JANUARY SALE!

To celebrate the safe arrival of 2012, and to cheer us all up, CRAFTS ALIVE will be offering 10% off EVERYTHING every SATURDAY  in JANUARY! 

FESTIVE NEWS LETTER

A SIGN

Of course I'm not referring to the pre-SatNav star-based guidance system as used by shepherds abiding in their fields by night and also wisemen, but the sign above Crafts Alive.  

     '...And verily it came to pass, at the end of November, that four hairy men with ladders did arrive at the place and they looked up and saw the old Crafts Alive sign with its faded paint and peeling letters and they thought it wasn't good. So they drank some coffee and scratched around a bit with their hammers and drills and behold the sign fell to the ground in a controlled manner.  

Then they looked around them and thought Jesus what shall we put in its place? And behold they spied a shiny new sign covered in bubble wrap and they were filled with joy because it was so beautiful. And this was the sign that was prophesied and written in the book of the blacksmith Lisa's to-do list. And it was good. But the four men were sore afraid because of the thunder of lorries and white vans and they knew not what to do about their ladders being in the road. And they were troubled until suddenly they saw some giant mushrooms and at first they blamed the coffee but then they realised it would be meet and right to use the mushrooms as improvised traffic cones. And lo they did. And after many hours the new sign was erected and it shone like a beacon along the street they call Rhosmaen.  So the four hairy men fell on their knees and worshipped it and their hearts and the hearts of all their neighbours were filled with gladness.'   

Thanks very much to the blacksmith Lisa for the making, to John and Wyn for the varnishing and labouring and to Carl for his expertise and equipment. 

  MEMBERS.

Congratulations to Lindsey and Jen from Akamuti who were very excited to hear that their "Cocoa & Almond Body Butter"won the "PLATINUM AWARD FOR BEST ORGANIC BODY BUTTER 2011" in the Janey Loves Platinum Awards 2011. In the words of the panel......"We loved the silky smoothness of this all natural body butter".  Get your paws on a winning pot from Crafts Alive!
We are also very pleased to have Lindsey back on the rota and working in the shop.   

Photographer, woodworker, Ken Day is sailing away to Ireland for the first few days of December. He has been invited to give a talk about artist co-operatives at a conference and private view in the Wexford Art Centre. As a member of both Crafts Alive and King Street Gallery, he will use the co-ops as excellent examples of how well that principle works as a community enterprise. Emphasising the longevity of Crafts Alive and its success over twenty years in taking fine crafts and arts to the public in its own shop, he plans to promote the business to an international audience.  The event is part of a project called Coracle, based in Trinity St. David's University, which connects county councils, art galleries and universities in SE Ireland and SW Wales. MBA courses are being run in Carmarthen and Carlow and successful co-ops are seen as a way forward for a number of budding organisations. (link to http://www.coracle.eu.com/)

We welcome glass engraver Chris Byrne but sadly we say farewell to Val and Anthony Martin love spoons. Val has been a real treasure and we will really miss her.  We have been very fortunate to get a new love spoon maker at very short notice. We welcome Mr Ieuan Roberts from Lampeter who is an extremely skilled craftsman and has work on show in Origin in Carmarthen.

MEET the MAKERS 

Thanks to Lisa for all her hard work in organising the Meet the Makers Fair in October and to all the Crafts Alivers who supported the fair.  We had decided to experiment with an earlier date than usual because last year we were part of the Festival of the senses and some of our potential customers were busy with the activities in the centre of town and so were reluctant to come down to the hall.  This year the feedback from sales was mixed - some people did very well and some people did almost nothing! It makes it impossible to draw any very scientific conclusions but we have decided to move next year's Meet the Makers to Saturday 10th November (the weekend before the Festival of the Senses.)      

FESTIVAL of the SENSES

  In spite of the withdrawal of Welsh Assembly support, this year's festival proved to be an excellent event.  We had craft demonstrations in the gallery with Wendy Powell-Jones, Nina, Ken Day, Jane Davies, Viv Kersey and Tanya Rotherfield.   Nearly all the shops in town co-operated to keep the festival going and many stayed open late.  It looked wonderful with all the Christmas lights and window displays (especially ours of course!). The addition of music to the programme was a great idea and proved popular with visitors and locals alike.  There were plenty of people about and they actually had money in their pockets!  As a result the late night and Sunday openings were a great boost for Craft Alive takings (from the Thursday to the Saturday we took over two and a half thousand pounds!)  Thanks to everyone who gave up their time and manned and womanned the shop during the festival.    

BIRTHDAY

 This Christmas marks the 20 th anniversary of the first Crafts Alive shop. (Although it wasn't called Crafts Alive then.) We are using the occasion to get the shop extra publicity through newspaper and magazine articles etc.  Last week BBC Radio Wales came to the shop and talked to Liz, Wyn, Carol & Ellie. Then they visited Nina's house, Moira's workshop and Lisa's forge. They seemed very impressed. we can listen to the result on Sunday, 11th December at 7am, and after that it will be available on  BBC iplayer. Mari Mitchel is also writing an article for Carmarthenshire Life and her article will be in the February issue.     

'NOT JUST ANOTHER SHOP.'

(Article in the Dec Jan edition of 'THE POST') 

In 1991 the mighty Soviet Union was on the verge of disintegrating, media tycoon  Robert Maxwell was falling off his boat, and Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody was number one in the charts. It was also the year that a group of local crafts people, led by Mary Evans of Ffairfach, had the inspired idea of joining forces and opening up a temporary Christmas shop in order to sell direct to the public.  It was a big gamble because none of them had any experience of running a shop. However  the group each chipped in £20 and Mary found an empty shop in Rhosmaen St next door to the Cawdor and persuaded the owner to rent it out for Christmas. This first venture was called ‘A Christmas Cracker’ and involved about 20 craftsmen and women selling such diverse items as love spoons, glove puppets, teapots and wooden bowls. The big question was would anyone come in and buy? 

Luckily Llandeilo seemed to warm to the idea of a shop where the makers were also the sellers. The shop was a success. After Christmas the shop closed down as planned but…it had been such a positive experience that the group decided to bite the bullet and take on the shop permanently. Crafts Alive opened its doors for business just in time for Easter.

Since then the co-operative has gone from strength to strength. There are now over 60 members producing jewellery,furniture, handmade soap, glassware, baskets, cards, pots, knitwear, books, bags, wrought iron, clothing, paintings and prints. We moved out of our original little shop 3 years ago but only to the other side of the road. This bigger shop was perfect for us and allowed us to put more of our members’ work on display. Last year we opened our upstairs space as an art gallery - Oriel LanLofft. 

Although we have grown, we still retain the standards of the original founding members – we all live and work within 25 miles of Llandeilo, we still work as a co-operative and we are now part of Fair Trade Wales.  All our crafts are designed and made by ourselves. We work in the shop for free to keep our overheads down and our prices as low as possible. When you buy something from Crafts Alive you know that almost of all your money will be going straight back to the producer.  Not only are you supporting local crafts people you are also keeping the money in the local economy, which benefits all of us. It’s a virtuous circle which has kept us going for the last twenty years and hopefully will sustain us through this recession and beyond.    

BAGS of BAGs 

The cotton bags for life have now arrived - they are now in boxes in the kitchen area. If you would like to decorate/design one (or more) of them please go ahead and take one. They need to be done in fabric paint or crayons and then ironed to fix the image. They should have our name and the Crafts Alive hand as part of the design. I've got a 'Hand' rubber stamp and I'm waiting for some fabric ink to be delivered but if you want to go ahead and do your own hand that's fine. The idea is that we will use the bags as part of our twenty year birthday celebrations.   

SAINSBURY's

I don't know whether Mr Sainsbury is still ploughing ahead with his plans for a new out of town supermarket or whether the downturn will make him have second thoughts.  I do know that if Sainsbury's arrives it will almost certainly have an adverse effect on the existing shops in Llandeilo. This would be a great shame because one of the unique selling points of the town is that it is blessed with a good range of independent stores. As Peter Preston writes in the Guardian

'...At it's root, shopping serves one crucial purpose; it defines communities. Your local shops are where you bump into friends, nip out to buy a toaster or pair of shoes, break up the routine of the day - a routine that is growing ever more tenuous as people spend their lives in front of a screen, stuck inside little office boxes or, increasingly working from home. What happens when the shops die? Neighbourhoods lose their reference points. areas lose their identities. there's no throb of life to the place where you live. It becomes blank, anonymous, savourless. '  

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/27

20th Birthday Party: 

We plan to  have a get-together with original & former members in the Spring, which is the anniversary of the co-operative actually opening a permanent shop.