This Summer marked the inaugural Craft Trail at the Mayor of London’s Thames Festival; London’s biggest, free festival held each year to celebrate the wonderfulness that is “Ye Olde London Town”. My good friend Mary McDermott of We Make London was charged with the not inconsiderable task of putting on a handmade market as part of the festival and, true to form, did a stellar job indeed!

The Craft Trail was essentially made up of 3 handmade markets found in different spots along the Southbank (Crafty HQ next to Tower Bridge, We Make London next to HMS Belfast and Crafty Fox in front of Tate Modern). The trail, which followed the contours of the Southbank from Tower bridge to Southwark bridge, was illustrated with a beautiful map designed and illustrated by Mike Hall; most definitely an exquisite work of art in its own right and something I shall be framing to put it up in my studio.

I felt that part of the success of the craft trail was the interactive feature, in the sense that the public could follow it along and get their maps stamped by each craft collective granting them entry into a prize draw and a free goodie bag to the first 50 to complete the task; I noticed quite a few early birds eagerly asking for their maps to be stamped keen to be amongst the first 50 lol Each collective also held some wonderful workshops getting kids and adults involved in needle felting, fabric accessories making and cross-stitch to name but a few things.

 

I think this was also a bit of a milestone in the sense that it was the first time (that I am aware of) that so many fabulous craft collectives: Sanna Panda & Friends, Of Cabbages & Kings, Craft Guerilla, Crafty Fox and of course We Make London have come together in such an interactive way! UK Handmade had a table showcasing the magazine in the We Make London area which was a lovely little area reminiscent of European artisan markets. There was an amazing turn out despite sometimes “touch & go” weather and it was truly heart-warming to see so many members of the general public taking a keen interest in our handmade love-in.

Karen Jinks (Creative Director of UK Handmade) and kind and supportive friend to UK Handmade Tiina Teaspooon took the first shift running our UK Handmade stall on Saturday, so I took the opportunity to visit the surrounding stalls of goodies and said “hi” to some familiar and not so familiar faces.

I was utterly blown away by some new designers, whom I have not come across before (lord knows why!!!), called Pretty Scruffy who make THE MOST AMAZING life-size patchwork sculptures of animals….I fell in love with the fox (must save up!).

I was also feeling “awfully British”, this being a celebration of our capital after all and felt myself very drawn to illustrator Jill Tytherleigh’s stall Jillty Drawings. She showed me an absolutely luscious hand printed sample cloth of something she is working on so I am really excited to see what she turns it into; I am hoping some lush home-wares like cushions to compliment the range of lovely tea-towels and aprons she already makes (^_-).

Our table neighbour was a lovely lady who had come down all the way from Yorkshire to sell her gorgeous Made At Green View handbags! Really beautiful, vibrant jewel-coloured fabrics mixed together to make some phenomenally eye-catching bags. She also runs some sewing classes if you happen to be up Yorkshire way; details of which can be found on her blog.

I took over table-manning duties on the Sunday which, despite dire weather forecasts, stayed surprisingly rain free although it was blowing a gale! At one point my magazine presentation boards almost took flight and I had visions of inadvertently paragliding down the Thames clinging beneath for dear life…that would have been a sight that the Thames Festival organisers won’t have included in their programme of entertainment!!

Anyway, I digress….my lovely friend Jenny came to keep me company behind the stall on Sunday and we took a stroll down to Crafty HQ which was right by Tower bridge to ooh and aah over the gorgeous wares on offer. Incidentally, we also caught a rare glimpse of Tower bridge being raised…yay!

There was ALOT going on near Tower bridge, with an array of food, film, music and everything in between on offer; a real festival/carnival feeling which was wonderful in view of some of London’s iconic landmarks.

Sanna Panda & Friends were located down this end of the Craft Trail near Craft HQ and, as expected, had a gorgeous array of goodies on offer. I spotted some of my personal favourites: Birdboxes and Bee Hotels by London Clay Birds (Dawn Painter), Plush cushions by Zeena Shah and Sanna’s own felted hot-water bottle covers!

Next to Sanna Panda & friends was Tanya Strikk’s stall Strikk Handknits packed full of knitted goodness and tactile yarns and next to her was The Miniature Knit Shop which had the cutest knitted hats and little socks for babies and littlies resembling little frogs and owls and other wee creatures! I can just imagine my friend’s little one looking the picture of cuteness in one of these little sets! (>_<)

I think it would be safe to say that the Craft Trail was a resounding success and that it was greatly enjoyed by the public; my only reservation was the distance between We Make London and the next stop along the trail, Crafty Fox which I found a fair trek…but perhaps that is just me being lazy. No doubt, the Craft Trail will become a regular fixture at the Thames Festival in the future which can only be a good thing in getting people to engage with their own creativity via fabulous work shops and also engage with designer-makers and the products they make.

I think all that’s left to say is well done to the designer-makers that took part and a huge congratulations to the organisers on a job well done; particularly Mary and Julie….you deserve a holiday!!!

Ooh and I almost forgot to mention; thanks to my newly discovered love of knitting, I even managed to make a hexi-puff for the Beekeeper’s Quilt whilst I was sitting at the UK Handmade table (^_^) lol Behold!!!