Summer Fairs Galore

The Summer fair is a great British tradition. 

It could at a village hall, local community centre, a pub, a school or anywhere else. It’s almost always outdoors and it will include a bouncy castle, an Ice Cream van, a face painter, a game that involves popping balloons and a couple of rows of stalls.

There will probably be a cake stall and a bookstall, a toy stall and it’s more than likely that there’ll be a sweet stall as well. If we’re there, there’ll also be a stall displaying some stunning, sparkling jewellery.

So far this year we’ve done a few Summer fairs and with a few more to come, it seems like a good idea to look at how we, as a craft business, fit into the community fundraising ethos of these events. Obviously we pay rent for our stall or space which directly benefits the organisation, but I believe that we also provide an added attraction for the parents, members or customers who turn up at these things.

I’ve noticed that lots of people don’t expect to find the kind of things that Sue makes at their Summer Fair, and are pleasantly surprised that we are there. It is this element of surprise and delight that, I think, makes our attendance more than just a way to raise a few more pounds, we provide an extra service enhances the whole event.

So on Friday you can find us at:

Killisick Junior School
Killisick Road,
Arnold,
Nottingham,
Nottinghamshire
NG5 8BY 

and on Sunday, we’ll be in Edwalton as well as our regular weekend hang-out at the Bakewell Craft Fair. This means that we have to be in twoplaces at the same time on Sunday, so that’s going to be interesting.

This afternoon – Stanstead Nursery and Primary School

The Taliesin jewellery roadshow will be out this afternoon at the Summer Fair at:

Stanstead Nursery and Junior School
Stanstead Avenue
Rise Park
Nottingham
NG5 5BL.

Stanstead Nursery & Primary School

The fun starts at 3.30pm.

You can see our amazing ranges of earrings and pendants made from Dichroic Glass, Swarovski crystal, Indian Glass, Tibetan Silver and much much more. We’ll also have some of Sue’s fascinators on display and you can book your jewellery party, or pick up details of how to get Sue to bring the Taliesin roadshow to your home.

And if you say that you’ve seen this offer online, we’ll give you 10% off the price of any items on the stall.

Please be gentle with Dave at this event because he will be on his own as Sue is on the way back from a few days away in Herne Bay with her mum.

Let’s Have A Party

Some time ago, Sue achieved the PTTLLS Teaching qualification and she is keen to share her love of making jewellery with other people – both children and adults. One way that you can share in Sue’s skills and enthusiasm is to invite her round to your house.

All you need to do is invite some friends round, lay on a few nibbles and maybe a glass of wine and we’ll do the rest.

To find out more, pick up one of our new Party postcards at any of our events, or email Sueto find out more.

Taliesin Jewellery Party Postcard

As I was saying…

OK, it’s been a while since my resolve to keep this blog active, vibrant and topical fell by the wayside, but I’ve blown the dust off, polished up the words and will try to do better.

For a start, I’ll update the events page because every time I turn round, Sue has booked some new dates. Then I’ll try to catch up on some of our news in the next few days.

What have you been doing since we last had chance to catch up?

New Blog Header for LoveTaliesin

We’ve updated our blog header. What do you think?

 

Golden Eggs in Bakewell?

We’ve become regulars at the Bakewell Craft Fair over the past few months and it’s a nice feeling that we now seem to fit in with  stallholders who have been going there for years. 

This craft fair has been going for 20 years, so a lot of  people must know about it by now. Perhaps you have been to it? It’s held in a wooden building called the Brigade Hall, actually a Scout hut, which is a short walk from the roundabout right in the centre of Bakewell, through the gardens and up a little lane at the side of a Primary School.

We’ve noticed that there are also craft events and record fairs some weekends in the Town Hall in Bakewell. These don’t seem to present significant competition, but offer people a chance to browse around a couple of events as well as the interesting shops in this quaint Derbyshire market town.

However, this Easter Weekend saw some serious overkill with two other one-off craft fairs, an Antiques Fair, a Bank Holiday Market and a car boot sale – all within a ten minute walk.

We’re new enough to the craft fair circuit to have had no time to build up our expectations. As long as we more than cover our stall rent and diesel, we think we’ve done OK. But it’s no wonder then that stallholders were grumbling that they weren’t doing very well.  Five events in a small town at the same time!

Someone muttered that the only people making any money from craft fairs are the ones who organise them. I don’t completely agree with this pessimistic view, as Sue’s jewellery certainly attracts customers. If there is a problem, it’s that those customers only have a certain amount of money to spend.

With 20 years of experience and a loyal base of stallholders and customers, the organiser of “our” craft fair must be doing something right. However, as other people see an opportunity to cash-in on his success, aren’t they in danger of diluting the craft market in Bakewell so much that no-one earns enough to make any of the events worth doing.

Are they killing the goose that has the potential to lay golden eggs, or is it just the way that a free market system works?

In my view, the long-established craft fair will survive because the organiser and the stallholders put in the continued effort needed to sustain this fair all year round.

We’ll be there all this week, through to Monday 2nd May, and we’d love to see you there.

Fascinator – For Your Wedding, Prom and More

Display of Hand-Crafted Fascinators

If there’s a wedding on the horizon, if you’re going to a prom or just want to wow the Saturday night crowd, look no further than Sue’s stunning collection of hand-crafted fascinators and tiaras.

If you’re planning a wedding as the bride-to-be, Sue will work with you to create the headgear for your bridesmaids, your mum and will create a unique tiara for yourself.

Each fascinator or tiara is lovingly designed and made as a one-off, using Czechoslovakian or Swarovski crystals, glass pearls, Tibetan or sterling silver, feather butterflies. In fact Sue’s creativity and craftsmanship will exceed your expectations when you commission your own fascinator with the colours, materials and design to complete your special look.

Contact us by email at lovetaliesin@virginmedia.com or phone 0115 977 0051 to find out how your head cab turn everyone else’s.