Spring 2020

Well it has been a very strange and unusual year so far! I January and February as usual I had my   
'recovery' post Christmas period, and by mid March had pretty much re stocked all the galleries I supply with new work, and was sorting out applying to 2020 craft fairs and shows. Then of course it became clear that the Corona virus pandemic was very serious, and we went into lockdown.
Like a lot of people not in Key Worker jobs, it felt like everything stopped and gone on hold, and I hunkered down with my partner and two daughters at home. We spent most of the next two months sorting out and painting our daughters bedrooms, discovering walks in our local area and baking banana bread. 
There are 13 makers working at Rosehill Workshop, and we agreed that only one person could be there at a time, so I limited myself to only going in when I had an order to dispatch.
Motivation to get making again came in April when I was asked to do a 'stories takeover' on the 7dials art instagram account, as one of the makers who would have been taking part in the May Brighton Festival Artists Open Houses trail, had it not been cancelled. I asked my daughters for help, and you can see the results by clicking the link to youtube here.
 Then Lovedazzle ,the contemporary jewellery selling website contacted their makers about a promotion they were doing in May, and that kick started me to get back in the workshop and experiment with some new designs. We now had a part time workshop rota of small groups of makers, and so I created my 'Shard' range. This was inspired by wanting to be able to cut out my shapes myself on my bandsaw rather than ordering laser cutting, and a desire to make each piece unique. I like the balance of shapes being non symetrical, but still following a flow and pleasing to the eye. Click here to see the earrings in my website shop and here for the necklace. 
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'Made Makers'June 23-25 was the first online craft fair I took part in, it prompted me to upload individual unique items of jewellery to my website shop, you can see a film of  my 'home display' here.

Looking forward, I will be taking part in the Great Northern Contemporary Online Craft Fair July 25-31. 
Dazzle are presenting their anmazing jewellery selections at Dovecote in Edinburgh August 22 to September 12.
As things stand I will be at three 'real life' craft fairs in November, Made London 5-8 November, and Made Brighton 27-28 November and the Contemporary Craft Festival Bath 28-29 November. I should be able to confirm these in August, if unable to take place in real life they will be going online. 

So we are all getting used to the 'new normal', adapting and surviving. I have been posting more on instagram and facebook, and enjoying engaging with customers and other makers that way as we can't see each other at craft fairs. I am pleased to hear that most of the galleries I supply are slowly re opening, do take a look at my Outlets page and visit any galleries that are near you, like all small businesses they need our support.

Thanks for reading, I hope everybody is keeping safe and well, Sarah
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'Shard' earrings and necklace