In 2011 we created Frankly to allow us to share the things we love from Folksy and beyond. The Folksy blog, we decided would be saved for seller specific posts; platform news, seller advice and updates. The two have happily existed side by side, as friendly neighbours, for the past 14 months. Folksy is about [...] Read more – ‘Frankly and Folksy move in together’.
Aside from making great products, photography is the most important aspect in successfully selling online. There are almost 13,000 handmade items for sale on Folksy and so it’s essential that your photographs are clear, bright and professional looking. It takes time, love, skill and imagination to create a great handmade product so it’s only right [...] Read more – ‘Don’t be gloomy! How to take great photos on a grey day’.
Written by Christina Allen-Cole from Folksy Shop Apple Crisp It is with some trepidation that I set off on the Saturday morning towards Chelmsford for my first ever outing as an exhibitor. In the week leading up to the event, the organisers kept sending emails which I am sure were supposed to be a positive boost but [...] Read more – ‘My First Craft Fair’.
By Rebecca Portsmouth of Living Abstracts Bust magazine’s Christmas Craftacular at Bethnal Green’s York Hall at the weekend was a brilliant day out with crafts, atmosphere and free workshops. OVERVIEW There were 65 stalls and areas in the large hall, with some shared tables meaning there were about 75 different designer-makers. The stalls ranged from [...] Read more – ‘Bust Craftacular Folksy Review’.
The Bust Christmas Craftacular is a must for all keen contemporary designers and makers. If Village fairs aren’t your thing and you fancy a bit of music, drinks and making in your craft event then this one’s for you. Organisers Victoria Woodcock and Chloe Burrow took a five minute break to answer some questions for [...] Read more – ‘The BUST Magazine Christmas Craftacular – Sunday 16th December’.
Hi there, my name is Katy and I make hand embroidered text art. I’ve just finished my first outing as a Folksy ambassador at the Trafford’s Taste of Christmas craft event on Sunday 9th December at Altrincham in Cheshire. It was my first outdoor craft fair, and dressed for an Arctic expedition, and armed with a flask (of [...] Read more – ‘Trafford’s Taste of Christmas’.
Written by Fiona Humphreys of Folksy shop Inkyprints Originals Of all the Christmas Fairs I had planned for the festive season, The Big Christmas MADE Market stood out as being just that little bit different. The fresh and contemporary inclusive approach that underpins theMADEproject gives it a truly individual and inspiring vibe so that I was delighted to be included in the selection [...] Read more – ‘The Big Christmas MADE Market’.
Words: Jenny Whisker (@jennywhisker) Are you a knitter? A quilter? A cross stitcher? Or a velvet crimpler? If you have a crafty bone in your body then it’s likely you’ve already heard of the Knitting and Stitching Show. It is one of the biggest textile events in the UK, attracting tens of thousands of people each year. [...] Read more – ‘KNITTING AND STITCHING SHOW IN HARROGATE, NOVEMBER 2012’.
by Lauren Denney South Hill Park Craft and Design Fair took place at South Hill Park Arts Centre in Bracknell on 17 & 18th November 2012. South Hill Park Craft and Design Fair will always hold a special place in my heart. It was here that I took part in my very first craft fair back in [...] Read more – ‘South Hill Park Craft & Design Fair’.
WIN a copy of Material World by the awesome Perri Lewis!! Christmas for us is all about making and giving handmade. And once we’ve scoured Folksy and our local craft markets for goodies for our friends and family we like nothing more than to get the Christmas music on and potter around making paper chains [...] Read more – ‘Christmas Makes competition – get your making on!’.
by Aileen Clarke Craft fair season is well and truly upon us whether we are exhibitors or visitors, there is something on every weekend at this time of year. Craft Fairs, Makers Markets, Vintage Fairs, Handmade Shows, they are all there to give artists and designers a place to exhibit their work and to give [...] Read more – ‘Exclusively Highlands Meet the Makers Event at Blair Castle’.
Did you know about the shelf? The Talking Shelf? It’s housed in the Site Gallery in Sheffield to showcase items chosen from Folksy by the curators at Site. It’s a way of bringing the online and the offline worlds of craft together and we’re rather proud of it. Fancy getting involved? Come along and meet the [...] Read more – ‘Shelf Life Project at The Site Gallery’.
Carla and Wendy are the last in our series on the makers involved in our Exclusive Collection - 14 handmade items created exclusively for Folksy. From a garden lab in Northern Ireland and a barn studio in Dorset they have managed to cook up two wonderfully seasonal products for your Christmas wish list. Enjoy! Read more – ‘Meet the Makers of the Exclusive Collection part 5’.
Well I can sit here, all virtuous and smug because I bought my first Christmas present this week. Only erm, a fair few to go. And to help you along (you have started yeah?), not only have we put together a few rather wonderful themes for the Folksy homepage BUT we’ve got our Christmas Collection with [...] Read more – ‘Meet the Makers of the Exclusive Collection part 4’.
As part of our Christmas campaign we’re looking at the lives of those makers involved in the Exclusive Collection for Folksy. This week we meet Catherine & Ed from way way up North, lover of the great outdoors Sarah Hancox and insomniac Allistair J Burt! Read more – ‘Meet the Makers of the Exclusive Collection part 3’.
Patricia van den Akker is the Director of The Design Trust. She is a very experienced creative business adviser, trainer and coach, who works especially with designers and craftspeople on helping them to start, run and grow their own business. We asked her to offer her top five tips for improving your visibility and credibility [...] Read more – ‘Improve your visibility & credibility – tips from The Design Trust’.
At Folksy we like to find new ways of promoting you guys and Christmas offers us all a great opportunity to really shout about the great talent we have on the site. Our Exclusive Christmas Collection project began back in August as a way of catching the attention of journalists and bloggers who (we hope) [...] Read more – ‘Meet the Makers of The Exclusive Collection’.
The Renegade Craft Fair is the Mother of all craft fairs in the States; from Chicago to Brooklyn, LA to Austin the Renegade name is synonymous with great quality independent craft and design. Last year, the Renegade brand made it’s way to London for the first time with huge success. So when they offered us [...] Read more – ‘Folksy at Renegade London’.
Perri Lewis is quite clearly one of the UK’s Queen of Crafts; she writes her own quick, quirky, crafty blog as well as regularly contributing to Mollie Makes, Making mag, The Knitter, The Guardian and lots of other rather swanky publications. We love her no nonsense, kick ass approach to making; she likes her “making” to have [...] Read more – ‘Perri Lewis chooses her Top jewellery on Folksy…..’.
As a second year geography student interested in gaining experience in the world of PR and marketing I was thrilled to be given the opportunity to undertake an internship at Folksy. As a keen crafter I was also really interested in and inspired by the talent of many Folksy sellers. During my four weeks at [...] Read more – ‘Folksy from the inside – a four week internship by Victoria Coombs’.
I’m a big fan of online fashion & homewares store Plümo. And they have spoken publicly of their love for Folksy too. So it seemed only fair that I ask them to share with us their top five designers on Folksy right now. And, in turn, I let you know that they’re new Autumn/Winter collection [...] Read more – ‘Plümo – Our top five designers on Folksy.com’.
There may be more wet weather to come and, having three young ones myself, I know it’s hard work trying to enjoy the summer holidays when the garden’s out of bounds. So I have discovered the best craft kits on Folksy for the wee ones, hoping a little creativity keeps them (and you) happy. Enjoy! Read more – ‘Kid’s Craft Kits for the Summer Holidays’.
Karen Kench of Folksy store Kettle of Fish shares her Wedding day with us and why a few handmade touches made it all the more special. I never thought I’d want to get married and don’t remember ever being a little girl who dreamed of a big white wedding, but when we did decided to tie [...] Read more – ‘A Handmade Wedding by Karen Kench’.
A month ago you might have seen the Folksy team mention a new PR intern, well that is me, Kate. My one month internship at Folksy is drawing to a close now so I am writing this guest post for Frankly to tell you about my month. To give you a quick background, I completed [...] Read more – ‘My One Month Internship at Folksy HQ’.
Traditional Father’s Day gifts can leave a lot to be desired. So thank goodness for Folksy. If you’re looking for something a little bit different, our talented designer-makers have sorted it for you. Our recent PR intern Kavita, chose her Father’s Day favourites. Read more – ‘June 17th is Father’s Day!’.
By Holly Christian. It’s 2012. This is England’s year. It is a year of regeneration. The olympics are fast approaching. Hype around Britain is great, and there is one place where the hype is getting greater everyday. Margate. The seaside town, once a bustling holiday destination, has been through the wars with a high street on the verge [...] Read more – ‘A Vintage Seaside Town’.
By Kavita Donkersley. Although it isn’t always represented by the British weather, it is now Spring time. One of the best things about summer is the style that comes along with it – from floaty floral prints to delicate accessories. We have come up with our favourite items from Folksy that epitomise ‘Spring fashion’. All [...] Read more – ‘Spring Fashion On Folksy’.
Hello everyone! My name is Kavita and I am the current PR & Marketing intern at the Folksy. I am a part time free lance writer and fashion blogger at shewearsfashion. I was lucky enough to find an internship that was not only based in Sheffield, but also in a company which I have been [...] Read more – ‘Say hello to Kavita our PR intern’.
Written By Bethanie Ruston I am a bit of a newbie to the craft scene. I have been ‘designing and making’ for years but I have only recently begun to take it seriously; for this, I have to thank the internet and the influence of social networking for helping modern people turn their hobbies into [...] Read more – ‘The British Craft Market – be proud!’.
It’s all very lovely browsing Folksy for gifts for others or treats for ourselves but did you know that we also have hundreds of patterns just itching to be made? From sewing patterns to book binding PDF’s it’s a brilliant place to find any new little projects to get your teeth into. Although my children [...] Read more – ‘Fabulous Patterns on Folksy’.
By Pavla Kopecna Enter Room 6 of Tate Modern’s current exhibition Alighiero Boetti: Game Plan, and you’ll immediately notice beautiful blue canvas paintings that span the length of the room – shaded here and there with large white speech marks dotted throughout, they appear to be created by the master painter, with years of artistic [...] Read more – ‘Alighiero Boetti: Game Plan’.
By Momtaz Begum-Hossain It was the title of the HCA’s Spring Conference ‘Evolving Craft Communities: From the Stone Age to the Digital Age’ that got me intrigued. ‘Technology meeting craft’ sounds pretty normal, but the Stone Age? Were people really crafting in the Stone Age? ‘Making things’ has always been a distinctive feature of being a human, at [...] Read more – ‘Heritage Crafts Association Spring Conference – the gossip.’.
Weddings are a huge business. We know that. Every stately home, hotel or local pub seems to do a ferociously expensive “wedding package” these days and it can be difficult to create those personal touches from what might be on offer. So we want to give an almighty salute to those that make it possible [...] Read more – ‘A Handmade Wedding’.
“Getting what you want?. Well he usually does: Look at his sleeveless pull-over for instance. It’s a grand piece of work.” You’ve got to love a good vintage knitting pattern (and the copy that goes with it). Well, that’s exactly what got a hoard of keen knitters to the British Library last Saturday for part [...] Read more – ‘Vintage Knitting Patterns at the British Library’.
Written by Helena Moss & Francine Schokker of C.O.W Studio Think of Birmingham, and you might think of, for example, the iconic Selfridges building at the transformed Bullring shopping centre, an expansive industrial city, or Gluhwein at Birmingham’s Frankfurt Christmas Market. But do you think of an eclectic and animated craft scene? Most recently the City raised its [...] Read more – ‘Waxing lyrical about crafty Brum.’.
I’m getting excited about paper craft. 3D paper craft in particular. I’m going to go all out there and predict big things for paper craft in 2012. The growing popularity of craft in general means that more people are willing to give “making” a go. And paper craft is perfect for that. Within a moment [...] Read more – ‘Paper craft’.
The Crafts Council celebrates its 40th anniversary this year by asking critics, makers and writers to select their favourite pieces from its collection for an online exhibition 40:40. Designed by ico Design, the website has been styled with a contemporary take on Victorian ephemera, so don’t expect your average shiny site. By using an optical character [...] Read more – ‘40:40’.
Christmas isn’t about blogging, or reviewing books. It’s not about talking shop or coveting other peoples work spaces. It’s about eating and drinking, lighting the fire, watching films and helping your kids build their new Lego spaceship. So instead of your normal Frankly post, today I’m just sharing a playlist. 14 great old Christmas tunes [...] Read more – ‘Happy Christmas from Frankly.’.
Here at Folksy, we thought it was about time that we collaborated with some of our favourite designers. So this Winter, we’ve commissioned eight of them to create a set of functional items that reflect the beauty and diversity of Modern British Craft. Following Wednesday’s post we are very proud to introduce you to the [...] Read more – ‘For Folksy Collection – The Designers Part 2’.
Here at Folksy, we thought it was about time that we collaborated with some of our favourite designers. So this Winter, we’ve commissioned eight of them to create a set of functional items that reflect the beauty and diversity of Modern British Craft. We’re very proud to introduce you to the first four of the [...] Read more – ‘For Folksy Collection – The Designers’.
We’re super proud to announce the launch of the For Folksy collection. From this coming Monday 5th December, 7 beautifully crafted items, commissioned by us from 7 of our favourite Folksy designers will be available to buy online. We’ll reveal full details on Monday morning but in the meantime, here’s a sneaky peek of what’s [...] Read more – ‘For Folksy collection arrives’.
A few years ago, on his annual cycling holiday in Cornwall, graphic designer and photographer Nick Hand started thinking about cycling around the coast of Britain. Once he’d said it out loud, he felt obliged to do it and so in the summer of 2009 he set off with the knowledge that, if he kept [...] Read more – ‘Slow Coast’.
Amy Twigger Holroyd can’t help but stand out in the world of knitting. Founder of ‘slow fashion’ knitwear label Keep & Share she also runs knitting workshops, creates knitting patterns and kits, runs communal projects in various contexts such as music festivals and creates conceptual pieces exploring issues of authorship, ownership and longevity. Alongside these projects [...] Read more – ‘Stitch Hacking – Amy Twigger Holroyd’.
The Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair (GNCCF) kicks off today at Spinningfields in Manchester. Back for it's 4th year, the event provides cutting edge contemporary craft from over 140 selected designer-makers. If you love modern craft, this event is for you. As a taster we have selected 4 of our favourite exhibitors.... Read more – ‘The Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair’.
The Renegade Craft Fair began in Chicago's Wicker Park in 2003 and in the 8 years since, has grown to become one of America's greatest craft events. Featuring hundreds of artists and makers, the annual event is held in urban epicenters of creative indie-entrepreneurship – including Brooklyn, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin. Much to our pleasure, last weekend, it came to our very own London. Read more – ‘Renegade Craft Fair, London’.
I have this chair. It’s a kitchen chair that my brother picked up for 99p. He reupholstered the seat with a striking vintage fabric, painted the ornate back spindels in a bright white gloss and gave it to us wrapped in a large red ribbon as a Christmas present. It was a GREAT christmas present. [...] Read more – ‘Make A Statement’.
