What could be more romantic than giving your beloved a Valentines gift made by your own fair hands? To help you create something really unique The London Jewellery School are running a special Valentine’s Jewellery workshop where you’ll learn to make a solid silver ‘Love Heart’ charm – perfect for a pendant, bracelet or keyring. In this fun three hour workshop you’ll be guided by a professional jeweller, and at the end you’ll take away your handmade silver charm in a lovely gift bag all ready to present to your loved one on Valentine’s Day. The course takes place at The London Jewellery School in Hatton Garden on Sunday 12th February. For more details visit www.londonjewelleryschool.co.uk.
The London Jewellery School are also offering a place on this workshop as a prize for one lucky reader. For a chance to win, simply leave a comment below before 31st January naming another workshop run by the school. Good luck!
Saturday 19 November 2011
From its roots in Vancouver, indie craft event Got Craft? arrives in London for the very first time next weekend… and to celebrate we have a fabulous crafty swag bag to give away!
The event will feature a hand-picked selection of craft producers from jewellery to fashion, homewares and paper goods, and there’s also the chance to get crafty yourself with interactive workshops by local craft collective, Crafty Pint. Get there early and if you’re one of the first 30 visitors through the door, you’ll get a fabulous reusable tote bag from event sponsors Etsy UK filled with gorgeous handmade goodies.
Reader Giveaway: We have one of these fantastic goody bags to give away to a lucky reader. For a chance to win, simply leave a comment below and the winner will be drawn and notified by email on Friday 25th Nov. (Please note: the swag bag will be posted out, so UK residents only please!).
Got Craft? takes place at the Tooting Tram and Social on Sunday November 27th. You can find out more at www.gotcraft.com/london.
Thursday 8 September 2011
We’re thrilled to be supporting The Craft Trail, a brand new initiative taking place in London this weekend as part of The Mayor’s Thames Festival. For the very first time, five local craft collectives: We Make London, Sannapanda and Friends, Crafty Fox Market, Of Cabbages and Kings and Craft Guerrilla, have joined together to showcase work from London’s vibrant and creative craft scene.
The trail will stretch along the banks of the Thames between Westminster and Tower Hill, and a beautiful printed map has been designed by illustrator Mike Hall to help you along the way. Follow the trail to discover quality handmade products by new and established designer-makers, as well as the chance to take part in workshops, craft demonstrations, a loyalty scheme, and a prize draw to win one of 100 goody bags!
The Craft Trail takes place on 10th and 11th September from noon to 10pm. For more information and a list of exhibitors visit www.crafttrail.co.uk, or follow @crafttrail on twitter.
To celebrate their launch, new Devon-based craft studio Rowan Tree are giving away a beautiful handmade quilt worth over £100. But that’s not all… the lucky winner will also get to try out a creative project of their own, as the prize includes a one day craft workshop of their choice which can be taken at any time over the next 12 months. From crochet and candlemaking, to felting and furniture painting in beautiful rural surroundings, Rowan Tree offer a variety of inspiring hands-on workshops which will appeal to both beginners and committed crafters alike.
For a chance to win this fabulous prize, simply answer the following question: Name a craft workshop at Rowan Tree Studio not already mentioned above. You can leave your answer as a comment below or email it to editor@frombritainwithlove.com by 30th September.
Exclusive Launch Offer: Get 15% off any Rowan Tree workshop booked before 22nd September when you mention ‘FromBritainWithLove’. For more information, visit www.rowantreestudio.co.uk.
If you haven’t seen our latest Course Notes feature, here’s a taste of what you’re missing. A few weeks ago craft journalist Clare Kelly and I spent a delightful morning in the kitchen being taught how to make macaroons by School of Food – the cookery school that comes to you. Clare’s gorgeous photography looks so good, and her vintage china collection proved the perfect backdrop, so I decided our fancy creations deserved a blog post all of their own. If you’ve always wanted to make macaroons but (like us) thought it was too tricky, we can definitely recommend having your own personal chef on hand to demystify the technique and keep you on the right track. Hop over to our latest Course Notes feature to see how we got on…
Next month sees the launch of the We Make London Summer Boutique in Hampstead. Created by a group of like-minded designer makers just over a year ago, We Make London has run a series of successful shopping events featuring the work of some of the UK’s most exciting designers. This time their pop-up boutique will also include 18 original craft and design workshops, from papercutting with folk artist Suzy Taylor (which we’ll be going along to!) and Festival of Britain inspired textile printing, to classes on how to make a pair of embroidered felt slippers or a stitched leather cupcake brooch. The We Make London Summer Boutique will be located at 8 Oak Studio, Perrins Court, Hampstead NW3 1QS and will run from 2nd to the 9th July. You can find out more at www.wemakelondon.co.uk.
Reader Offer! We Make London are offering our readers 10% off their summer workshops. To book a place, simply visit their Etsy shop and use promotional code ‘FROMBWITHLOVE10′ at the checkout.
Here’s a sneak peek at what we’ve been up to for an upcoming Course Notes feature… craft journalist Clare Kelly and I were recently treated to a private cookery lesson in the art of macaroon making, courtesy of School of Food – the cookery school that comes to your home.
Big thanks go to scooter-riding chef Alastair Instone for his knowledge and patience in de-mystifying the techniques required to make macaroons, and to Clare for her beautiful photography (as seen below) and the loan of her gorgeous vintage china collection. For a couple of macaroon novices I think we did rather well! To read the whole story you’ll have to wait until August, but in the meantime why not browse the range of classes available at www.cookeryschool.com?
I was recently introduced to a lovely new magazine called Making by the very talented mosaic artist Janine Nelson of Smashing Chintz, whose work was featured in a recent issue. This inspiring magazine is jam-packed full of creative craft projects, such as Janine’s beautiful mosaic Cupcake Brooches made using fragments of vintage china (see below). With over 30 crafty project ideas each month, Making magazine is essential reading for anyone seeking inspiration to create their own beautiful projects for the home, family or friends. You can find out more at www.makingmagazine.com, and discover Janine’s vintage mosaic workshops at www.smashingchintz.co.uk.
Exclusive Reader Offer! Making Magazine are offering our readers a fantastic 40% off a years subscription - that’s just £35.95 instead of £59.88 for 12 issues – even cheaper than the subscription rate offered in the magazine, so sign up now to take advantage of this great offer! Simply visit the Making Magazine Subscription Page and use code T2691 at the checkout, or call 01273 488 005 quoting the same code, before 31st March.
You may have spotted that we’re now sporting a rather smart ‘recommended site’ badge, having had a lovely review written by The Good Web Guide. We also entered their Website of the Year Awards and were thrilled to make it through the first round of judging to be included amongst 70 commended sites chosen from over 1,800 entries. Ok, so we didn’t make it into the final 24 shortlist, but we’re still feeling pretty chuffed – especially as we’re not even a year old and were listed alongside some really established brands.
However, one site that did very deservedly make it into the final shortlist is Ooh.com – a brilliant site for finding things to do. If you haven’t come across it yet, it basically enables businesses to list events, take bookings and accept payment for them online. As someone who’s always on the lookout for interesting courses and workshops to try out, a quick browse around turned up a whole host of creative endeavours, from pottery restoration and photography to willow weaving and dressmaking – right up our street! Ooh, we do like you… best of luck in the awards which are being announced this week. For interesting things to do in your area, visit Ooh.com.
Tuesday 14 September 2010
The September issue of Woman & Home magazine has a fantastic six page feature all about learning new creative skills (a subject close to our heart!) and we got a special mention as a great place to find out about courses run by talented British designers and makers.
The feature also highlighted many of the course providers listed in our Directory, including (clockwise from top right) The Make Lounge where we recently tried out candlemaking, Claire Aristides Jewellery School where we learnt to make a chunky charm bracelet, The Workshop by Sally Bourne Interiors where we’ll be making Christmas decorations, and Hugh Dunford Wood in Dorset who taught us to make beautiful hand block-printed wallpaper earlier this year. Search our Directory to find creative courses in your area, or browse our Course Notes features to read about some of the courses, classes and workshops that we’ve tried out for ourselves…
