keep on thinking the rain must be on its way, since they are flying so low, but somehow it avoided us nearly the whole week.

                                  Outside my workshop

The local farmer is desperate for the rain and I don't blame him. The ground has seemed to turn into a rock and where there used to be patches of everlasting mud in the winter there is now one big, baked mud cake with hundreds of huge cracks. It always amazes me how quickly one extreme moves into another.

Having said all this the rain eventually arrived and even though the garden had a good drink it also had a good beating up and looks like a bomb has exploded in several areas. Oh well, it will recover. At least I managed to take all these photos before the rain.

At the beginning of the week I made a strict working plan for myself, since it is only two weeks to go and then I should have enough stock to have a half decent stand at the Contemporary Craft Fair. Now comparing the results to the list, I'm feeling a bit panicky: the week didn't go exactly as I planned, but never mind, it never does and I should just get used to it!

I did though create a new animal to join the owl and mouse paperweights: a fat, floppy eared pig! (I will show photos of it later in the week.) Somehow, no matter what I am doing I always seem to go back to pigs! There is just something about them.... In fact there are three 'free range pigs' here in our farm. I call them 'free range' since no matter how well they are fenced off they always find their way out.

In the beginning the poor farmer was chasing them across the farm and making bigger and better fences, but I think now he has given up and in fact they seem to know where their cozy beds of straw are when they are ready for the night! And these pigs (shame I can't remember the names!) are so funny! So clever and so sociable. When ever they see a human being they have a need to come to say hello. Obviously they are after some food and failing to get it they are rather keen on trying to chew up your wellies! Oh, and even our Terrier has a healthy respect for them! Although it could be something to do with the fact that they are ten times (at least!) bigger that her.

Talking about our Terrier. I thought it would be a good idea to train her to follow the horses and maybe that would burn off some of her energy and she wouldn't be quite as determined to 'hunt' the postman everyday. I have only been riding for about a year myself, but I thought I would be ready to take her with us....

Riding here in the farm is fabulous, miles upon miles beautiful fields and bridleways, perfect for horse lovers. But for this particular day with the Terrier following us, we thought we'd stick to the road around the village – nice, slow and simple.

But if you are a terrier it is dreadfully boring as we soon learned after our Terrier had legged it back home several times. Every time she was waiting for us looking ever so pleased with herself. How annoying for us and therefore to prove the point that she has to stick with us we decided to carry her. Yes, I carried her on my lap whilst riding and yes, it was ridiculous!

But what was the most annoying thing about all this was that she clearly enjoyed herself and suddenly thought that the riding wasn't boring at all!! How typical. Not too sure though if this kind of riding really has the benefits for the dog that I imagined and now we must think of some other more sensible ways of exercise!

Fair plans and memories

The Contemporary Craft Fair in Bovey Tracy, Devon is approaching fast, too fast really and there is still SO much to do. Although that seems to be story of my life: always so much to do and so little time. In fact is seems like the time is speeding up with the same rate as I speed up to do things! So basically, it is a race that I will never win. But I will give it a good run nevertheless!

Back in March I did the Country Living Spring Fair in London which was great fun. I met some most wonderful people and even though it was hard work we basically laughed our ways through the five days. It was my first "big" fair having only done the Mary Howard Fair back in November here in the Cotswold. 

Some months before the Country Living Fair I got inspired by the Woodland Trust and wanted to create woodland creatures, a little friends for my Bears, and so the mice, owls, hedgehogs, shrews and birds were born and here are some of them.

I also thought about my stand and wanted to create a woodland scene for all my animals, but somehow it didn't turn up quite as I planned... I wanted it to be more 'woody' and mysterious, magical and fun and much more colourful, but as always I simply ran out of time and we couldn't possible fit anything else into the car! So this is what we came up with.

Now I am thinking again how to present my animals....? This time I'd like to try something different, something clean and simple... And I would like to group the animals so that they would stand out better... Maybe I could do with a white table cloth and some small stands (boxes or equivalent) that would be like small plinths that the animals would stand on in groups?
I have to look around what would work....

All this planning for the fair reminded me of some other fairs I did years and years ago in South London and in Surrey with my good friend who was selling most beautiful handmade cards and I was selling these funny little crocheted pigs.

Most of the fairs we attended were... how would I say it.... really, really bad! It wasn't our lack of selling skills or terrible products (at least I don't think so!), but it was the lack of people that came through the doors. The Country Living Fair in London attracts over 20 000 people, but this one particular fair that we attended probably had more like 20 people coming in!

As we had sat there the most of the day not selling a single thing, thinking what a waste of time it was a lady came over to our table and wanted to buy one of my crocheted animals. Now, any sensible person would have put the little creature into a bag, take the money, write a recite and say "thank you and good buy", but oh no. Us two, having been so bored and depressed, got terrible hysterical laughing fit and still to this day I don't know how we managed to put that creature into the bag and take the money. The lady thought we were complete bonkers and I am surprised she didn't change her mind about her purchase. Luckily these days I've trained to be a bit more professional and I truly hope that down in Devon we will sell a lot more than one small animal!

A Little Tour Around the Workshop.

As a beginning, I thought it would be nice to show you a little bit of my workshop. It is the heart of the World of Mirjami Design and where all the creatures are born. I spend most of my days there cutting, stitching, sewing and occasionally pulling my hair out when things don't go according to the plan.

 The workshop is set next to our small cottage and my work journey takes a magnificent thirty seconds on a bad day when I have to negotiate the overgrown holly bush that is ready to sting my side or when the side gate has once again broken and won't swing open like all the proper, well behaved gates do.

                                 As you walk in...

The workshop is a little chilly in the winter, but it stays wonderfully cool in the hot summers days thanks to its thick Cotswold stone walls. The downside of the fortress-like walls is that the radio reception is a bit here and there, but never mind at least my good old iPod gets some use.

                                 Turn left.....

                                                  And then turn right! 

I will take more photos, once the shelves have been restocked with more products. Maybe a few weeks time...... So better get sewing!!