Posters

The latest posters, hot off the computer. Madame Art Fair started off in 2004 as a Monsieur
but I can't find any of him since our computer melt-down. I do remember he was initially much more cut out from papers.




Our main intention was to make the art and craft fairs friendly and accessible, and show that they were definitely events for buying.


We also wanted it to stand out by looking a bit different, and have a kind of theme that could progress year by year. Although sometimes a little obscure hopefully the feel of the posters and banners around town reminds people of the event.

Bella Bun and the cat

Bella Bun is from 'And so to Bed' by Lucinda Guy, I've used different wools so her clothes are a bit bulkier than they should be, I've also added knickers as it's only right. The skirt felt very ingenious to knit and I wondered whether it could work person-size? She will be Megans' who's 2.

Hoot Couture

This was a doll I was quite pleased with, she's called Hoot Couture because of her obviously owly attributes. She was sold at Mel's Christmas Open House last year. Mel's in full swing with Brightons May Open Houses,and has some lovely work there. Helen Musselwhites'
paper sculptures, Jane Arkwrights' paintings and Annabet Wyndhams' jewellery amongst them.

Brighton May Festival Open Houses

This year is the first we haven't shown work in the Brighton Open Houses. We've always been incredibly lucky to be in wonderful houses over the years, most recently Stanford Avenue (Beyond the Level)and then South Avenue, Queen's Park (Kemptown). Both large houses with a very high standard of work from a core of makers and artists, that changed and remained and grew with some wonderful guest artists, amongst them Rebecca Polyblank and Jane Muir who I especially enjoyed sharing space with.




It's lovely to have a bit of time in much-missed Brighton, but the, hopefully 'break', is well-timed, I mostly show prints- relief, screen, collagraphs etc. so it's fine that many of these won't have been made this year, but I always try to have at least a few brand new ones, and I havn't been able to do much at all recently because of a big book project.
I will however have lots of original prints,(that Jon is mounting at this very minute) in the wonderful Castor and Pollux in Brighton. And an exhibition near Lydford Gorge in Devon,at the Dartmoor Inn at Lydford in conjunction with their 10th year celebrations. Karen and Philip Burgess have made the Inn a really lovely place, I'm only sad that I've only managed to eat there twice,when we showed before,and hope very much to rectify that at the end when we pick work up, as the food is fantastic.

Crochet Presents

I made this, (the brooch) for a friend from the book 'Vintage Crochet' by Susan Cropper.... I was half way through it when I realised it was a design by Kate of Cardigan who we were very pleased did Brighton Craft Fair last year and will be doing this years re-named MADE08-Brighton's Design and Craft Fair .


Some wonderful and unusual crochet at these 2 etsy shops - gooseflesh and
irregular expressions,which we featured in shop of the week at MADE, our art and craft blog.



My first attempts at crochet,toys for babies, were from Japanese amigurumi patterns - with a basic translation of the key. Oddly they do seem much more straightforward than a lot of English patterns.


Apart, of course,from Lucinda Guy's absolutely wonderful 'Crochet Designs for Boys and Girls'.



I was lucky enough to see a dummy before publication, it's a real beauty, very original and very 'want to makeable now'. As with her other books, it's a complete collaboration between herself and her partner, designer and illustrator Francois Hall. If his elegant solutions to understanding the crochet patterns more clearly, had been around a little earlier life wouldv'e been a lot simpler for someone who managed by fluke rather than design!