Made in Clerkenwell 15th -18th May

In two weeks time I will be exhibiting at the rather super Made In Clerkenwell event at Craft Central. I am rather chuffed to be chosen and am busily getting ready. 

Yes! That is my lion on the flyer.

What is Made in Clerkenwell?
Avoid the high street and opt for handmade! Shop for ready-to-buy fashion, jewellery, accessories, ceramics, print-making, illustration and interior products by 100 selected UK designer-makers. Choose a gift, commission a unique piece, find a bespoke design service or just browse... Whether you can spare an hour or a whole day, mingle with the makers in the studios where they work their magic.  

When is it?
Special Launch Night on Thurs 15 May, 5-8 pm (join us for a drink) 
Late Night Shopping on Fri 16 May, 12-8 pm 
Avoid the High Street crowds on Sat 17 & Sun 18 May, 12-5 pm

Where is it?
Craft Central has TWO buildings: 21 Clerkenwell Green EC1R 0DX & 33-35 St John’s Square EC1M 4DS. Don't worry! They are 2 minutes away from each other 

How do I get there?
It's just round the corner from Barbican and Farringdon tube. It's also a comfortable plodding distance to Angel and the City. As for buses the 63, 55, 243 or 153 will get you there.

How much is it?
Only £3. (under 16’s free) and you can feel good about yourself as it supports Craft Central’s charitable aims AND you can use it on all four days. You can even buy your ticket online in advance and jump the queues!

Stop breezy papers dead with a Dodo.

Well good gracious me it's been two and half months since I put paw to keyboard. Do not think I have been idle. Oh dear me no! I've been plotting, planning and trying thing out Blue Peter style. Finally I am pleased to launch the first round of new Mountain & Molehill products.

`Why,' said the Dodo, `the best way to explain it is to do it.'

You never know what might happen.....

The quintessential image of Easter 

 This fine fellow has preened his feathers and polished his coxcomb.

“Badger hates Society, and invitations, and dinner, and all that sort of thing.”

Ra!

Now that isn't it. Oh No! There is more a-coming but you'll just have to be patient..........I have also done a load of other bit's and bobs but more on that another day.

I'm also on the hunt for a new PROJECT. No I really don't have the time for it but having a project stops me from going a bit loopy.

Time for a change

Since 2009 I have been working terribly hard on my little business Crumpet & Skirt a glamorous range of gifts and homeware depicting saucy (but not rude) 50's pin ups. Late 2011 I realised that I was a bit stuck and wanted to do other things so I changed the name to Mountain & Molehill and started to work with other designers.

On Valentines Day realised I was miserable. Things just were not going according to plan. I STILL couldn't afford to make anything new and both I and my buyers were bored of the old stock. Factoring in some very positive changes at home and few weeks later I decided that the only thing to do was to let it all go. 

This was somewhat sad and scary. What was I going to do instead? Was I really going to throw away four years of hard work? Of course making such a decision doesn't mean that things are instantly over. I had old stock to sell for a start. In this interim I toyed with hundreds of what to do next ideas and realised that none would be really satisfying or make enough money to do anything with. There is a brick wall for designers in which after a certain level of success, and I am including selling to major high street shops here, you just can't make the next step to make it pay you properly without a large injection of money and I mean a lot of money.

So what to do then? Eventually an idea to make an over-ambitious applique Noah's Ark wall hanging, and the realisation that there was no way I could produce what was in my head, evolved into this Alphabet Parade of Animals:

Clearly the next logical step was Personalised Name Parades:

Not wishing to just appeal to parents and children I resolved to produce some more grown up parades. My current favorite was actually my Matey's idea. A Stag Night parade:

All printed to order at home on a massive professional printer paid for by the sale of the old stock and hand-finished with a 24ct gold crown. Tah Dah!

Meet the Aspirational Mouse.

The Aspirational Mouse came about like all good things. By accident.

When stetting up my business Mountain & Molehill I wanted an image that was more interesting than a logo but gave something of what I do for designers who are just starting out. An early name for the business was Mice & Molehills so it naturally evolved from there.

But I needed a mouse. Fortunately one of my Matey's friends is an illustrator Benjamin T Mills so I gave him a budget he was happy to work within and we had a chat. I wanted a mouse who was thinking big, no hiding in shadows. My best description was 'He needs to be Aspirational'. Ben was very polite about this frankly useless description of what I wanted and gave me lots of sketches to choose from. But the aspirational mouse was born.

Why did I choose to call this blog 'Aspirational Mouse'? Because I liked the name and at a feisty 5'2 could well be described as an Aspirational Mouse. (Or possibly a Pixie Pirate.)

I am about to embark on the first trade show under the Mountain & Molehill banner and my very lovely cousin offered to make me a perspex cutout of the mouse for the stand. Isn't he lovely?

I'm trying to decide where to put him post show. It feel wrong to just pack him away. He is quite large though.

In which I start a blog.....

...for which I have no time for and am slightly bemused as to why on earth I have suddenly decided to have one. Moreover I have started to do one at the worst possible time. With two weeks to go before a trade show I have a set to produce, a catalogue to design, a price list to make and a large amount of black rope to hunt down, preferably in a nice shop that doesn't sell naughty things.

However I have put paw to keyboard and here we are. I am an occasional devotee of the creative blog, usually stumbled across while attempting to make something, getting stuck and Googling for advice. I more often than not I come away feeling depressed as how these people are able to whip up a Victoria sponge, finish off a handmade present and have twenty people for for dinner at moment's notice AND still have a house that looks clean and tidy AND they do all this while looking utterly fragrant, fabulous and CALM!

While I love making bits and bobs, albeit in a not too twee kind of way, being fragrant, fabulous and calm at the same time eludes me. Despite my best efforts I rarely have clean fingernails for more than 5 minutes and my natural default is to tuck my skirt into my knickers and get stuck in.

So let's see how far I get.....