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Made By Hand 2017

Today I took some time out of making to head to Cardiff City Hall for Made By Hand 2017, and it didn’t disappoint!

It was great to see so many amazing makers under one roof and a good few familiar faces to have a chin wag with. In my effort to take on less this year I didn’t apply and last year I was living it up in Paris with the European Etsy Captains Summit, so my last time there was when I exhibited in 2015, which I’ll be honest is a bit of a blur, but I did blog about it here!

This year I saw some of the same makers but also a lovely range of new makers with totally random but amazing stuff! Clogs and Faux taxidermy!!!

I of course went along with my trust camera to snap some shots, probably a few too many shots so lets break them down a little!

Here are some pieces that just made me smile like a 6 year old 🙂

And of course here’s the jewellery. Drool worthy jewellery! I wish I’d brought my macro lens so many shiny pretties! This isn’t even a quarter of what was there!

A little aside….I know it might seem strange for me a jeweller to share photos of other jewellers work, but I don’t think of these people (all women as it happens go girl power) as my competitors I think of mass produced items that way. These women are all helping to keep skills and techniques alive and to show just how amazing handmade can be. And we’re all so vastly different. Obviously I would love to think that everyone loves my work, but I know dinosaurs and bunnies aren’t for everyone 🙂  people might not like my style, that’s life. But in that case maybe they’ll go to one of these other makers and buy from them because handmade direct from the maker is just the best! The customer gets the item they want to their taste and the maker gets to make a decent wage for their work and to do something they love! Not enough in this world is win win, but this is! And in my experience most of us makers are much better value then mass produced to boot! Win Win Win!

And here’s a collection of everything else that grabbed my eye and a few people from around the show including the very fun looking pottery showdown!

So if you’re in Cardiff you have two more days to make it to Made by Hand, just head over to City Hall; you can get tickets on the door, I know there are workshops and demonstrations happening over the weekend too, check out their website.

If you’re not in Cardiff go and have a look in your area and see if you can find some shows and fairs, be they big or small, go see the amazing stuff being made by hand, by real people, doing what they love! You might just leave with something beautiful to treasure, you’ll definitely leave with a smile on your face!

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