Midsummer Mix-up

Today was the first of our events in Falmouth on Events Square outside The Falmouth Maritime Museum. Donkey in the Goatshed has teamed up with Stacey Guthrie of Cledry Yarner and Julie Murdoch George of JMG Ceramics to sell our work under the group name of 'Mid Summer Mix-up. We have hired these really cool beach huts.

Here is a picture of us all just after setting up. From left to right Julie Murdoch George, Stacey Guthrie(back) and me right front.

Unfortunately due the good old 'Cornish' weather we spent most of the day dealing with strong gusts of wind and fine drizzle however we met some lovely people from all over, especially a lady from Austria who fell in love with Julie Murdoch Georges lovely ceramic jewellery.

Here is a picture of Stacey selling some of her jacket suds which are guaranteed to brighten up any bathroom as well as a great way to wash your hands.

Jacket Suds!

A soap and flannel all in one! High quality and deliciously scented soaps are wrapped in layers of soft, colourful merino wool and felted. The resulting felted scrub has many benefits:
They are less slippy, making it easier for people with arthritis or reduced dexterity
The felt helps make a good frothy lather,enhancing the bathtime experience ;)
The wool acts as a gentle exfoliant, ideal for feet, elbows and other neglected places
The felt shrinks further with use to stay snug around the soap and ensures you can use the soap till it's all gone- no more slimy soap slivers !
When the soap is finished you can either use the leftover felt as a bath/pan scrubber, cut it open and use it as a handy pouch or fill it with catnip and have your cat love you forever!



Also helping out today was my best friends beautiful daughter Zinnia who was not only great at arranging the display inside the hut but a great saleslady in directing people out of the drizzle into the sanctuary of the hut!





Lastly I sold a number of bags, purses and i-pod holders to a number of visitors wanting to take a homemade souvenir from Cornwall. We need more people like this a so many souvenirs sold around these parts are not genuine Cornish, just cheap crap made in some far flung place across the waters! Sorry that's my gripe for the day!
And finally here is a photo of one of my recycled i-pod holders which has been a really popular seller this summer. In fact I discovered today some customers checking them out to see if they would hold a small digital camera which indeed it did.



Oh and just another finally if you happen to be in Falmouth this summer you will find us on the Events Square outside the Maritime Museum on the following dates:-

Friday 25th July

Thursday 31st July

Friday 8th August

Friday 29th August

Friday 5th September

Falmouth College of Arts

Its been a while since I blogged have been rather busy. Not feeling very well at moment so taking a bit of time out of the studio to sit and blog. Went to University College of Falmouth today for the MA Contemporary Crafts open day. Considering going back to FCA maybe next year to do an MA but the cost of it is putting me off! The facilities are brilliant laser cutters, digital print etc etc. Please someone drop £6000 into my bank account and I will sign up tomorrow! Ever so hopeful.

Anyway surfing their website there is a photo of one of my recycled lights which was part of my BA Textile Design http://www.falmouth.ac.uk/ under the design section. These lights were knitted out of carrier bags on a loop knitting needle. They stand about 6ft tall and took many months of patient knitting and loads of patience.

Its been a busy time in the goatshed making new bags for the upcoming season so not a lot of time to blog. Anyway here is a a site that I am pleased to be linked to. desirable.co.uk is dedicated to finding the best British fashion, home-wares, decor, jewellery and accessories that are available to be purchased online.

Another great place to shop is the Green Squirrel in Perth, Scotland Green Squirrel which focuses on selling Fabulous organic, eco-friendly and fair-trade fashion, products and gifts for better living that make a difference. http://www.green-squirrel.co.uk/

Visit to Trevarno Estate, Cornwall

On Friday me and my friend took our children to Trevarno Estate just outside Helston. We had a really lovely day. The gardens are really interesting not only for us but the children. Lots of imagination has gone into the childrens playground. It has a fort, slides, tunnels and a big rope style swing. The children really enjoyed exploring the estate with lots of places to play hide and seek. There are lots of birds. On the lake there are black necked sawns who swim very fast. Peacocks can also be found near the house.

The food in the conservatory is very nice and a pleasant place to have lunch. We also indulged in a slice of cake. Yum!

New Purses

I have been experimenting in the goatshed with new designs for purses. I am really pleased with the results. They do not look much but they take quite a bit of time to make so its going to be difficult to price. Anyway thought I would post images of the purses to see how they look on the wide world web.

I took these photos this morning in the polytunnel. Weather was all over the place one minute it was sunshine, the next hail!

Spring is just around the corner!!

After a miserable rainy Easter, I managed to get down the beach today with a few of my friends and our kids. We went to a really fantastic local beach Church Cove at Gunwalloe. This is one of my favourite beaches as it is never too over populated and with the running channel of water and numerous rock pools its ideal for the little ones. The kids had a fantastic time paddling, building sandcastles and climbing rocks. Roll on summer!!

Thinking of Joining Etsy.............

I am thinking of joining Etsy. However I need to make seperate stock for Etsy as most of my stock is reserved either for website or retail. Iam going to look into this, maybe just put a few trial ones up there. http://www.etsy.com/.

I really like this little button and would look really cool on my blog.

Swing Tag Labels...

Amongst eveything else I have been rethinking my brand image and have designed new swing tags. The old ones consisted of a scrap of fabric combined with recycled cardboard stamped with 'donkey in the goatshed', but this took rather a long time to make cutting into valuable production time.

As recycing and reusing is very much the ethos of my business I was concerned that the swingtags should be of recycled content however this had proved to be a difficult issue to resolve. Finding coloured recycled card that is suitable for my printer has proven to be difficult so I have had to compromise my ethics in favour of a really nice buff card that the new design looks great on. This will do in the meantime but I will endevour to find some card that is more eco friendly.

Above are the two final designs. I settled on the one coloured design ( which should be in brown but something has gone wrong in uploading it blog!!!!!) as it takes less ink and has a better visual impact.

Latest news from the Goatshed........

Its been chaotic here in the goatshed. As a result of having my old kitchen ripped out my studio is full of boxes containg a new kitchen that will eventually be installed. Before that event happens I have got to wait for a plumber to turn up!!!

Anyway not to be beaten I have been clambering over boxes and managed to come up with some new designs for recycled handbags, some of which will be heading up to London. Jen Ruppert of ReVamp has organised with Cancer Research UK(CRUK) to head together a collection of recycled products by designers made from charity donations to CRUK. Some of these designs will be sold in the Marylebone shop. Donkey in the Goatshed will be participating in this new and exciting venture where a number of our recycled handbags will be sold.

Above are a few images of the new collection.

Some Old Stuff made from Plastic Bags

I was sifting through some old images from a few years back and came across this which is knitted out of carrier bags. From what I remember it took me two weeks and very sore fingers to knit this rather groovy bag.

The EarlyHours of the Morning.....

"Blue Sea Urchin"

made from crimpelene with corsage & handmade button detail

"Deer Park"

recreated from vintage upholstery cover

"Sonia's Kitchen"

vintage fabric & recycled velvet trousers

Ok its gone midnight and I've been working hard to upload more images of my bags, just to see what they look like on the blog. I have some lovely fabric which I collected last year and never had the time to do anything with. I'm hoping to get back in the studio (once I've sorted out the website) and get down to making my spring and summer collection.

Found a great website tonight which I have joined http://indiepublic.com/. There are some really good designers out there.

The Weekend

Found this lovely curtain fabric and trim in my favourite charity shop.

Made this cute bag from my 'finds'. Ideal for summer!

Spent Sunday in the Polytunnel taking photos of existing stock for the website. The picture above is a lovely bag called 'Purple Retro'. The bag below is called 'Fruity Tuty' and is made from an apron and curtain material.

More Photos from the Polytunnel

I acquired this fab retro fabric last summer( makes me long for some sunny days) & teamed it with blue crimplene. What a stunner! Going to make some more like this.

A Week In The Life of a Recycler Designer.....

Ok here goes I am new at this blogging business but everyone seems to be at these days and I guess it might be a way for me to collect my thoughts and have some direction.

It has been a busy week trying to sort out my website and look after my little girl who has chickenpox.

Spent the weekend in a polytunnel taking photos of my bags. It was a bit wet and blustery but I quite enjoyed it. I was pleased with the photos.

This is called Lizzie Dot. Its named after a friend who donated her daughters dotty dress. It was such a lovely dress and it seemed a shame to cut it up but needs must! I teamed it with some second hand Ikea curtain material and added these lovely handmade ceramic buttons that acquired from The Godolphin Design Fair.