Simplicity

My sister persuaded me to have a table at the craft fair in her village in early June, I have only done one of these before and at the time swore never to do another (I didn't enjoy the experience much!). That will be two years ago by the time we do this one and so I'm hoping it may prove to be a better experience this time around.....

After agreeing to do it, it occurred to me that I didn't have any 'craft fair fayre' as it were. I don't think it would be very successful if I turned up with a table full of my creations without a

collection of more simple, affordable items with me. Having this in mind I have started to make a few smaller, practical,items that I hope will appeal to people browsing the fair. It will also use up some of the smaller pieces of wood that inevitably build up through being too good to throw away but not really big enough to be used in any of my designs! The small bowl pictured above was made with this in mind, it was an offcut of endgrain Elm from a hollow form made a while ago. It turned out to be a lot of fun to produce, at just 3" wide and about the same in height

it took very little time to produce and yet still gave me the satisfaction I get from creating any pleasing form. The textured and coloured band I just couldn't resist adding as I think they completely change the 'feel' of the piece and go with that gorgeous Elm grain and colour so well.

The next one is a simple curved shape bowl again Elm although this time 10" wide with just a couple of accent lines to give a bit of interest. Again it was a nice quick piece to produce and I hope is more practical than most of my usual work. Of course I will have some of my more creative pieces there also but I need to make some more easily saleable items such as pens, coasters etc