Marché Bricolé

Hi there, did you have a great weekend too? I hope so. I enjoyed a great day at the fair Marché Bricolé in Bruges, Belgium. It was real busy and the weather was just lovely, I had a spot with the sun on my back, hhmmmm. And just across from me a nice coffee and tea stall, lucky for me they had GingerLove too.

Beside me Greet from Fleurfatale had a stall, we could hardly chat as it was so busy all day. We'll just have to catch up later. I have joined her and Mitsy from Artmind to write a regular "With love from Belgium" post on the Dutch Handmade blog. You can read my first post there tomorrow.

My new ear studs went flying out the door, as did my rings and necklaces, especially the roses. Also got a visit from clients who had bought before and came to tell how many compliments they had received already. 

It is so nice to make people happy and receive compliments.

The sun did not only bring out a lot of people but I saw lots of ladybugs too. A little girl pointed one out to her dad, it was sitting in the street in from of my stall. Her dad picked it up and set it down in a safer place, so cute :-)

One ladybug came to visit me and found my cat and mouse brooch real interesting :-) 

Happy Stats

The week is nearly over, so time for my happy stats. It's been a very full week with lots of preparation for Crafty gardens in Eindhoven and a trip to Rotterdam. The fair was nice, great selection of different crafters and lots of booths. There was a good crowd of people and lots of interest. But than the wind wanted to be part of it all too. A little sand storm was the result, a few drops of rain joined in and this was unfortunately too much for most visitors. Could have been worse, we later heard that in an other part of Eindhoven it had been lashing down. So here for the happy stats:

• Enjoyed the good weather while creating lots for the fair.
• Had a positively inspiring day at TEDx in Rotterdam (will blog about this later)
• Had a loverly day at Crafty Gardens, even if the weather was not cooperating
• Eat lots of chocolate
• Had a great evening with fellow crafters preparing our yearly trip to France

How to make a display for rings

Being a big fan of rings, usually big rings too, it had to happen; I found nice adjustable rings blacks and started making rings in porcelain and clay. Now I had to find a good way to display these on a fair. I know you can buy displays or just stick them in a piece of foam rubber, but that's not so nice. This idea struck me when I was just back from the DIY store, so had to go back again......cause I wanted to use the tubes that are meant for the insulation of water pipes. 

So get some of those tubes, I got the smallest size, get some fabric and a frame, IKEA is great for this. Get enough tubes to fill the frame.

Take the frame apart, you only need the actual frame.

Cut the pipes to length, just a few millimeters longer than the opening of the back of the frame. And open each of them. Cut the fabric, so there is enough to go around the tube and than add about 3-4 cm (1,5 inches) to that. 

This way you have enough fabric to go back into the tube.

Do this for all tubes and fill the frame. 

Turn it around and fill with rings and your display is ready.