Perthshire's Handmade Show

I’m sure most of you will have visited the wonderful Precious Sparkle shop on Charlotte Street. Run by Dawn Cotton-Fuge (ex- New Yorker, honorary Perthite!) this is a veritable treasure chest of beads, gems, hand-made designer jewellery, artisan cards, Indian textiles, children’s traditional toys and a whole host of other gorgeous wee things!   

Dawn is a fully-signed up, drum-banging member of the buy local campaign and in fact, together with her friend Barbara she launched the super handy Perth Independent Retailer’s Shop Local Guide.   She is a hallmarked jewellery maker and has her own range of beautiful silver pieces which she sells online and from Precious Sparkle. Throw in a deep rooted passion for high quality, artisan, hand-crafted goods and a love of beads, gems and you will begin to understand why she is the perfect person to run a Christmas Handmade Show!

The Handmade Show, held at Perth Concert Hall is now as much a part of Perth's lead in to Christmas as the light switch on and the decs going up. This year’s show is to be held, as always,  and will feature stunning gifts, jewellery, clothing and hand quality crafts from around Perthshire and wider Scotland.

This is an amazing showcase, bringing together many leading designers that you just won’t find on the High Street . Usually online only, The Handmade Show gives you an unrivalled opportunity to see and touch the goods on offer, chat to the makers and start that Christmas Shopping!

I caught up with two of the designers, Micheal Kay who specialises in silver jewellery, and Shona Jennings from Thistle Fairy Designs who has her own gorgeous range of handbags.  

SHONA JENNINGS – THISTLE FAIRY DESIGNS

Picture the scene: teenage daughter would really like a Cath Kidston Oil Skin Handbag. Mum of teenage daughter thinks, “How much?! I could make that myself!” And then promptly does exactly that, setting up a handbag design business in the process!

“It really was as simple as that! I’ve always enjoyed sewing and had just treated myself to a new sewing machine with a view to getting into quilting.  When my daughter started looking at the Cath Kidston bags I couldn’t help but think I could do it myself!  The design is quite straightforward and after finding some oil cloth she liked online I gave it a go.

Before I knew what had happened I was making them for family and friends and had a constant stream of orders coming in. Then a friend asked for one in Harris Tweed so I contacted their main mill and created a small collection which started me at craft fairs and bigger local events.

Since then, I’ve found six independent weavers who buy yarns directly for designing and weaving their own tweeds. They use the local mills and usually they’ll do something between 13 and 16 metres of each design. These are rarely repeated which means, by the time I’ve applied my own design to the cloth, I have a truly unique product.”

The result of this is a beautiful range of oil skins and tweeds transformed into day totes, shoulder bags, body bags, make-up bags and little keyrings and brooches.    

Shona runs her creative business from her home in Aberfeldy and has confessed to filling rooms and rooms with her fabulous creations! With two children off to uni, she has taken over their bedrooms and hope sot habe sold it all by the time they come home for the Christmas break.   So please do pop by and see her – you’ll be helping a hard-working student lie on a soft pillow this Christmas!

“I bought the sewing machine to get into quilting and all I’ve made since is lots of bags!”

MICHAEL KAY JEWELLERY

Michael Kay is a man who played the long game before branching full time into silver jewellery design. He graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 1970 specialising in jewellery design as a silversmith. Back then there were no jobs and there seemed to be an unwritten rule that sent the best designers to London or congratulated them as big winners of international prizes.  

Michael decided to step into academia and built a 37 year career teaching art until he retired from his position of principle teacher of Art at Monifieth High School in 2008.  Throughout this time Michael continued to work on his jewellery, supplying galleries and taking commissions for his silverwork.

Since retiring, Michael has worked full-time on his business from his workshop in Callander, and now offers a beautiful selection of silver jewellery. In addition to his silver designs he makes wedding and engagement rings in 9 and 18 carat gold and both precious and semi-precious stones feature in his work. Among smaller-scale silversmithing pieces, he designs and makes boxes, knives and spoons, while on the larger scale he makes trophies and ecclesiastical pieces. 

He has been exhibiting for the past five years with fellow artisan craftswomen, Ros McDonald and Patricia Griffin, under the collective name of Emmock Farm.  Both Ros and Patricia have set up stall at Dawn’s Handmade Fair in previous years and all are huge fans!

“I usually sell online or through galleries so coming out to a large show again is great fun. We’re really looking forward to coming into Perth and meeting all the Christmas shoppers.“

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There are over thirty more wonderful exhibitors like Shona and Micheal (I wish I had time to chat to them all!) coming along to The Handmade Show on Sunday 15^th November.  

Click on over to our events page for a full list and more info.   Christmas shopping… started!    

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WIN WIN WIN 

This month's prize is a trio gifts from three of the Designer-Makers exhibiting at the show.  ENTER NOW >>>