Contemporary Craft Fair

At the end of last week, Maria and I went off on a little day trip, to the other side of Devon, to the Contemporary Craft Festival in Bovey Tracey. It wasn't the most toddler friendly day trip ever, and there were plenty of things we should have been doing at home instead, but we just did it anyway!

It wasn't something I'd ever been to before and I didn't particularly know what to expect, but it was really exactly what it says, very much a festival of contemporary crafts. Full of craft stalls - some with beautiful crafted goods, some useful, some ingenious, some very unusual - not to say slightly crazy in some cases! But whichever of these applied, I think probably every stall was brimming with creativity, and each one was also gorgeously presented. So it was a very inspiring place to visit, and I came away with a head buzzing with ideas. I could have taken photographs of so many stalls and craft items to share with you but I made a huge effort to be sensible and tried to be very selective - so here are a few of my favourite stalls.

First up Anya Keeley. If you head over to her website you'll see a bit more information about her work, but here are a couple of snippets from there to explain a little...

And here are some photos I took of the amazing 'curious creatures' on her stall...

This frog's eyes were made from small, child sized snooker balls.

Next up I got to see the gorgeous driftwood art of Kirsty Elson in person, rather than just on her Facebook page.

I really loved the crab as well as the houses.

Some incredible wire pieces by Louise Dawn Wilson. Maria loved this telephone...

But I think my favourite was this clock...

Then a stall with some really gorgeous lamp shades by Marna Lunt...

Her lamp shades are all hand embroidered and embellished, with amazing detail. This was a real feast of a stall, and it's definitely worth visiting the website for some better, closer photos of her work.

And she had some beautiful pictures too.

And last up, a really different and quirky stall (which Maria and I both loved!) by Claire Read at Little Burrow Designs - follow the link to see lots more of her pieces on her Facebook page. And over there you also get to find out about all the tiny little items that make up each piece, I love reading this detail, each piece is full of stories.

Although it wasn't the best place to go with Maria ('look but don't touch' isn't something that comes naturally to her!), she did find so many of the stalls interesting herself and there was a children's craft tent too. She had lots of fun making her own 'mixed media' picture:



Here it is finished...

So all in all, definitely a good day out.

Sally.