Movember!!!

Ned Flanders

If you're anything like me you'll have an inexplicable fondness for facial hair.  If Freud had sat me down on his couch he'd point out that it was possibly due to my father and his and Ned Flanders shared admiration of 1970's moustachio styling!

Salvador Dali

Ah yes Moustaches...lovely hairy caterpillars that only males can grow and wear with such panache and grace!
From the thin pre war pencil tache, the handle bar, full on eighteenth century mutton chops, a Magnum P. I. bushy pleasure seeker, tamed and coiffed goth goatees, curly wirly Daliesque works of art to full on Grizzly Adams woolie face warmers. All sexy and very much wanted for this charity grow-a-thon!
I'm aware that though I have a deep seeded wish to have one grace my chops that unless I become a circus bearded lady that it won't happen... well not any time soon!

Alas because of that love we've come up with a craft kit which we'll sell throughout November at our Craft Events and we'll donate £2 of each sale to MOVEMBER. This way even if you can't grow your own you'll be able to be part of the club! So if you too love woolie face furniture come along and get your Needle Felted Moustache brooch kit and do something charitable too. Perfect for baby faced chaps and for moustache loving ladies!

However if you'd like to sponsor a chap to grow his own or would like to know more about this charity please visit the web site: http://uk.movember.com/

There are lots of great ideas on the Movember site to get your creativity going so if you'd like to be involved by throwing your own Movember event get in touch with the charity...I think they'd be very pleased!
So wax and twiddle those hairy babies and get raising some funds!


BUT before I leave you to your hairy endeavors here are a few images of some of my favourite facially hirsute gentlemen. Please note the bear is pretty cool too:

Grizzly Adams with his bear (d)

Johnny Depp

Sigmund Freud

Tom Selleck aka Magnum P.I.

Nick Cave

Brad Pitt

The Dude, The Big Lebowski

Karl Marx

Get into the Festive groove...

With Halloween "dead and buried" we quickly approach the big C word...tut, tut, tut...you get your mind out of the gutter you crafty minx, I'm referring to Christmas!!!
Only 54 days of making left before Papa Nicolas makes an appearance.
YES It really is that close!
As the night  draws in, thoughts of must have presents enter our slumber, letters to Father Christmas invade our thoughts, we "pinterest" and "bookmark" items which we love
but purposely leave on the computer desk top in a vain attempt to drop hints to partners...and so on.
While all this dreaming and scheming gets us in the festive mood it also allows us to forget a very important piece of the modern craft makers kit: the making list. Be it on a post it note, on a raggedy dog eared piece of paper torn off the back of an envelope, on a document on your computer or scrolled on to your favourite note book.
The Christmas making list is an account of ideas and projects of what you'll be making to give others. Beautiful, awesome, heart filled, hand made items which you have made to besiege your loved one with creativity and love.
As the old saying goes "Christmas, it's not all about receiving" so now is the time to sit down, organize your projects, tidy up any unfinished bits and pieces and make to give!

Top tips:
Don't bite off more then you can chew! If you can't knit don't start making those cute but intricate cashmere socks you've seen in the pattern book. Leave the knitting to the new year where you have time to learn without the potentially stressful deadline.

Be realistic... make something which your craft skills will allow you to produce in order to achieve an item your friend/family will love and want to use.

Give hand made items to the ones that will appreciate such gifts...not everyone does especially young girls like my niece for example, she definitely wont. Gah, teenagers...if it isn't H&M or Justin Bieber then it is, in her own words, "pants!" Spare the heartache, yours in particular as if they don't appreciate it today don't fret... one day they'll come around!


Most of all enjoy it and MAKE your Christmas a HAND MADE one!

Crafteramma Swaperamma!

This November and December bring along to our d.i.y craft nights any unwanted craft materials which include fabrics,threads,wool,tools,vintage finds, jewellery bits,books,paper goods, etc.

November: Thursday 11th 9.00pm - swap 9.30 pm
December: Thursday 8th 9.00pm - swap 9.30 pm

Ye Olde Rose & Crown

53-55 Hoe street E17 4SA

Because everyone's on a tight budget and if you're anything like me I'm sure you have hoards of left over bits which you don't use anymore so your trash can be "another man's treasure"! 

Because I'm in the middle of cleaning my workshop I've found that there is a lot, and I mean A LOT, of odds and ends which I will not be using and are just taking up space.
The chances are that you also have some Crafty loot in your home and probably will never use so this is the perfect opportunity to swap and get your mittens on some useful bits for any last minute Chrimbo or even NEW YEAR projects.
Remember to wash and iron any materials and all bits and bobs should be in fairly good re usable condition and clean. 

 

 

Please package your "Swaperamma" loot in groups in clear bags or jars. For example fabrics in one bag, buttons in another. For wool please bag these in groups of 4 ( bundles or balls of wool) so it's nice and fair when it comes to swapping.

How will it work?
We'll get everyone to lay down their loot on a table and you'll be issued with tickets for what you have brought to exchange.
From 9.00 pm you'll have 30 minutes to go through the bounty and spot anything you like. 

At 9.30 pm we'll officially open the "Swaperamma" and you can grab what you want according to the number of tickets you have. 

 

SO...If you have 5 tickets you can take 5 bags of CRAFT SWAG no matter what type of stuff you've brought in! If you've brought in buttons but need wool...swap it!
We know that there might be a few choice bits which a couple or more people will want but...NO BUN FIGHTS PLEASE!!! If this is the case we'll do our best to be fair and split it between everyone or toss a coin if needed!
We'd also like to remind you that any unwanted swag bags need to be taken back by their rightful owners please... though you might want to hang on to them for the next spate of Crafteramma Swapperamma events in 2012.

 

We'll be asking for a £1 donation per "CRAFTY SWAG BAG" and all money raised goes to "The Brooke" (http://www.thebrooke.org/) 

A Horse and Donkey welfare charity which work closely with farmers, animal handlers in poor countries to educate people and treat working animals.

Be inspired, make something original?!

To say that everything is original would be as true as to say that the sky was coloured in pink and green polka dots!
Nothing is truly original but what is important is that we as designers search out inspiration by looking at the world around us, look at the trends and even agree that it's perfectly OK to look at other people's creations in order to find a source of ideas but what we can not do is copy someone's work.
I've seen so many cases where lazy designers trace other people's work, change a few colours then pass it off as their own original... like it's alright now, that changing a few minor details absolves them of any wrong doing. Selling it to big international chain shops as their own original art work when they haven't even broken into a sweat is embarrassing to say the least and not to mention shows a lack of belief in their own creative talents!
One that comes to mind is the "Pugs not Drugs" printed Tote bag by Gemma Correll and a chain shop which copied the illustration almost line for line. It's just shocking how they thought no one would notice especially when by being a "chain shop ' it means that inevitably they'll be selling that design on almost every high street including the one where the plagiarised artist might shop at.

But it's not just on the High Street. Though we've seen how Paper Chase with their shabby track record on not checking up on their designers and how that has come back to bite them there are still lots of other culprits guilty of doing the same. Can we just point the finger at the big boys or is it also down to individuals?
Laziness is everywhere and there's an increasing number of people who take free patterns and make from these to sell.
OK so there is some degree of "universal use", it's understood that by giving free patterns that you are allowing people to make for personal use and then there's the grey area where it is alright to make to sell but with a little nod to the pattern maker. It's expected but what I wasn't expecting was the lack of creativity.
What you then get are 100 sellers all selling crocheted Apple Cozies. All made with the same wooden button, same dusty pink cotton yarn and all because there was a freebie tutorial in a craft magazine. That's how they've seen them done on the sample picture and that's how they're making them! And when I say Apple Cozies I'm just using it as an example as all of a sudden after it appeared on a cover of a well known craft mag...there was an influx of listings on hand made selling/buying web sites of these items. Is there really such a high demand for crocheted fruit cozies?
It's fine to be inspired by other people's work and yeah due to social references, to our experiences, shared global events and even down to your age that we will at some point over lap each other creatively but your work needs to be done in your style. Your own inimitable style which will allow people to identify it by just glancing at it...and that is original!

We're recruiting!!!

Do you fancy dipping your toes into the tutoring and craft event assistant world? Well then...if you're a designer maker and fancy getting a taste of what it's like being a Craft Guerrilla then get in touch as we're on the hunt for helpers.
We won't be expecting you to type nor will we ask you to perform boring admin tasks...this is a purely creative opportunity! Promise.
If you're a dab hand at knitting, crochet, sewing, stitching and/or printing we'd like to hear from you.
We need new craft packs to sell at our events and if you can supply and attend then you're the guy or gal for us. However you'll need to be LONDON based or willing to travel to the capital once a month in the evening.
All monies you make form sales of your packs are yours to keep. As we're unable to pay a wage,we take no commission... so that's the dealio!!!
There are a few new events in the new year so we're "Desperately Seeking Crafty Susan"!
Send us a brief introduction email and "Creative CV" plus a few images of your work (can be a blog or website which stocks your creations) to: craftguerrilla@yahoo.com

Also we need a few bands and DJ's for January and beyond so if you fancy laying down some crafty beats then give us a shout. Perfect for DJ's who'd like to cut their teeth on the wheels of steal or bands which are starting out!!!
DJ's please let us know what type of music you play and bands...please send us your link or a demo.
*Please note that we're unable to pay DJ's and bands for now but hopefully we will be able to in the near future!

Advertise with us and get your crafty business seen!

Help is at hand as we know just how difficult and expensive advertising can be! Because our readers are craft aficionados and lovers of all things hand made we might be just what you're looking for...plus we're not going to charge you a fortune!!!
As part of what we do we are also in the business of helping independent creatives with PR and advertising. We serve not just as a public creative platform but also as a valuable resource for all designer makers and other talented folk. We are happy to share our space with like minded people!
In the last 2 years we've had a huge growth in visitors and are also now selling our blog on Kindle as a subscription so a whole lot of new peepers are glancing at us!!! 

If you'd like to add a small banner to our web site here are the fees:
£35 for 6 months
£60 for 12 months

The only stipulation is that you need to be a small, independent hand made company, a designer maker, a supplier of craft materials, a band/musician, an artist and or run a creative company. Your project needs to be something we're happy to associate with! SO....
Before we say "yeah or nah" we need to see if your company fits with our ethos so please apply by email to us: craftguerrilla@yahoo.com

Poesie Grenadine...

A lovely blog by a very talented lady and she's featured us!

http://poesiegrenadine.blogspot.com/2011/10/interview-with-debbie-of-east-london.html