Saturday, January 12, 2008

A textile artist doubled with a Fashion Designer, meet Sara

Hello Sara, tell me a bit about yourself
I am a freelance Fashion and Textile Designer based in London.

I started designing as a child by making clothes for my dolls and later grew into customising my own clothes and making jewellery to sell to friends, family and neighbours. My mother is my main inspiration and she always encouraged me to learn new crafts and techniques.

She was also very supportive of my educational choices and opting for art and textiles I trained to become a Designer. Graduating from the London College of Fashion in 2000 and I got my first job, starting the very next week and have since worked for a number of British designers. In June 2006 I became a freelance Fashion and Textile Designer, moving from company to company working on different projects. I have enjoyed my new found freedom in design after leaving a full time post and found that this suited my restless creativity much more.

As a Designer I have always been taught to take inspiration from a number of sources; from museums and art, to the world around me. But through all of this the one thing that has always inspired me the most is texture. I find anything that is layered or 3-D in effect a great source of inspiration and I enjoy recreating texture by combining a number of media.

In late 2006 I decided to turn my crafty passions into a business and set about creating Sara’s Texture Crafts to work alongside my freelance design jobs. The business was two fold to start with; firstly supplying craft kits and equipment, through eBay and secondly creating and selling hand crafted, unique jewellery, bags and gifts, through Etsy and DaWanda. Since then the business has grown to include my own blogzine for like minded crafters and I am now appearing at major UK Craft events and local fairs and markets.
http://www.sarastexturecrafts.fusiveweb.co.uk/
Boutiques : http://en.dawanda.com/shop/SarasTextureCrafts and
http://sarastexturecrafts.etsy.com/
Craft shop : http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Saras-Texture-Crafts

What is the best thing you have ever created?
That’s a tricky one… In terms of products, I guess my favourite was a bag I made and sold on Etsy called ‘Geisha’. (http://www.etsy.com/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=6093149 )

What is the best thing about your products?
The best thing about my handmade, boutique products is that they are pieces for modern living. My jewellery and bags go from day to evening with simple sophistication and my art and decorations are detailed and yet complimentary working well with any classic style.

And you know what the best thing about handmade is?… Every piece is unique!
How do you promote your work?
On-line advertising, markets and shows, friends and family. Oh, and my blogzine, ‘Crafts of Texture’ at
http://sarastexturecrafts.blogspot.com/

Are you selling in any B&M shops or galleries where we can see your products for real?
Not at the moment, but I am working hard on my first retail exhibition at ‘Stitch and Craft’ March 27-30th 2008, Olympia, London.
(find out more… http://sarastexturecrafts.blogspot.com/search/label/Diary%20of%20a%20Textile%20Crafter).

After that I will be appearing at markets and fairs, which you can find out about through my events diary at
http://www.sarastexturecrafts.fusiveweb.co.uk/EventDiary/tabid/499895/Default.aspx

What is the best home-made/handmade item you have ever bought?
I buy so many handmade things, it’s hard to say, but recently I bought some really lovely hand-crafted, wooden wall sconces for my bedroom from a Devonian artist on eBay – love ‘em!

What are your favorite materials?
Textiles and fibres.

Will we get a discount?
I do run offers and discounts throughout the year in all of my shops. The best way to keep up with what is happening where is to join my new mailing list… where I am setting up my newsletter.

http://www.sarastexturecrafts.fusiveweb.co.uk/EmailMe/tabid/407651/Default.aspx

Do you have a newsletter?
I don’t have a newsletter yet, but if you are interested please visit this link and join the mailing list …
http://www.sarastexturecrafts.fusiveweb.co.uk/EmailMe/tabid/407651/Default.aspx as soon as my newsletter is active I will be in touch.

In the meantime you can always view my announcements on my website at
http://www.sarastexturecrafts.fusiveweb.co.uk/ I do keep customers updated with key events this way and you can subscribe to my blogzine at http://sarastexturecrafts.blogspot.com/, which highlights key events and behind the scenes at Sara’s Texture Crafts.

Thanks Sara

1 comment:

Sara Millis said...

Thank you so much for the feature! Sara x

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