Congratulations to one of our new members. Not only has Nell just joined us, and opened a brand new studio at Manchester Craft & Design Centre, she’s also been awarded the prestigious Textile Society’s Art and Design student bursary.

Nell’s textile based work explores the relationships between humans and nature in urban contexts. Nell makes clothing, accessories, stationery and homewares featuring fresh, urban inspired blocks of bold colour. Pop into her studio if you’re passing, you’ll find her upstairs. Or visit her online shop at www.nell.etsy.com

You may have noticed we’re partnering up with other Manchester cultural people here and there to pump up our collective volume.

Urbis and Manchester Craft & Design Centre have been on our menu so far, and now we have a new friend in Ladyfest Manchester.

Ladyfest is an international festival promoting women in arts and music. Their Manchester family live here

Our first taster of collective action with Ladyfest comes this Sunday 20th July at their fundraising garden party and BBQ at The Rampant Lion, Anson Road, Manchester, from 3pm onwards.

As well as live music and an international DJ, they’ll promise “lots of surprises, BBQ, Games and mayhem” You can find full details here.

One of our lovely new members, Green Eyed Monsters, will be wearing the craft mafia badge for us there, selling her impressively varied wares. One of her new loves is creating beautiful soft handspun yarn.

You might already know her retro children’s character themed clothing and accessories, and she also promises to be unveiling some shiny new stock too.

Keep your eyes peeled for more Craft Mafia and Ladyfest collaborations later in the year.

So we have some new members, quite a lot in fact. We’ll introduce them in more detail as the weeks go by but in the meantime here’s what you really want to know - what’s their stuff and where can you buy it? your wish is our command.

Just click below for a little retail therapy…
(recession, what recession?)

Lo-fi DIY

A brand new crafting club for renegade boys and tearaway girls who want to make things happen.

There’s a special old-fashioned world of homemade fun to be had out there you know!

Lo-fi DIY is all about having fun, sharing ideas and making new friends. We like picnics in the summer and cosy handmade mitts in the winter.

Come and join us on Tuesday 5th August between 6-8pm at Manchester Craft & Design Centre in the Northern Quarter.

£3.50 will get you a comforting drink and snack from the cafe to help you settle down to it.

Please confirm your attendance to the email below. If you would like to know more about the night or need some ideas for a first crafting project please email us at nico@opheliabutton.co.uk

Lo-fi DIY is brought to you in association with manchester craft mafia
Thanks to the guys at Manchester Craft & Design Centre too.

Welcome to the first of our new members…

Paraphernalia design beauteous and wholesome accoutrements for Ladies and Gentlemen. We are much inspired by both vintage illustrations and19th century magicians. We also enjoy the odd, the unusual, the uncanny and the bizarre, in all the aspects of beauty.

Everything is handmade by Ms. Vanda in her studio in manchester, using vintage illustrations, printed and cut acrylic, and silver plated findings. Paraphernalia strive to provide extraordinary, beautifully original pieces at affordable prices, so that you may embellish yourself with merely a pittance.

Our fine Paraphernalia hostess can be found here, or take a sneaky peak at her wares below…

If you’d like to join us as a new member too we’d love to hear from you. All the details are here. We’ll be waiting.

We’re ready for you at last - new members step up…

As you know Manchester Craft Mafia is a group of crafty businesses dedicated to supporting and sharing a creative, maverick spirit of crafting in Manchester, Greater Manchester and beyond. We’re craft and proud!

We want to help kick-start the new wave of . . .
. . . entrepreneurial crafters sacking the rat race and finding other ways to make a living . . . people crafting en masse and in public . . . anyone hiding an inner crafter . . . and everyone who just loves buying, finding or making something that bit different.

Manchester Craft Mafia wants to introduce, encourage and promote craft as a career and as a hobby; bringing like minded people together to create and enjoy craft individually and socially; and spread a new fired up crafting buzz throughout the city and beyond.

We will offer crafting support through:
* our website, providing information about all local and regional craft opportunities
* social crafting events mixing new skills with happy times
* new networking, promotional and business development activities for craft entrepreneurs
(more…)

Hurrah it’s Guerilla Embroidery’s Etsyversary! A full year since she opened her etsy shop. To celebrate get your mitts on her goodies in the Etsyversary sale, with 10% off everything until June 16th. Just click on one of her images or the link above to get going…

Manchester Craft Mafia has been in cahoots with Manchester Craft & Design Centre for their forthcoming exhibition; Yard Birds. The exhibition showcases some fantastic products from designers and makers from across the UK and beyond featuring products to accessories small gardens, yards, balconies, window boxes, even a front step.

The exhibition opens in the best possible way, with a Garden Party of course.

** And here’s where you come in**

Mafia followers are invited to contribute to the whole shebang by making some glorious bunting which will be displayed around the centre and surrounding streets.

How you make it and what it looks like is entirely up to you. However the Craft & Design organisers would especially like weatherproof versions, in case it rains, in the Great British tradition of such things… So get your friends, family, school class or boyfriend involved and cut up your old shower curtains, umbrellas, plastic bags, oilcloth scraps or whatever else you fancy and get bunting! (Maybe over a glass of pimms and a nice piece of cake?)

You are of course welcome to adorn them in your own special way be it beading, embroidery, print, papercutting etc. All we ask is that you provide a minimum of 1 metre. Then simply include your name and drop it in if you’re passing, or post it to arrive by Friday 4th July to:
Kelda Savage,
Manchester Craft & Design Centre
17 Oak Street
Northern Quarter
Manchester
M4 5JD

Then come on over for the party on Saturday 12th July, 12-4pm at Manchester Craft & Design Centre.

Bring all the family, there’ll be lots of childrens activities going on as well as tasters from Cafe Aromat’s summer menu, the fabulous new Yard Birds exhibition of course, and the Centre’s usual resident makers showing their wares and demonstrating how they work.

If the Centre is overrun with bunting fear not your efforts will not be in vain - any unused bunting, or lengths fit to be used again at the end of the day will be donated to the Hulme Community Garden Centre to be enjoyed all over again.

Thanks to the gloriously bright and colourful Paperfish for letting us use her bunting images. Visit Manchester Craft & Design Centre for more details about the exhibition.

Its coming…
… we’re getting ready to open up our membership and take on a whole new batch of crafters at last.

We’re just tinkering around with the details and then we’ll be right with you, hopefully within the next month. This blog will be the place to find all the information you’ll need so stay tuned (or subscribe to our blog by email via the box half way down this page on the right).

As part of our lovely membership deal, we’re working with some fabulous suppliers to come up with tempting discounts for crafting supplies and services. Our newest supporter is the gorgeous Robson & Mason, online haberdasher extraordinaire. Be warned their store is a veritable sweet shop for stitchers, makers and magpies alike.

Lucky for you (and us) they’re offering members an extra 10% off their already low prices. If you can’t wait for membership and your discount, head on over for a quick haberdashery fix. Don’t say we didn’t warn you…

Following Manchester’s success in holding markets in partnership with the coolest of exhibition centres (as we did with Urbis last year), Glasgow have whipped up their own take on it. They’ll be partnering up with the Lighthouse design exhibition centre in Glasgow’s city centre. Sound good? The why not treat yourself to a weekend away and join them…

Brought to you by the Glasgow Craft Mafia and the CEC, launching May 24th.

Made In The Shade is Glasgow’s new indie market, featuring over 45 designers, makers, crafters, artists, photographers, and lots more lovely creative people.

Space costs £30 and we can provide a 6ft trestle table at no extra cost if required.

We are now accepting submissions. Please email gcmevents@gmail.com with the following information:

Your name and business name
A web link
A description of your work, what you do, how you got started.

If you do not have a website, please attach a minimum of 5 good quality images. We will acknowledge receipt of your submission and confirm whether you have been accepted as soon as possible.
www.myspace.com/wearemadeintheshade

Great Britain Silhouette Art Print - PolYesterday: www.polyesterday.etsy.com

just a little something we spotted and wanted to share… can you imagine if our Crafts Council in the UK took such an interest? Maybe one day…

Making Meaning and the Marketplace: Craft and the Next Generation of Thought
A three-part symposia of the American Craft Council

The American Craft Council is pleased to announce the debut of a traveling program series, dedicated to exploring the next generation of craft artists and their burgeoning influence in the market and culture. The symposia will engage students, faculty, alumni and the public at three of the nation’s leading schools for craft media, and seeks to motivate curricular innovation, reveal student/alumni hopes and needs, and develop a future audience for the craft field.

The April 3rd event, developed in partnership with VCU’s Craft/Material Studies department, will feature Rob Kalin, president and founder of Etsy, your place for buying and selling all things handmade, in conversation with Sonya Clark, chair of the Craft/Material Studies department at VCU. They will be discussing the impact of the internet on the craft market and the role of the craft gallery in a booming art market.

The symposium will kick off with a lunch-time program designed for the Senior Seminar class, giving practical information for professional artists who want to “make a living making things.” Etsy will stream the program in an Online Workshop.

Have you seen our calendar lately? It’s brimming with exhibitions, workshops, studio / gallery space for rent, paid commissions, craft fairs, business development training and pretty much everything you need to satisfy your crafting cravings and boost your business. More here

We’re much closer now to announcing our events. In the meantime let’s just say… weekly craft club anyone? fashion mash-up workshops hmmm? We’re partnering up with some great guys and gals to bring you a regular programme of events on social, skills and business levels. Not long now…

A little piece of news landed today which we wanted to share. The Heart Gallery in Hebden Bridge, which has built up a great programme and steady custom base (and stocks our very own Guerilla Embroidery’s work) has a retail space coming up for rent. You can have your very own craft shop / gallery in the heart of Hebden’s gorgeous creative town. That’s it at the top of this post. More info here

We’re not normally ones for a free bit of advertising but we thought you’d all like to know about this so we’re making an exception…
Those lovely folks at Fred Aldous are having a BIG sale. Hurrah!

Find them at 37 Lever Street, Manchester and online at www.fredaldous.co.uk

With New Year well out of the way (unless you’re Chinese - in which case Happy New Year!) the post-Christmas slump is long gone and it’s all cranking up again…

If you fancy catching some hot craft on craft action pop down to Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre where their craft gallery and shop will be showcasing the work of our very own Guerilla Embroidery (amongst others) throughout Spring.

Following that, she and her work will be zooming over the border to Harrogate for the British Craft Trade Fair from 6-8th April. She’s been working hard for this so do drop by and say hello in person if you’re visiting, she’ll be so glad to see you. Find her on stand N10 in the Newcomers Gallery.

Meanwhile Ophelia Button is also getting out there and can be found at the oh so exciting Kids Modern show in London on Feb 24th. She’ll be in some very swanky company, including the relaunch of 70s company Clothkits. Download their very groovy poster here and visit the website for full details here

Image: Yofi - Israel Ceramics& Jewellery
Manchester Craft & Design Centre

Just a quickie to tell you we’ve updated our calendar with some new events and opportunities - click on the calendar tab above - don’t miss the launch of a new exhibition at Manchester Craft & Design Centre this Thursday evening - all are welcome.

More details and other snippets on the calendar page…

If you would like us to add your events, exhibitions, workshops, opportunities etc to the calendar page please email ask@manchestercraftmafia.com sending us all the details - we can’t promise to include everything but we will try our best!

Ok it’s a little late but Happy New Year anyway.

Image by Lupin

2008 promises to a busy year for the local Mafia - we’ll be meeting up soon to plot our line of crafting attack for the next 12 months but in short it looks something like this…

1. More markets
2. More social crafting events
3. Something new - we’d like to try a few workshops and / or demos if we can

In the meantime whizz on over to the online handmade newspaper The Storque on Etsy, where 2 of the Mafia members, Tinkering Textiles (sallyent) and Guerilla Embroidery made the front page today as part of their Crafting 365 project. Happy Days…

So if you didn’t manage to make it down to the Manchester Craft Mafia markets, Indie Quarter blog kindly popped down on your behalf and chatted to a few of the makers to find out more about why they do what they do, and some last minute tips for gift ideas. Though you can’t get down to see them at Urbis anymore, there are references to all the makers’ websites, blogs etc so have your pens and paper at the ready.

Podcast *here*

And we’re delighted to announce that since this interview, Amy Owen who you’ll hear from on the podcast (and whose purse is shown above), has been busy setting up her own etsy shop. Since she couldn’t give it a mention on the podcast we’re doing it for her here - have a peek at her knittery at www.amytanwenowen.etsy.com

And while we’re at it, if you’re on etsy don’t forget that the mafia’s very own ladies are on there too at
www.sallyent.etsy.com

and
www.GuerillaEmbroidery.etsy.com

Relaying a little message from our buddies across the border at Leeds Craft Mafia:

Stock wanted for a new shop in Leeds City Centre opening very soon
:: Looking for all things tattoo / pin-up / 1950s / alternative inspired ::

Leeds Craft Mafia are hosting their very own shop in the Merrion Market (Leeds, obviously). It opens next week and they want to hear from you if your work fits the bill… (so a great chance for anyone with unsold stock from Christmas markets here in Manchester – perfect timing!)

Their terms and conditions are to take work on a consignment / sale or return basis initially, on a 60/40% split in the designer’s favour. As well as having the stock in the shop they also have a website and plan to take part in a number of events and markets. If you are interested contact michelle@prettycraftythings.co.uk as soon as possible to receive the agreement form. They do need to see your work first of course - so email images to Michelle, or pop by if you’re in Leeds next week while the gang are setting up.

The Leeds ladies are hoping to create a fabulous shop promoting creativity and local talent with a particular emphasis on catering to the tastes of the more alternative (in the broadest sense) of us and are really hoping you decide to be a part of it all.

And finally they will also have a very special notice board area that will loudly proclaim all the exciting creative stuff we think the people of Leeds must know about so if you have a poster/flyer for something fab we’ll be happy to give it a home.

Email Michelle at michelle@prettycraftythings.co.uk or visit www.leedscraftmafia.com to get involved…

Last call for our Craft Mafia Markets - don’t forget to come and visit us this weekend:
Saturday and Sunday, 11am-4pm at Urbis to do your Christmas shopping.

…or if you’re like us - just for a nice little something for yourself!…

ps… we are feeling quite pleased with ourselves as The Independent on Sunday have been in touch for more details so there is a good chance we will get a mention this Sunday, in their travel section, which looks at things going on around the UK. We know what sneaky monkeys the press can be and sometimes they build you up then dash you to bits and bobs by bumping you for something else - but let’s hope we do indeed see our name in lights this weekend. Keep your eyes peeled and fingers crossed!

So we held our first markets on Nov 3rd and 4th and my my how busy and buzzy they were. The venue and atmosphere was lively and fun and all our makers had a great time chatting to each other and the public. Visitors must have been liking something as over 200 items were sold across the weekend so we’re expecting good things from our cultural Christmas shoppers come December…

Here’s a little look through the day…

Betty Joy

Michelle Brand

Jennifer Collier

Iain Perry

Charlotte Topliss - Frock

And a few words from the makers…

“The atmosphere was the higlight for me - makers and customers were all really lovely. The opportunity to meet the other makers was great - really useful in terms of networking, sharing ideas etc.” Amy Owen

“The ability to see what items are popular with customers and get feedback from them was great.” Emma Towers

“We thought the venue was brilliant, literally hundreds of people streaming through on the Saturday, a good cross section of the public.” Iain Perry & Jennifer Collier

“The atmosphere was nice and relaxed on both days, really good, which meant potential customers weren’t put off to look round. It was a good location and lovely meeting other like-minded crafters, we had a lot of fun!” Betty Joy

Hurrah! Here’s to December, whether you’re selling
or visiting we can’t wait to see you soon.

11am - 4pm: Sat 1st & Sun 2nd December, Urbis, Manchester