Happy birthday to us, happy birthday to us . . . !

We are approaching our third birthday! On July 13th 2009, Rosie Lomberg opened By Local for the first time, with the help of her mother, Helen, for a period of 6 weeks - just for the summer holidays! This was in the big shop at the top of the escalator at the High Street entrance to the Regency Arcade - yes, the one that has now been demolished, and is now an enormous empty space, a useful reminder that you can never go back! It's a mark of Rosie's good management skills and vision that 3 years later, with several moves of premises and the help of Keziah Kurg and several exhibitors who have volunteered as Supervisors, the shop is going from strength to strength.


Many of the original exhibitors are still with us, having helped with the nitty gritty of dismantling an existing shop and cleaning and setting up a new one many times over the past 3 years! The Regent Arcade management also deserve credit for supporting such an imaginative concept for so long. When By Local started, pop up shops were quite a ground breaking concept, and it took quite a leap of imagination for a big organisation like the Arcade to see their potential, respect to them, not just for giving us a chance in the first place, but for continuing to find us replacement premises each time they found longer term tenants for our existing shop!


In February 2010, we moved from the big premises upstairs to a smaller shop downstairs, under the Fish Clock (part of what is now 'Schuh') and after a few months there, moved next door for another 2 months, before moving down the Arcade to the old 'ART' shop, then as the 4th move in 2010 across the 'street' to what had been The Officers Club menswear shop. 


By Christmas of 2010 (our second Christmas offering unique Christmas gifts & cards!) we were back in our original, enormous shop beside Butler's cafe where we stayed until September of 2011.


In September 2011 we moved to our present shop, on the upper floor, beside TKMaxx - after so long in a big shop, such a neat, open premises was an excellent exercise in self discipline! With so much display space in the large, ex-toy shop, all exhibitors had ample space to display whatever they wanted, however they wanted. In the present shop, not only is there less display space for each exhibitor, but it is beautifully lit, so everything can be clearly seen (good or bad!) so selecting one's items for display can be quite a challenge!


Over 3 years exhibitors have come and gone, each departure offering a new person an opportunity to try their creations in the market - sometimes to be wildly successful, and go on to bigger and more profitable things, not just through By Local, but also through our sister shop in Gloucester, run by Rosie's mother, Helen, with their own team of priceless volunteers & exhibitors! The Gloucester Arts & Crafts Centre, in College Street, has the advantage of larger premises, with a large room downstairs, where they can hold classes and workshops. This facility has enabled exhibitors to expand their potential for earning and the teaching allows them to demonstrate and pass on their skills to others.


                                    http://www.gloucestershireartsandcraftscentre.co.uk/
Each exhibitor signs up for a 6 week stretch, during which they must work the equivalent of 3 full days in the shop.


This commitment to work in the shop is very useful to exhibitors, it gives them a chance to look at a business approach to life (not everyone has had this experience) and the interaction with the public gives a very useful feedback of market research - when you can talk direct to your customer you get a useful insight into why people buy (or don't buy) your work! This invaluable feedback helps crafters with product development, and often gives added inspiration & motivation to artists with constructive comments from customers. 


We will be celebrating our birthday with several opportunities for our customers to benefit from their loyalty, so keep an eye on our Facebook & twitter feeds, not to mention the website and  newsletter, to take advantage!

Busy! Busy!

Well, have we been busy the last few weeks?! The Diamond Jubilee gave us lots to celebrate and inspire our creativity, and many of our makers produced something special to mark the occassion.

Kath made all sorts of patriotic little mementoes, such as this Union Jack Heart. We made the most of them with a stand at the special Jubilee Market that the Mall organised in the Regency Arcade.

This had an added benefit - many of our fans seemed to have 'lost' us when we moved from the old toy shop, by Butlers cafe, and you rediscovered us through the stall, which is lovely! Welcome back, friends!

We were able to give people a good 'appetiser' of samples from nearly all our exhibitors, and it was interesting how the smaller expanse of stock gave people a chance to actually *see* more of what we have to offer - I think sometimes it is possible to have too much of a good thing, you can't take it all in!

This baby hat, by Amanda hawkins, sold out in no time! But you can still commission one for your 'Made in England' treasure!

We have been without soaps & bathtime treats for a while, but we are about to remedy this, Kate Burgess, of Cotswold Naturals will be joining us soon.  You can see more at http://www.cotswoldnaturals.co.uk/ But in the meantime here's some more examples of her temptations.

Kate is due to set out her goodies on Sunday 24th June (next Sunday) I have a suspicion they will also sell like hot cakes, so don't hang about!

This is a gift pack of several bath treats, want to buy yourself a present? Oh, go on, let us lead you astray!  Finally, the best of good news, Jackie Hawkins, who fell and suffered a nasty leg break, is back on the rota - today! The brave woman is coming in on her crutches, such is the way we makers feel about the By Local community, so please pop in and admire her charming glass.

DIY at By Local

Many of our customers at By Local appreciate our offerings because they are crafters themselves, which gives them an insight into the work and skills that have gone into each item.  This knowledge also gives them an understanding of how important it is to get children & young people well acquainted with the benefits of creativity, and we have several opportunities in the shop for both children and adults to 'DIY'!

Eunice, in particular, has some delightful kits, all made out of felt and easy for a beginner stitcher. She has variations on this hedgehog kit, including this Jubilee tiggywinkle, for anyone who wants to make one over the next couple of weeks!

This little chap also comes in a darker variation.

 Eunice also has a kit to make this magnificent Emperor penguin.

 These kits come packaged in sturdy, square cardboard boxes, so make excellent presents to post.

 Also available from Eunice are her Owl kits, which are in a more light weight package, should you want to post it somewhere more expensive.

 When made up, these little owls are pocket sized friends for little people to take anywhere!

Eunice plans to make a kit for the little sofa, too, so you can make a cosy seat, not just for your owls, but for little dolls and bears, too.

Talking of bears, there is also a kit, by Michele, to make a tiny, jointed bear like this, in a variety of fabrics.  In addition to kits, for the less confident, several of our exhibitors run workshops. You can make pots with Tara . . . 

Or baskets with Helen . . . . . 

Inspired? Call into the shoop, and see what we can offer to get you creating your own treasures and heirlooms!  To whet your appetite, here's a bear made from a kit . . . 

What tempts you?!

Shop rearrangement!

Here is Justyna Designs' luscious chair sitting in our shop, inviting you to collapse into it! Sadly, the footstool has been put a bit far away to put your feet up, too! Doesn't it make you smile? It certainly lifts my spirits every time I walk into the shop - just trying to figure out how we could afford to get the caravan upholstered like this! As well as moving things around in that corner to make room for this fabulous 'sample', Rosie has brought in more display space near the counter, so you can now see Eva's work much more clearly.

Eva's work is truly spectacular, what she manages to do with felt and beads is inspiring, nad the complexity of her work makes me feel like a fraud!

 Next to Eva's display is that of our new jewellery exhibitor, Hilary Thompson, who makes her own lampwork glass beads, under the name of Spa Town Beads.

No picture can really do justice to Hilary's work - do come in and see it, the subtle colours and combinations are very pleasing and relaxed.

Jane Vernon, Ali Corder, Jackie Hawkins and others have also brought in new stock - isn't this lustre bowl by Jane stunning?

Just to be cheeky, I, too, have updated my display, including putting some of my older stock on a 'sale' shelf!

I'm not the only one with reduced price stock, so come in and pick up a bargain - maybe a future Christmas present to stash away!!

New exhibitors for Easter!

We have 2 new exhibitors, Hilary, who already exhibits at Gloucester Arts & Crafts Centre, near Gloucester Cathedral, and Justina Design.  I have no pictures of Justina's work yet, but keep an eye on our Twitter stream (@ By_Local) and Facebook page - I'll post some as soon as I can! In the mean time, check out her web site  http://www.justinadesign.co.uk/   to see her amazing patchwork upholstery - or better still, visit the shop, and sit in one of chairs! 

Hilary was born in Leeds, raised in Cheshire and is now living in the Cotswolds, in the beautiful spa town of Cheltenham, with her husband Jeff, children Chris and Ellen and their golden Cocker Spaniel, Charlie.

For many years she have had a keen interest in photography, calligraphy, flower arranging and, of course, jewellery.  Her main interests have now developed into jewellery design, beads, silver wirework and lampworked glass.

Read more about Hilary, and see more of her work on her web site :

http://www.spatownbeads.co.uk/

Spring is sprung! (almost!)

 

The weekend just gone has given us an encouraging taste of coming spring!  It's gone a bit grey again, now, but the shop is full of encouraging reminders of the joys to come - these hares, by Penny Gaj, available as cards or prints, are a timely reminder that March is only a couple of days away, and the 'Mad March hares' will soon be boxing! Did you know, it's actually feisty lady hares telling pushy males where to stick their unwelcome advances?!  I think they should be a feminist icon!

We are already seeing the lambs in the fields, of course, they seem to arrive earlier each year, and their effervescent joy in life is enchantingly infectious!  Not everyone can get out to see them 'in the wool', perhaps you know someone who can't and would enjoy this card by Bev Perry as a tangible taste of spring?

 Bev also has this delightful card of ducklings, and the water ways will soon be full of these little balls of fluff, too.  A very British sign of Spring, much missed by many expats I know, are the bluebells in the woods.

This picture of Trudi's seems to me to completely capture the essence of Spring, as we know it in Britain. Our climate gives us a Spring like no other, and we should be grateful for its delicate beauty, it's a unique national treasure!  One of our new exhibitors, Nicolas Waters, is also an artist with a perceptive eye for the natural world.

This picture by Nicolas makes me think of spring in the Orkney Isles, where I lived for a time, and the spring air is filled with the bubbling calls of curlews and the 'tee-auch' of lapwings.

Finally, 1st March is St David's Day, which, as a Welsh girl, always feels like the start of Spring to me! So, this is the perfect flower to be wearing on Thursday!  Happy Spring, everyone!

New faces!

All change this weekend! From today we have 2 new artists in the shop, I'll start with the awesome Nicolas Waters! In his own words . . . . Born 1947 – Brought up Lancs, Yorks, Lincs. Finally settled down aged 50 to a career as a linguist having for many years careered as a non-linguist around England, then the continent, in search of proximity to mountains and wild places - the only places where you can hear yourself think. Discovered oil-painting upon opening a Christmas present of paint tubes in 2004, thus simultaneously discovering the ultimate way to communicate.

I can’t remember how many years I’ve been daring myself out onto our wildest uplands, knowing on each occasion that  I’ll end up hurrying across those dark and blustery sky-lines like a man pursued by demons, aware that something absolutely immense and ancient is already out there, presumably working on some never -ending project.

What’s more, despite the overwhelming majesty of that ‘Presence’, I sometimes feel that it is not entirely benign. Everywhere I find walls that have crumbled, or barns that have collapsed and turned as black-hearted as the clouds that stalk overhead, and from time to time I come across some soft young rabbit inexplicably disassembled into a spray of tiny, fine teeth, a ribcage and scattered fur, or the wreckage of a heavy-coated sheep that has mysteriously ’been tipped over’ in the marsh to soak quietly under, legs up.

 I am driven to respect the innocent courage of the creatures that inhabit these unvisited places, living with the fogs and frosts, the wind-blown sleet, the silent, heavy snow, and the days of steady rain.  And they must wait out every black night, whether in unbroken silence, or blasted by the storm. I love them all for bearing it so patiently, and, deep down, I think I covet their animal durability.

So in fact I don’t think I set out to paint landscapes for their beauty at all. Each composition is really an attempt to capture and convey an awareness and respect for that ‘Presence’, as well as my love and respect for the creatures in it, who know no other world.

Two dreadfully over-looked art movements of the very late 1800s contain at least five geniuses at portraying the moods I would love to portray; The Hague School [Holland], particularly Anton Mauve,  Jan Hendrik Weissenbruch and Jacob Maris; The Itinerants [Russian: The Peredvizhniki] especially Isaak Levitan and Ivan Shishkin. They are truly worth looking up; there was a lot more than Impressionism going on at that time.

Perhaps, paradoxically, by presenting only the wild world, my efforts really amount to one long howl; I’m begging homo-sapiens to remember the whole, natural planet, to regain his fear, love and respect for it, and not to sleep-walk any further into a homo-centric,  urban-centred, vehicle-dependent, tarmac-based, grass-phobic, silicon-nourished, screen-focussed, data-fixated,  learning-phobic, commercially-manipulated, gratification-fed, sensation-driven, resource-ravenous,  unsustainable... virtual world.

We also have another artist exhibiting from today, but so far, i have little information about her - however, here's a taster!

Her name is Jenny Westbrook, and her work is very different from anyone else we have in the shop at present, hope you come in and enjoy it!