Upcycled Christmas part 1 - handmade gifts

Those of us who make things to sell have to start thinking about Christmas quite early. In less than two weeks, I have a double whammy weekend:

• Our local church is having a Christmas tree festival on 25th and 26th November. Local people and organisations are invited to participate. My theme is upcycled Christmas, and my tree and all its decorations will be made out of reclaimed materials. I will share more about that in my next post.
• The church in the next village is having a Christmas market on 26 November, and I have a stall. I thought I'd unpack a bit about that today.

Generally speaking, people go to village fetes and fairs expecting to spend the money in their wallets. There is little likelihood that I will find a buyer for my chaise or my hall stand. But I can certainly raise awareness of the items and services I offer, while offering for sale a range of small ticket items.

It is, of course, important, that my small ticket items adhere to the same ethos as the bigger pieces I offer: unique, handmade pieces majoring on reclaimed materials. So I have been frantically building up stock of items that fit this bill.

Reclaimed wood of various sorts has been repurposed.

Wall art: reclaimed wood

Framed driftwood

Willow stems

Reclaimed pallet end

Reclaimed pallet end

A box of specimen tubes (unused, of course) was saved from the tip, and used for a range of handmade bath oils and bath salts.

Bergamot, patchouli and lavender

Bath oils, decopodged with paper napkins

Handmade bath salts, petals from Deema Delights

Bath salts - I've tested them on myself ;)

Various found materials were used to make dreamcatcher-style wall art.

Giant quadruple wall art

Autumn colours

Traditional seven-point style

I have been making inroads on the yarn stash with lots of knitting and crocheting.

Place mat

Set of 4

Set of 6

Plant holder, fruit bowl... or hat, if you prefer

Tam o'shanter style jar

Pair of octopus (there are also teddies)

Glass jars have been decorated to within an inch of their lives.

Various other items have been revamped and made over.

Brooches

Wall mounted candle sconce

Variation on the above

Vintage Sylko cotton reels

Decoupaged clock

Light bulb hot air balloon

So swing by St Mary's Little Harrowden at some point over the weekend of 25/26 November to see the trees, and/or St Mary's Orlingbury on Sunday 26th November and grab yourself a Christmas bargain.