Brambridge Park Craft Fair: Connecting Local Crafters

The craft fair at Brambridge Park Garden Centre yesterday was refreshing.

Amongst fuchsias, geraniums and pansies, I found knitted tea cosies, embossed cards, delightful hand-made jewellery and Rule Britannia handbags by local independent crafters.

I hope that Brambridge Park garden centre will continue to run the craft fair, as it is worth supporting our crafting community and talented and hardworking crafters. The craft market will add value to the store as visitors love plants and also creative handmade craft items.

Sian Hayden’s Rosey Glow Jewellery

Sian Hayden is from Colden Common (originally from Wales). She has a lovely name for her jewellery, Rosey Glow Jewellery. Sian wrote a lovely poem about her craft:

Rosey Glow Jewellery

Sunlight, moonlight, stardust and dew,

A handful of wishes – not to few

A pinch of each, mixed together,

To complete the recipe, it just needs you.

By Sian Hayden

Sian Hayden has been a member of Chameleon Theatre Company since 1996. She told me both theatre and jewellery-making are her passions.

Sian told me she would also be appearing in the Chameleons’ upcoming comedy The Ladykillers, from Thursday 23rd to Saturday 25th October at The Ritchie Hall on Hursley Road, in Chandler’s Ford.

Sian is very humble and told me her appearance is minor and ‘blink and you’ll miss it.’ Well, I’ll find out as I’ve bought some tickets to see the Chameleons’ unmissable performance.

Freebird Shop by Soma Daya

I met Soma last week at Eastleigh Craft Market. Her distinctive hand-made Tote bags (roses, bird, leaves), petite pleat bag, Hey Doll Face bag, Rule Britannia bag, pocket mirror, and portable placemat with cutlery were eye-catching, sweet, and elegant.

This time I spotted some cute DS Games cases with pockets perfect for keeping those squared DS Games cartridges, which can easily be misplaced.

Given up PhD study for creativity with textile

Soma told me she gave up her PhD study in Children Clinical Psychology from Southampton University five years ago. Soma was an academic, but while doing her PhD, she realised that children psychology was not her real passion, and after 18 months into her study, she gave it up.

This brave decision freed her to focus on the core of her passion – her creative world in textile.

Why does Soma want to be an artist?

Soma’s answer was simple: “I have an overpowering need to be creative.”

Now Soma has left the academia world and focus on her art. She has recently completely ‘abused’ two sewing machines and has just bought a new and upgraded one.

You’ll find a variety of handmade bags and accessories by Soma on her Facebook page: Freebird Shop.

Sal Knits

Sally Barnes works at Southampton General Hospital and knitting is her hobby.

Sally makes delightful knitted goodies, such as child and adult headbands, Halloween badges, hats, pumpkins and ghosts, cupcake cosies and tea cosies, Christmas booties and toys.

You can find out the goodies Sally makes on her Facebook page: Sal Knits

Crocheting: Sue and Rachel Potter

Sue and her daughter Rachel Potter specialise in crocheting. They crochet adorable toys, scarves, blankets, and accessories. Like many crochet enthusiasts, both Sue and Rachel often donate their crocheted creation for charity and sick children in hospital.

Brambridge Park Garden Centre art and craft club

Sue Potter and Jackie Edmunds both take care of the new art and craft club at Brambridge Park Garden Centre. The group started in April this year, and have 12 crafters doing various crafts, such as papercrafting, knitting, crocheting and jewellery making.

The local crafters meet every Wednesday from 10am to 3pm, enjoying crafting together, and raising funds for charity.

Brambridge Park garden centre provides the facility (the conservatory) for the crafters free of charge. When the crafters meet, they contribute £2 each: one pound would go for charity, and one pound is saved for a trip. The crafters will be visiting The Weyhill Fairground Craft & Design Centre CIC in Andover soon to learn about Dorset Buttons.

Jackie told me that in just a few months, this little art and craft group at Brambridge Park Garden Centre in Eastleigh has raised about £400 for charity.

If you are interested in joining the group, contact Jackie on her email.

Papercrafter and cake-maker

At the craft fair, I also met Pamela Carr of Organza Gifts. Pam sources and sells small gifts.

Margaret’s hand-made cards and papercraft gifts are endearing.

Louisa Fawcett sold her own home-made cakes and sweets.

Animal encounters at Brambridge Park Garden Centre

It surprised me what we found at Brambridge Park garden centre. At the entrance, we were greeted by a beautiful Great Horned owl named Punk. My teenage son (who writes under the name of epicduda) got a chance to handle the owl.

At the back of the garden, apart from meeting Pygmy Goats Tillie and Bramble, we also saw some rather care-free ducks, a pony, and, rather unusually, a tortoise named Bruce. Bruce is 12 years old and she belongs to the family of one of the members of staff. The owners of Bruce have just realised that Bruce is actually a female, but they still keep her name as Bruce.

It was a rather entertaining day at Brambridge Park garden centre yesterday. We had lunch and ice-cream, talked to the animals, and bought a few sweets. For me, the highlight was a relaxing tour of the craft market and I met new local crafters.

We need to connect crafters online and in real life

I love all sorts of crafts. I’m a paper crafter with a keen interest in origami, but I also appreciate the wonderful world of glass, beading, jewellery-making, pottery, knitting, crocheting, embroidery, quilting, sewing, woodcrafting, and many other areas of creativity.

I love introducing crafters and artists I’ve come across locally to the readers of this website. I love to see the crafting community, especially our local crafting community, getting stronger and connecting better, through craft markets and our online presence.

I love visiting craft markets to explore new talents and get inspired by many crafters, who are talented, creative, and artistic. Many of these crafters enjoy crafting and creating beautiful work but they don’t have an online presence or a strong social network. People are unable to buy from them as a result. I love telling people that these crafters exist so that we could buy locally and support them.

The crafting community and its crafty goodness always amaze me. If you know of other local markets, events or crafters, please let me know and also write about them for this website, so that we could introduce them to the readers, and create a stronger, well-connected crafting community in Chandler’s Ford and the surrounding areas.

Do you support our local crafters and artists? Do you buy gifts from craft fairs? Are you a crafter or artist and what is your specialised area? What do you think we could do to connect local crafters, to help each other to reach out, share our crafts, and sell our hand-made goodies? Please share your ideas in the comment. Thank you.