This Weeks Top 10 Finds - BCTF Special

Here as promised is a selection of great makers I spotted at the British Craft Trade Fair this month.

Williams British Handmade with their beautiful range of leather bags.

Bug with their gorgeous, fun and quirky range of jewellery.

Spring Lark with their lovely applique and embroidered gifts, homewares and accessories.

Snowdon with their range of bold prints, cards and bags.

Artist Sarah Jane Brown creates intricate little driftwood sculptures of seaside scenes.

Illustrator Sue Bulmer has a great range of monochromatic cards, prints and home textiles.

Laura Long makes these super cute knitted dolls.

Textile designer Deryn Relph has a colourful range of knitted cushions and home textiles that are a breath of fresh air!

Irish jeweller Saba creates quirky jewellery and enamel art.

Ceramicist Emma Williams creates tactile pieces using vibrant colours and textures, including these brooches.

British Craft Trade Fair 2013

girlwithbeads at the British Craft Trade Fair in Harrogate, 7th-9th April 2013.

So as this was my first trade fair I spent a lot of time researching different styles of stand set ups, I visited a few trade fairs to get ideas from other exhibitors and decided I wanted something modular that could be set up easily, configured in different ways and would fit in a small car.

I noticed a few people using apple crates and really loved the look and felt it would fit in with my brand as they are recycled and have a great vintage look. They can also double as storage and can be used to transport stock to the event. So I bought 6 crates from ebay and came up with this set up, using a broom handle for a clothes rail, and some planks of wood to make a shelf and provide some stability.

Testing my stand set up at home, with some masking tape on the floor to check the dimensions of the 2m x 1m stand.

I used some hessian sacks with union jacks on (left over from a Jubilee street party sack race from last year!) to cover the bottom 2 crates so that I could store my personal belongings and extra cards, etc on the stand.

Setting up at BCTF:

To complete the look and provide a covering for the ugly shell scheme, I bought a few metres of astro turf and hung it from the top of the stand. It provided a great backdrop and splash of colour.

Was really glad I took the old school stool as it was very useful to stand on.

  I used led spotlights inside the boxes to highlight my products, S hooks & chains to hang bags from the stand, plus Gwen the dummy was given a lick of paint to smarten her up!

The finished stand!

Also as a last minute bonus the organisers asked me to supply a bag to put in the showcase cabinet at the entrance to the fair!

I met lots of lovely people at the fair who I will blog about another time, but just wanted to mention these 3 who all won awards - Fantastic!

 Sarah from Williams British Handmade who makes beautiful hand crafted leather bags, and won the Newcomers Award.

Ellie from Bug who makes gorgeous jewellery and got a Highly Commended for Excellence in Jewellery!

And old friends Lidia & Paul from Zinc White who make great jewellery from recycled artists materials, and won an award for their stand design including the 'dancing' sign!

*Things I forgot to take and will take next time*

dustpan & brush

cleaning products

lint brush

biscuits!