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Supporting Small Business Saturday

Small Business Saturday – Small Business, Big Difference.

 

Small Business Saturday is a grass-roots, non-political, non-commercial campaign that encourages people to support small businesses in their communities, both on the Saturday itself and beyond. The campaign also aims to support, inspire and promote small businesses all year round.

 

On Small Business Saturday, you can help to make a real difference by choosing to shop small, shop local and shop independent.

Supporting my small business 

For me it’s all about helping to fulfil the dream. When you buy from an independent maker, like me, it means that you recognise the dream that I have nurtured and the hours that I have spent exploring and experimenting with my craft. It means that you appreciate the skills that I have honed and the love that I have invested in the piece that you have chosen. It gives me a huge boost to know that someone else can see the value in my work, and in turn it gives me the confidence to continue to grow my small business. In return, I hope that you enjoy the piece that you have chosen, whether that is for yourself, or whether you take pleasure in the act of gifting it to someone else.

 

If you have bought something from me, thank you. 

 

There is no big budget marketing campaign, or team of employees helping to run my small business. It’s just me. I am a self-taught designer and creator, buyer, photographer, marketing manager, accountant, blogger, packer, delivery driver, sales manager and general spinner of plates!

 

I truly appreciate your support.

 

Why I’ll be Supporting Others

 

It’s so important to support independent businesses, artists and makers, and those businesses who try to support them. There is such a diverse wealth of talent in this country and we should be celebrating all that creativity. Supporting small business means supporting your community and the ripple effect which that can have in generating positivity, well-being and goodwill is so vital to the survival of, not just the businesses themselves, but their area as a whole. It’s self-fulfilling, if I buy from my local independents, they can buy from someone else. Maybe they open a shop on my local high street and that in turn encourages other new business and visitors to the area. Investing in my local independent artisans and producers means investing in my local community and that has to be good for everyone.

 

 Supporting each other in our handmade community, here at The British Craft House is something we are all really proud of.

Did you know that Susan Bonnar, founder of the platform, is one of the

Small Business Saturday UK Small Business Heroes!

 This year, I’m doing my bit for Small Business Saturday by supporting some of my favourite British Craft House fellow makers.

Godrevy Textiles

 

Sarah is a weaver/maker based on the beautiful Lizard Penninsula in Cornwall. We met for real whilst I was down on holiday this year! Sarah produces her own exquisite hand-woven cloth on her cottage loom, and the transforms it into wonderful home accessories and gifts.

 

RedheadWondering Hand Bound Boooks

Lizzie is a wonderful wordsmith and loves to encourage everyone to record their thoughts. She handmakes the most beautiful Coptic bound journals with incredible cyanotype designs, each inspired by nature. These books are perfect for journals or diaries, for sketchbooks and photograph albums, or for whatever you might want them to be.

Sally Thake Jewellery

Sally has the most nimble of fingers, creating the most intricate pieces of jewellery using a myriad of tiny seed beads and her work is influenced by the impact of the seasons on the surrounding countryside of the Cambridgeshire Fens.

This year’s Small Business Saturday takes place on December 4th.

Please support your favourite small businesses. 

 

Thank you. 

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Confessions of a fabric hoarder

Fabric piles 

Fabric literally surrounds us but, on a daily basis, most of us give it very little thought: unless you are a fabric hoarder of course!

It all started out fairly innocuously. I began sewing with a real passion as a teenager and for years made my own clothes. This continued throughout uni and I even made my own wedding dress.

Throwing any clothes away has always been a challenge: one of my biggest ‘binning’ regrets is the brown velvet coat from Whistles that I foolishly got rid of and the older I get the more reluctant I am to throw away fabrics, particularly those that are made from natural fibres such as wools and linens.

It’s interesting how fabric permeates our lives but most of the time we give it little or no thought or to the amount of resource required to produce it.  For me fabric also provides a context to the story of my life – whether it is cutting out the pieces for my wedding dress on the kitchen floor (don’t ask!), replicating a jacket worn by one of my favourite pop stars, the dressing up chest that we would raid as children or the old blankets and bedspreads that my grandma had. They are all anchors to moments in my life and are full of memories. I still have old, crocheted blankets that belonged to my husband’s grandma. I have old linens from a great-aunt and I still have my wedding dress, although I have yet to think of a way to repurpose that. I keep curtains that no longer fit the windows of house we now live in. I have a half embroidered (not by me) tea cosy someone never finished.


I can’t explain the joy of wandering round a fabric shop and being able to see and, more importantly, touch all the fabrics. Lock down has made this impossible and buying fabric online is not the same.

I have made curtains, done an upholstery course and then re-upholstered furniture and find myself going back to making clothes again, but my passion has become applique. I love the creative process and the fact that it feeds my need for fabric: I now have an excuse to have piles of different textiles options!

I find myself reluctant to bin even the smallest remnant of fabric and my applique is increasingly resembling micro-surgery as I incorporate even smaller bits of fabric

Now I have cupboards full of fabrics and my friends know never to throw anything away without checking with me first and even actively hunt items out for me!  I doubt I will ever get round to using it all and recently I did part with some to someone in the village who is making items to sell for charity. So, whilst I can feel slightly smug that I have managed to part with some it does, of course, mean I have room to acquire more!

 


Becky Morgan –
The Tulip House Nov 2020

https://staging.thebritishcrafthouse.co.uk/shop/the-tulip-house/