Picture of inside of marquee, courtesy of Digby at Wicanspirit
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We
learned too late that the cruise ship had failed to dock at Guernsey
the day before due to the weather there, so it arrived earlier than
planned in Holyhead. With the fair timed to open from 10am, we found
the first visitors entering the craft fair before some of the
stallholders had even arrived!
Full
steam ahead for this next craft fair at Venue Walkway in Holyhead on
Wednesday 16th May. With the arrival of the Caribbean Princess cruise
liner bringing a few thousand passengers to Holyhead and the
surrounding areas, many other activities are planned on the day in
Holyhead too, making it a perfect day out for the family. The craft
fair will be held in the function room of the popular Venue Walkway in
Market Street, Holyhead (at the junction of Market Street and the
Celtic Gateway footbridge). Venue Walkway has a cafe and bar too. We
will have 18 craft stalls, with hand-made crafts from our members from
all over North Wales.
The good news for us as an
Association is that most of the fairs earlier in the year are already
fully booked! Somewhat unexpected perhaps, given the economic
situation. Our fairs at Beaumaris Bulkeley Hotel, Conway quay, Holyhead
cruise ships fair and Beaumaris Festival are fully booked, and the
other fairs at Anglesey Show and Grosvenor Garden Centre are filling up
fast! The fair in Betws-y-Coed (Snowdonia Arts Festival) is currently
full, but we are waiting to hear if we are able to have a slightly
larger marquee which would allow us to offer a small number of extra
stands once we know if this is possible or not. A small number of
stands are available at the time of writing (early April) at
Anglesey Show craft fair in August (contact Ann Evans to book)
and at Grosvenor Garden Centre (near Chester) in August and October -
contact Tony Vine to book . Contact details on the Fairs Calendar page.
The two fairs at The Plassey (in Eyton, near Wrexham) in July and December have now been transferred to The Plassey centre themselves, who will be rebranding and expanding the fairs to become the "Plassey Country Foods And Craft Fair". The 2012 marquees will be held in a marquee on site, allowing The Plassey to offer more stands and at ground level, along with food stands, rather than the smaller fair we were able to put on in the first floor function room there last year. Existing bookings by our members (apart from any jewellery stands, to prevent conflict with a jeweller's shop on-site) will be honoured by The Plassey centre. following the transfer in April 2012. Enquiries for any new stand bookings should now be made directly with the Plassey themselves - contact Sarah Brookshaw, email "sarahbrookshaw AT btconnect DOT com (replace AT with '@' and DOT by '. ' - anti-spam measure) or tel 01978 780277
This one day craft fair to coincide with the visit of the Caribbean Princess cruise ship to Holyhead on Wednesday 16th May 2012 will take place at Venue Walkway, Market Street, Holyhead (at the junction of Market Street with the footbridge joining the town centre to the ferry terminals). Fair also open to the public. Booking forms will go out to Association members a few days after this was written on 28th February 2012 and it is hoped that about 18 single stalls will be available. Ayone wishing to register an interest in taking a stall should contact our Fairs Coordinator, Ann Evans. This fair is currently open to members only. (Fair now fully booked)
New ChairmanAt the Association's 2012 Annual General Meeting, Joan Bakewell (right) was voted the new Chairman. Joan was Treasurer of the Association for several years, and is perhaps better known as one half of jeweller JM Crafts. She is also a keen golfer. Sarah Anderson - also a jeweller (Sarah Anderson Jewellery) - becomes the new Association treasurer, and Rosalie Davies the vice-Chairman.
A list of the fairs being planned for 2012 is available on the Fairs Calendar page of this website. Not all of the event dates have been confirmed yet. We hope that the application forms will be sent out to Association members early in 2012, and available to non-members closer to the date of the event.
On
the Bank Holiday weekend of 5th-7th May 2012 we will be hosting a new
3-day craft fair event on Conwy quayside. Located in a dedicated events
area with a small parking area for stallholders alongside it, less than
a
minute's walk from Conwy high street and easy walking distance of
attractions such as Conwy Castle and the Smallest House In Britain,
this new craft fair will be in a marquee with a beautiful view
out over the harbour and river, in a busy area. With it being
a
bank holiday weekend and Conwy always busy on Bank Holidays this event
should be popular and successful.
Booking application forms should be with members by the end of January and as with all our events will be opened up for non-members who make their own crafts to apply to book two months before the event.
We are very grateful to local Association member, the marine artist Charles Bell for locating this new event venue for us. Charles has, of course, hosted his own events here using small marquees last summer, so knows the site well. Sadly we have to report that the Erddig craft fair held on this weekend in recent years has been cancelled this year, but we remain in contact with them with a view to other possible fairs there.
Great news regarding the Plassey craft fairs for 2012 - the fairs in July and December will now be marquee-based events. This upgrade allows us to offer the following benefits:
At the time of writing (22/01/12), final costings were being prepared ready for application forms to be sent out to Association members in the near future!
(1) Sarah Brookshaw - (2) Inside the craft fair - (3) Santa's carriage
Our second event at this prestigious craft and retail village went ahead on Saturday and Sunday 10th and 11th December. The Extravaganza had been organised by Sarah Brookshaw of The Plassey centre and extensive publicity for the event ensured a good number of visitors to the site. After all, who could resist coming to meet Father Christmas himself arriving in a carriage drawn by two white horses. Santa had set up his grotto near to the garden centre and even came to visit the craft fair more than once during the weekend. He was also accompanied by Mrs Claus on this occasion. Sadly for us, the number of visitors to the craft fair on the Saturday did not really reflect the number of visitors to the site. On the Sunday, Ann brought an Association banner to be placed near the entrance to the craft fair which improved the number of visitors for a while, although the rain on much of the Sunday contrived to keep the number of visitors down.
Members
of the Association Committee have met with Anglesey Council's
Cruise Visit Coordinator with a view to organising craft fairs to
coincide with the visit of some of the larger cruise liners to
Holyhead. Although preparations for the first event are not yet
complete, we are hoping that a craft fair will be organised in a vacant
shop on Holyhead's high street to coincide with the visit of the
Caribbean Princess liner on Wednesday 16th May 2012. The Caribbean
Princess is a large ship, able to carry over 3,000 passengers, and it
is hoped that such an event will be attractive to the craft workers of
Anglesey and North Wales in general - an opportunity to showcase hand
made crafts from Wales to a large number of visitors as this vessel
arrives at Holyhead on its 12 day tour of the British Isles.
It will also of course be of great benefit to Holyhead locally! More
details will be made available via this website in the course of time
and the fair is being organised by Sarah Anderson and Ann Evans on
behalf of the Association, and we have asked Jayne Huskisson to liaise
with members of the former Anglesey Guild of Craft Workers, as the
Council are anxious that we should offer opportunities to Anglesey
Craft Workers to take part.
Our Wrexham Representative, Tony Vine, appeared in print recently. The Wrexham Tribune Wrexham Christmas Shopping Guide published an article under the heading 'Romancing The Stone' about how his interest in Lapidary Wall Art came about, together with the Australian connection! Grab a copy of this magazine and read all about him and his interest in this craft.
This one day event was well booked by members, but only really
managed a moderate turnout of visitors to the event. Organiser Rosalie
Davies remarked that there was the possibility of a further event at
this venue in early March 2012.
Organiser
Tony Vine (picture on the right) described this as an "excellent event"
with most stallholders being well satisfied by takings and attendance
(last weekend in October). Luckily, the weather was kind and the tarmac
where the marquee was erected was bone dry despite some overnight rain.
This event has been booked once more for 26th-28th October 2012, and negotiations are under way for a new event at this popular venue early in August next year.
(Picture courtesy of Digby at Wicanspirit)
The rain and the mud conspired against us this year, to the extent that we weren't even allowed to take vehicles onto Cae Llan, that's how wet and soft it was underfoot. Nonetheless, 36 hardy stallholders braved the weather and set up stall at this event which had proved so successful in the glorious weather of 2010. This year saw the craft fair extended to three days, although visitor numbers on the first day (Friday) were a bit disappointing. Those hardy souls who had ventured into Betws-y-Coed for the Snowdonia Arts Festival found a welcome respite from the weather in our huge 110 foot marquee, complete with heater! Visitor numbers were up over the weekend, although the numbers were never going to match last year's due to the weather. Fortunately, fair organiser Ann Evans had the foresight to bring a couple of bales of straw along which were scattered around the walkways to make it a bit less slippery for visitors, not to mention giving a rather nice rustic impression to proceedings! And stallholders Dave Wright and Charles Bell went as far as to gather fallen leaves to spread in front of their stand, which added a splash of autumnal colour.
When Sunday night came, we were faced with the dilemma of how three dozen stallholders were going to be able to get their stalls and goods back to their vehicles a little distance from the marquee, given that the field was so wet and muddy that there was little point in even dreaming of trying to bring a car onto the field to load up. Into the breach stepped Digby of Wicanspirit and his trailer, who carried several stallholders' loads from the marquee back to the little car park with the precision of a military planned operation! I don't know where we would have been without Digby and his trailer, so a big huge thank you to Digby for his hard work, along with those who stayed behind to help until the last person (Digby!) had vacated the marquee.
The Snowdonia Arts Festival itself provided a wide variety of entertainment over the weekend and we were treated from time to time to musical backgrounds outside and several morris dancers in their attire and bells walking through the marquee to add a spot of colour and sound to proceedings.
It was heartening to see a number of new members taking stalls at this fair and despite the conditions we very much hope they will continue to display their hand-made crafts at future events. Several asked me to add links to their own websites to the Member Links page here so you can get an idea of who they are and what they do.
We can now look forward to our next events this year - the fairs at Grosvenor Garden Centre near Chester end of October (organised by Tony Vine), Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Mold in late November (organised by Rosalie Davies), and at The Plassey Centre at Eyton near Wrexham in December (organised by Ann Evans).
At the time of writing, the dreaded carrier bag levy is almost upon us in Wales. Thinking positively, it should reduce waste and litter and encourage people to use re-usable bags - after all the simple way to avoid the 5p charge per bag is to bring your own re-usable bag with you to our fairs!
If you are a craft worker and want to find out more about the charge, Committee member Tony Vine has drawn up a short document for members to assist with getting used to the new system, and members can request a copy direct from him - he hopes to publish a summary in our next newsletter. There is an official government site with plenty of information about the carrier bag levy, and it includes information for both traders and customers - visit the site at http://www.carrierbagchargewales.gov.uk - the site is available in both Welsh and English.
Association member Jayne Huskisson's next solo textile art exhibition will be held at Ger Y Fenai Gallery, Llanfairpwll, Anglesey LL61 5YQ this September.
The opening night is on Friday 2nd September 2011 from 7-9pm.
The exhibition runs until Sunday 18th September.
Further information on Jayne's Anglesey Textile Art website, and on the Oriel Ger Y Fenai Gallery website.
Another
year for this long established event at the premier agricultural show
event in the area. The two days were poles apart in terms of weather
and (as a result) attendance. The first day brought us fine weather,
traffic jams and a packed marquee as you'll see in the picture. Sadly,
the weather deteriorated during the second day, becoming wet and windy,
although a large marquee like ours gave shelter to visitors on the
field ensuring we could at least try to make the best of a bad weather
day!
Not having that much to do during the first afternoon, this webmaster decided upon seeing the crowds to count the number of visitors coming in for five minute periods randomly during the day. From lunchtime onward, we averaged about 100 visitors per five minutes, making that about 1200 visitors per hour of all ages through the doors between about midday and mid afternoon. Little wonder that the stall holders seemed to have smiles on their faces on the Tuesday!
Someone with a particularly broad grin by Wednesday was Association member Sheila Garlick, of Little Gems Knitwear (see picture on the right). Not being content with having won knitting prizes at the show for the previous two years, she went a step further this year when, together with her daughter, they won a knitwear and crochet award in the craft and produce marquee. Well done Sheila - further testimony to the high standard of work of our members.
Although we weren't to know it at the time, we had some pretty influential anonymous (to us) visitors walking around the marquee, who later got in touch and paid tribute to the high standards of the products, the fact they are hand-made locally here in North Wales and the standard of presentation of the stalls. While nothing is confirmed as yet, these high standards could well lead to new prominent craft fairs for us next year. Keep an eye on this News page later in the year for more news on this subject, hopefully.
Our USP of "High Quality Hand-Made Crafts, Made in Wales" etc. is increasingly getting us noticed and leading to more and more membership enquiries and requests for stalls at our fairs.
Our
first craft fair at Plassey Craft and Retail Centre in Eyton, by
Wrexham, was held in the Plassey Shippon Restaurant's function rooms.
This was held over the weekend of the 23-24th of July 2011. Attendance
was better on the Saturday, probably because the sunny weather on the
Sunday sent everyone to the beach rather than to the craft fair!
The fairly small venue meant that just under a dozen stalls (some of them quite large!) filled the two function rooms above the Shippon Restaurant. The organiser Ann Evans suggested limiting the maximum size of stands next year if the fair is held again then, so that we can get more stalls in there.
The next fair to be held here on December 10/11th 2011 (as part of The Plassey's Christmas Extravaganza in the Edwardian buildings) is already fully booked.
Below are some pictures taken at the July craft fair, with the organiser Ann Evans in the centre.
 Charles Bell receives the Best Stand Award framed certificate from the Chairman of Anglesey Council (left), the Mayor of Beaumaris (right) and the Lady Mayoress. |
 The artist at work on his latest marine watercolour on his stand at the fair. |
 Charles Bell admires his Best Stand Award certificate. |
Charles Bell, a traditional marine and landscape watercolour artist from Rowen near Conwy, scooped the Best Stand Award at the Beaumaris Festival Craft Fair on 28th May 2011.
Having only been a member for less than two years, he was more than a little stunned when the winner was announced and was almost lost for words, but promptly announced he would "celebrate with a nice cup of hot Ribena"!
The Best Stand Award was judged by the Mayor of Beaumaris, Clay Theakston, and the Lady Mayoress, along with the Chairman of Anglesey Council, Councillor Gwilym O. Jones.
Judging went on for much longer than expected - the judges later explained they had some difficulty deciding on a winner due to the very high standard of products and stands at the event. Councillor Jones also mentioned how impressed he had been with the Association's website, especially the fact that it was fully bilingual.
Charles's works mainly depict the beautiful coastal scenes of North Wales. He also undertakes commissions. You can find out more on his website at http://charlesbellart.com