Ladyfest Ten Crumble Sale!

"LADYFEST TEN:

CELEBRATING A DECADE OF DIY FEMINIST ARTS & ACTIVISM"

Come and see me at Ladyfest this Saturday - held in Highbury & Islington, London.

I shall be part of their 'Craft & Jumble (Crumble)' sale that will be on all day in the Horatia Pub on Holloway road.

There'll be lots of other events going on including comedy and debates, all fronted by the most talented up and coming ladies around! Ladyfest is now in it's tenth year and is renowned all over the world for being a fab female fronted weekend, so make sure you come along!

I've been busy working away at some fantastic new necklaces this week, so make sure you come and be the first to check them out!

Hope to see you there!

www.ladyfestten.com

New Recycled Ear Fancies!

I've been busy making a whole load of new earrings - including lots of lovely new recycled bottle top designs and some very unique dominoe dice pairs. They should all be available from my website www.laurabaxendale.co.uk just as soon as I get a moment to pop them on there! If not, come along to the Backyard Market on Brick Lane this Sunday and buy them direct from me at my stall, or even send an e-mail to info@laurabaxendale.co.uk and let me know which ones you would like!

Here's a little preview of only half of my new goodies...

Black & Gold Dominoe Earrings - £5.00

These dominoes are made of bakelite and are originally from Soviet Russia.

Blue Lego Brick & Pearl Earrings - £4.50
Recycled Red Ring Pull Earrings - £4.50

Silver & Black Recycled Ring Pull Earrings - £4.00

Green Is The New Black

I've just finished reading 'Green is the New Black' by Tamsin Blanchard and it is an absolutely fantastic book!

It was published in 2007 but is still super relevant and has so many good tips and crafty projects to do; I really recommend getting yourself a copy to read. It has loads of info on where and how to shop ethically; what companies to choose, how to challenge other companies and a directory of shops & websites.

I managed to get mine for only £3.99 on sale in Oxfam!

See here for some more info:

www.greenisthenewblack.typepad.com

Abergavenny: Discovery Beautiful Countryside & Knitted Treasures!

I was lucky enough to get away camping for a few days this August Bank Holiday Weekend; the destination being Abergavenny in Wales, situated between the Brecon Beacons & the Forest of Dean; MTB perfection! We had some fun treking to the tops of some rather big hills on the bike, with our dog closely following, to discover some wonderful views such as this:Without boring you all too much with my holiday snaps; here's only a couple from a beautiful little cycle we had along a canal one day too:

On my final day there we spotted signs for a Gift Fair that was being held in Abergavenny Town Hall and had to stop off for a quick peak! It was definitely worth it; there was everything from stalls of old-school comics & action figures; to books, craft supplies (wonderful!), local hand made food, jewellery to name a few!

An absolutely fantastic find was Odd Balls stall; chock full of fabulous bags, broaches, phone holders, purses and such, all made my a lovely lady named Belinda. She uses 'odds & bods' to create some very irrestistable recycled goodies!

Here was my handmade souvenir from her; a big & beautiful purple flower broach! Please e-mail Belinda on bee.oddballs@gmail.com to find out more!

My second fantastic knitted discovery was Amanda Bland's stall. She is a knit wear designer who creates unquie hand knitted scarves; not only does she sell these but also an amazing array of yarn, needles & all the patterns so you can recreate them yourself too!

My favourite was the 'Big Necklace' and after a lot of umming and ahhh-ing I finally went for a green - purple - yellow - sparkle eyelash style yarn to take home with me!

Here is my creation of it all:

A close up to show off the super snazzy yarn used to make my new scarf / necklace!

Please e-mail Amanda on a.j.bland@hotmail.co.uk; there was a wonderful selection to choose from!

On my list of things I wanted to find this holiday was a pot of locally produced honey; which was being sold in the gift fair. Already started on it as you can see; it tastes delicious! Also came away with a handful of jars of various chunteys; which have all been sampled and are so, so tasty! Buying local honey something we should all be doing, it is a super easy way to help support all the bee keepers and help save the honey bees!

I also have to mention the brilliant caravan / campsite we pitched ourselves up at; which I really, really to recommend staying at if you are thinking of visiting the area for a few days: www.blossompark.co.uk

The owners were so friendly and accomodating! It was in a perfect location; stunning scenery, short drive/ride to the village, lovely clean toilets/showers, electricty, cheap to rent a good size pitch... The owners even lent us a pack of playing cards on a rainy night! (I'd forgotten my knitting...)

So; all in all, a fantastic trip!

Bike Chain Jewellery now sold in Italy!

A few weeks ago a couple of fine Italians snapped up a load of my recycled bicycle chain bracelets & keyrings, to sell in their shop in Italy.

So if you are heading over there in the near future, look out for an establishment under the name of 'Cheesecake' and you may spy a few of my creations!

Their website; full of info on the shop, style & all sorts of on trend going-ons; is here:

www.naplestreetstyle.it

(Although be warned; if you don't speak Italian - like myself - you may find it a little tricky to understand!)

New Bicycle Earrings Online!

Check them out here:

www.laurabaxendale.webs.com/bikelegoearrings.htm

From £4.50 a pair!

Hand Knitted Bags For Your Treasures

Bags to stash your mobiles, cameras, MP3s & any other treasures you choose, hand knitted by myself, giving a use to all my odds & ends of yarn from knitting projects of yonder!

Now available on my website

www.laurbaxendale.co.uk

Egg Mag!

I have been using my old copy of the fantastic Egg Mag to create paper bags, which I use to sell my items in at my market stalls.

Here they are having made themselves onto the lovely EggMag's website:

http://www.eggmag.co.uk/eggstras/eggcam.html

Check them out and keep your eye out around London & Brighton for a free copy of the mag, it's utterly awesome!!!

Not to mention the magazine which inspired me to donate my profit from all of my bee sales to help save the honey bees!

I have also finally been able to part with my pile of old Howies catalouges; (for some reason they're so lovely it's hard to part with them?!) by recycling them in the same fashion.

Have a look through my previous posts for some pics of them! Better still, come and see me on Sunday's at the Backyard Market on Brick Lane and view them for real!

See my website for more information on my creations & my honey-bee-saving-bees!

www.laurabaxendale.co.uk

Bohoboutik - blog of blog

Just a quick blog of another blog that I have been featured on -

www.bohoboutik.blogspot.com

Lots of other fantastic recycled creations on there so give it a look!

My bicycle chain bracelet with anodised titanium was featured from my Folksy shop.

Check my Folsky shop out here:

www.folsky.com/shops/ReWearable

Also available on my website, with many more bicycle chain jewellery creations, here:

www.laurabaxendale.co.uk/

Latitude 2010 Knitting Tent

I was lucky enough to work at the Knitting Tent at this year's Latitude Festival. The tent was run and organised by Amy Twigger Holroyd, who is the owner and mastermind of her own knitwear label, Keep & Share. Throughout the weekend, me and the other members of the knitting team were on hand to teach the joy of knitting completely for free.

Some early morning knitters:
All the samples that were knitting were attached to each other and people were able to leave little notes & memories, written on ribbon, on their work. The knitted samples will travel to the other festivals the knitting tent shall be at this year.
A view across the river - it was such a pretty festival!A group shot of the amazing multicoloured sheep:They were indeed real!
Beautiful brightly coloured painted flags were dotted about all over the festival & camping areas:Finally, my favourite act of the entire weekend; Lewis Floyd Henry:

Thankyou to all the lovely people who stopped by to quickly learn how to knit and ended up stopping for the next hour or two, have a knit and a natter with me!

It was fantastic to see all ages, boys, girls, women & men wanting to have a go at a fantastic craft!

For more information on Amy & her knitwear label please check out www.keepandshare.co.uk

Bethnal Green Country Fayre

COME AND SEE ME TOMORROW AT THE

BETHNAL GREEN COUNTRY FAYRE!

From 1pm at the Gallery Cafe, Old Ford Road, just around the corner from Bethnal Tube.

It's going to be an all day event full of Americana, Country & Bluegrass, not to mention craft stalls, a bric a brac & a raffle with a chance to win one of my creations!

Organised by the Margaret House Settlement, a charity based in Bethnal Green.

More info here:

www.stmargaretshouse.org.uk

Hope to see you there!

Fantastic Fathers Day Recycled Beer Gifts!

The perfect present for a beer drinking Dad on Fathers day!

Only £10 per pair!

Order before this Wednesday to recieve in time for Fathers Day - Check out this link for more styles:

www.laurabaxendale.webs.com/cufflinks.htm

Cufflink bases are more than secure, are nickel plated and bottle tops have been sanded down with lots of care via moi so a pair of these will make a shirt shine not snag!

Of Cabbages & Kings Market Day

Come along to the Of Cabbages & Kings market day in Stoke Newington this Saturday & Sunday 12th - 13th June.

There'll be lots of stalls full of jewellery, knitting, accessories, stationary & more, including my stall with all the usual recycled creations & some beer tastic fathers' day gifts!

See here for more: www.ofcabbages.co.uk/OCK-news.htm

Long Live The Honey Bees!

Spend money & help save the honey bee!

From now on, I shall donate 20% of my profits from all bee related creations to charities which are working to help save the British Honey Bee!

Recycled plastic & silver plated wire bee hair slides - £6 per pair.

Recycled bee beer bottle top bracelet.

Gold, wooden & pearl beads.

Inside message 'Long Live the Bees'

Bee Broach £4.50

Recycled Bike Valve Necklace

I've just finished making my very first item of jewellery created using recycled presta valves from bicycle inner tubes!

I have been collecting old, punctured inner tubes from for a little while; with the intention of creating a few small bags & wallets from the old rubber.

While that is in the process of occuring; I have been conjuring ideas I could create with the valves from them too.

So, there it is:

My first necklace from recycled inner tube valves!All the valves have been cleaned and then sprayed silver, which has been throughly tested for water proof and rub-proof-ness!
The valves hang from a chunky but lightweight silver chain - look out for it on my website soon & at my market stall at the Backyard Market on Brick Lane on Sundays!

www.laurabaxendale.co.uk

for more jewellery made from recycled bicycle components!

Recycled Crochet Charm Bracelet!

Check out my very new, very unique charm bracelet!

The charms are solid plastic circular shapes created from recycled carrier bags!

This is a totally one-off piece, going for only £8.50!

Buy it from me here:

http://laurabaxendale.webs.com/recycledbagjewellery.htm#566436505

From Not Mass Produced here:

http://www.notmassproduced.com/product/6369643d267069643d31383734/recycled-charm-bracelet.htm

Or come and see me at the Backyard Market, Brick Lane every Sunday for a chance to purchase a totally unique, recycled creation hand made my me!

www.laurabaxendale.co.uk

Etsy Shop

My Etsy store has now been set up and is open for business! Check it out here:

www.laurabaxendale.etsy.com

More items being listed soon, so keep your eye on it!

All items still available from my own website www.laurabaxendale.co.uk and, of course, at the Backyard Market, Brick Lane every Sunday. Come along to see the real deal and try 'em on!