Winchester Handm@de

I had a lovely day on Saturday selling at the Winchester Handm@de Christmas craft fair. The fair took place in the Guildhall which has been refurbished since we were last there in the summer and is now looking great, much more light than before.

My products sold well and it was lovely to have a chance to meet my customers face-to-face and get their feedback. It is so nice when people have the time to stop and chat. People had such lovely things to say about my work and were so encouraging about where I am heading with 'Claire Hurd Design'. Most of all people admired the quality of my work which I was really pleased about. It is so important to me that everything I produce is manufactured to the highest standard. I want to show with my products that 'handmade' means made with love, care and attention to detail; making it stand out from mass-produced goods. 

As is always the case with the Handm@de craft fairs the other stall holders were all really friendly and there were some beautiful products for sale. In particular it was really lovely to catch up with Meninafeliz again. I first met Meninafeliz before I had taken part in any craft fairs and when I was still new to online selling. They have always been so friendly and encouraging and full of advice. We had such a lovely catch up and I was even treated to one of their lovely products (I won't know what until Christmas day!) by my Husband. Take a look at their beautiful work HERE.


My neighbours at this fair were the lovely 'Quercus Silver' and 'Jude Allman'. It makes such a difference at craft fairs when you are positioned with people that are producing beautiful that captures your interest and that are nice and friendly! Quercus Silver were selling silver and resin handmade jewellery and Jude Allman was selling beautiful ceramic pots, buttons and decorations. Do check out their work as I am sure you will love it as much as I do. Quercus Silver can be found HERE and Jude Allman HERE.

Christmas Snowmen

Things are really busy here at Claire Hurd Design at the moment. Online orders are gaining a festive momentum, private commissions are flooding in and I am preparing stock for the Handm@de Craft Fair at Winchester Guildhall on Saturday 13th November.


With Christmas in mind I have made a new decoration - a Christmas Snowman. I am pleased with this one - I think he looks rather cute! He is now available to buy in my online shops.

Handm@de Winchester Summer Craft Fair

The Handm@de Winchester Summer Craft Fair took place on Sunday and it was my first time having a stand there. The guildhall in Winchester is a lovely venue but rather dark so I apologise for the quality of my photographs. The organisers did a great job of getting people through the door and the fair was significantly more busy than the Cambridge fair I was at last November.

If you are visiting my blog for the first time having picked up my business card at the fair a big welcome to you! I hope you enjoy reading about all of my crafty goings on. Thank you to all of those that showed an interest in commissioning personalised items. Do have a browse around my blog and my online shops to see my full range and contact me on studio@clairehurd.co.uk for more details.


As always at the Handm@de fairs it was great to meet the other sellers and share experiences and advice with eachother. A special hello to the lovely Louise of Lolly & Boo who I met for the first time and had a lovely long converstation with about selling on Not on the Highstreet. Also a big hello to Cath of Emerald Framing who is a familiar face at the Handm@de fairs and always full of encouragement and smiles. It was great to see you again Cath!

So Busy, Busy!

I just wanted to pop by to let you know I haven't forgotten you, my lovely blog followers. As always happens in life everything has come at once!


My trusty Bernina and I are working hard towards preparing for the Handm@de Craft Fair in Winchester this Sunday, making hand-crafted personal touches for my Wedding and creating artworks for my portfolio.

I haven't really talked about my portfolio work much here on my blog but I shall share more with you as soon as I can. I had an important meeting on Tuesday and am pleased to say that I sold some work and have gained a very exciting new customer. I also have a few more meetings coming up so will be very busy for a little while longer. As soon as all of my appointments are over I am going to treat myself to a few days dedicated solely to wedding makes before I run out of time!


Thank you for bearing with me, I shall share more exciting designs and makes with you soon. Cx

My Latest Purchase and Even More Purses!

I am currently busily preparing for the Handm@de Craft Fair at Winchester Guildhall on Sunday the 4th July. I wanted to be able to display my handmade greetings cards neatly and also have the option to include some of my framed embroidered and appliquéd artworks in the same display. So, yesterday I treated myself to a proper five tier display stand and it arrived this morning! I am really pleased with it and think it is going to look really good on my craft fair table. It frees up some table space and displays my work clearly, I can't wait to use it now and am busily making cards and artworks to fill it up.

I have also been making even more purses for the same craft fair. I am really enjoying churning out a few of these each time I have a break in my other work. They sold really well for me at my last craft fair so hopefully the same will happen this time.

Handm@de Cambridge Christmas Craft Fair

I am back! It has been a while as I have been very busy keeping up with online orders and preparing for the Handm@de Cambridge Christmas craft fair.

The craft fair took place on Saturday and I am really pleased with how it went. It was my first craft fair and I was not really sure what to expect so went along with the attitude that as long as I covered my costs I would be happy. It turned out that despite being a relatively quiet fair I easily covered my

costs and made a healthy profit on top.

It was lovely being able to chat with my customers and I received lots of really positive feedback on my products which was very encouraging. I was also able to catch up with some familiar faces from the Winchester and Oxford fairs. Through the Handm@de craft fairs I have met some really lovely fellow designer/makers and it was wonderful to chat about crafty things and share hopes and dreams with people working in similar fields.

I particularly want to introduce my blog readers to the following people - all truly lovely, very friendly and creating beautiful products.

Julie of 'Little Button Nose', Karen of 'Chalk Hill Studio', Karen of 'Hodge Podge Arts', Cath of 'Emerald Framing', 'Twinkly Spangle', Natalie of 'Nat's Nest' and Alice who organised the event. It was wonderful to meet you all and sorry if I have missed anyone!

Craft Fair and Google Maps

I have now received all the promotional material for my upcoming craft fair and wanted to share the details with you. It would be great to meet some of my blog followers on the day so if you are able to pop along do come and say hello.

I also wanted to show you this great Google Map. It has been put together by Sharon of Ravenwolf Design and shows the location of Folksy sellers in the UK. The idea is that we can get in touch with others nearby to form friendships and organise craft fair table shares together. It is a work in progress but is looking fantastic already. Many thanks to Sharon for all the hard work she has put in to this map.