Leigh Shepherd Designs: August 2009

Craft Fairs 2009

A very brief post just to let you know I have updated my events diary for the year.

So to see a list of the events I will be selling at please click here:)

ok I made the last one up -we saw precious little sun but we are back from a lovely, relaxing holiday in Scotland. We stayed near Oban in a little wooden lodge. The view was beautiful - I took this on the last, finest morning:/

We spent the week dodging rain showers, collecting treasure from the beaches, exploring tiny villages, hopping on boats to visit nearby islands and to see these chaps

As we were approaching the island a little voice piped up "Ooh look, I can see a shark!" As we sniggered at such an idea and we started explaining that sharks are very rarely seen so close to shore and blah, blah, blah we were stopped in our tracks - she was right!

Apparently it was a basking shark the second largest living shark after the whale shark. I would have felt happier in a bigger boat I know they only eat plankton and tend not to bother anyone but still! It was a strange moment.
We took the ferry over to Mull which was an absolutley beautiful island, I'd love to go back there for a holiday. Whilst there we drove down to Tobermory, also known to little folk as Balamory. This was probably my favourite place to visit, lovely walks, tiny beach great for shells, sea pottery and sea glass and hopeless for sunbathing (my favourite sort of beach) and lots of interesting shops selling locally made crafts rather than the usual tourist tat.

As we wandered around some of the most beautiful places our little island has to offer it was sad to hear so many of the natives whingeing about the weather saying it spoiled their holiday and that next year they would "go abroad as usual" and lots of mention of that ridiculous media invention the 'staycation' as though 'pre credit crunch' (more media speak) British people didn't holiday in Britain.

On the ferry back to Oban we stood on the deck with a brew and planned a future holiday visting more of the Scottish isles. As we watched Mull disappear in the distance this appeared

Perfect! And now that we are back and I have got back on top of the orders I had whilst away I hope to be writing alot more here. Lx

Bling My Coach

This week I have been contacted by National Express (coach travel company) to let you know about a fantastic competition they are running at the moment.

Imagine your design on a coach which travels all over the country - this really is a chance for you to get your designs seen by millions! In addition to this you and your mates could have use of a coach for a full weekend! (For T&Cs visit here)

To enter pop along to Bling My Coach Here are a couple of pics swiped from their Flickr page

The design possibilities are endless and you are the people they are looking for!

I've travelled far and wide with National Express, visiting exhibitions all over the place and as the Divine Comedy said

We're going where the air is free

Tomorrow belongs to me

When you're sad and feeling blue

With nothing better to do

Don't just sit there feeling stressed

Take a trip on the national express

But this time take your trip on a coach designed by you!

First Treasury!

I re-opened my Etsy shop last week after a very long break. So I was very excited to find that the lovely and very talented Penny Dog has included me in her treasury:) Thank you so much!

My new packaging

Over the past few weeks I have been looking at ways to 'build my brand' ( I really don't like that term though!). When I sell my jewellery I include an information card with the item which explains to my customers how to care for the piece. Many of the galleries I supply have expressed their appreciation for this.

I wanted to find a way to package my Tiny Tile Paintings that would look appealing when being sold in galleries and at fairs and would stand up to being posted. The tiles have a thick resin finish with embelishments that stand above the surface of the resin, these will need some protection.

So after lots of playing around I came up with these,

I would love to hear what you think about them. Just as I think I have solved one little problem up pops another one! Now I need to come up with something for the series of round Tiny Tile Paintings I have just begun making. I'm thinking about a much narrower band, similar to the ones above or I might try constructing some sort of pouch....so it's back to playing around for me:)

Lollipop Tree