Featured Seller
Featured Seller – Sarabuk
Posted by onHello! My featured seller this week is a talented silversmith, who is based very close to my home patch in West Yorkshire. Beautiful buttercups and African inspired graphic shapes abound…
Sarabuk
Introduce yourself…
My name is Sara Bukumunhe and I make silver jewellery from my cellar workshop in Bradford. I am married to Andy and we have two children, Hope and Nye. I also work part time in a jewellery gallery and help out with bookkeeping for my husband.
How did it all start?
It started with an evening class over ten years ago, purely as a hobby. One of the first things I made was my wedding ring, so there was a bit of pressure to get it right and made on time! I remember I was still filing it the night before the big day. When I left my job to work with my husband and have my second child 5 years later I started making jewellery for others and started selling to friends and family, and it’s grown from there.
I spent the last 2 years completing a Foundation Degree in Art and Design Enterprise which taught me the basics of starting and running a Jewellery business. I have my jewellery in two galleries at the moment, Art Parade in Saltaire, Bradford and Divinity in the Manchester Craft and Design Centre. I’m planning to approach many more in the next few months.
Featured Seller – Creativesque
Posted by onHello! This week my featured seller is a ‘work at home mum’ from London, with a deep love of watercolours and papercraft. From handmade note books to ACEO to embellished greetings cards and tags, this Coriandr shop is packed with bold and vibrant loveliness! Take it away…
Creativesque
Introduce yourself…
Hi, my name is Stacey-Ann and I live in London with my gorgeous 6 year old son, beautiful 8 month old daughter and my hard working and wonderful other half. I work part-time and spend the rest of my time looking after my baby and my family. Oh and in between those things, I manage to do a bit of art and craft!
How did it all start?
My story is similar to a lot of crafters in that I started to rediscover my creativity after the birth of my first child. It was rewarding to be able to stay at home raising him but like every mother I needed something to do that was just for myself so I started watercolour painting as a hobby. Fast forward several years and I now sell my paintings online and offer other items alongside them like handmade gift tags, bookmarks and greeting cards.
Have you always sold online?
Yes, when I decided to try selling my work I only ever tried online. However, talking to other crafters online has made me aware that craft fairs and events are a good way to help promote my shop, so I will be trying that in the future.
Featured Seller – Jolyon Yates
Posted by onHappy Monday! My Featured Seller this week has many strings to his bow. I first discovered his work when I stumbled across one of his incredibly beautiful chairs to feature on my blog. Then I realised he also ran a Coriandr shop selling very charming and fun vinyl wall decals. Read on to find out more about…
Jolyon Yates
Introduce yourself…
My name is Jolyon Yates and I have a company called ODE. The main focus of my work is furniture, but I also do various accessories, all in a craft vein. The chairs can be seen at www.odechair.com and www.jolyonyates.com. Of my other work, I also make book ends, wooden bowls, cards, hanging mobiles and decorative and charming wall decals. The decals are the items I offer for sale on Coriandr.
How did it all start?
I have worked freelance as a designer for 5 years or more and was keen to work on ‘my’ projects rather than other people’s. I had become quite frustrated as I felt I had more to offer.Have you always sold online?
I do sell some wooden objects at a local gallery called ‘The Biscuit Factory’…but other than that all my sales are through various web portals.
What inspires you?
The wonders of nature mostly. I love the sea and cats for example. I’m a big fan of design generally and love the clean crisp lines of a beautifully considered drawing or sculpture. A winning design must contain just a hint of magic.
Featured Seller – Mia Belle Jewellery
Posted by onHello! This week my Featured Seller is the very fantastic Belinda from Mia Belle Jewellery. She creates simple, elegant and affordable pieces and her shop is crammed full of Swarovski crystal and gemstones in all kinds of beautiful colours. There really is something for everyone!
Mia Belle Jewellery
Introduce yourself…
Hi, I’m Belinda, wife to Simon & mother to Josh, nine, I’m originally from Australia and have been living in the UK for seven years.
How did it all start?
General crafting and making started when I was about ten years old. I would make fabric lavender sachets and sell them on consignment at a local craft & gift shop. My mother has always been a crafty person so it just rubbed off on me and crafting was something we always did. My dad & brother just got used to the mess we’d make. In my teens my mother became involved in millinery and bridal wear which is where my love of Swarovski crystals comes from. Unfortunately crafting and making took a backseat to work, marriage & travel. It was only about nine years ago after my son was born that I revisited jewellery making as a creative outlet.
Featured Seller – FruteJuce
Posted by onHappy Bank Holiday Monday! This week my Featured Seller is Alison from FruteJuce, who creates fantastic appliqué, hand sewn and free machine embroidery work! Where nature and power tools meet in perfect harmony (quite often on the front of a baby bodysuit!) Take it away…
FruteJuce
Introduce yourself…
Hi, I am Alison of FruteJuce. Everything I make is driven by my interest. If I love making something I will make more, if not it is a one off. I have to enjoy what I do. I have three kids and three grandchildren and love to make them things to wear. I only wear black clothes myself but my favourite fabrics are bright and cheerful. My day job is working as an adult education tutor teaching Photoshop and HTML for a small local charity, which I really enjoy but is sporadic and there is never enough of it, so I spend quite a large amount of time successfully self-unemployed!
How did it all start?
I have always made things. It is something that I learned from my Mum and Dad as they always made and adapted items, now known as up-cycled, they were way ahead of their time. I spent a few years being embarrassed of wearing home made dresses to school but eventually realised how cool it was. This came in particularly handy during the Punk era, I had the best home made bondage trousers around!
My Mum taught me to Knit and sew when I was very young and my Dad always had me helping out in the shed when he was making things out of wood and metal so I got a good rounded education as far as ‘making’ went.
I remember melting down my Dads solder in a tobacco tin lid and using some of my Mums ornaments as moulds, she was not best pleased!
Featured Seller – Three Red Apples
Posted by onMy Featured Seller this week is Annabelle, a self confessed ‘fabric-holic’, creating a perfect mix of ‘English country cottage and French heritage’, working in a ‘lot of love, some originality, a little humor and a good dose of a good old vintage with a modern twist.’ Phew! That explains that then! Take it away…
Three Red Apples
Introduce yourself…I am French and have been living in South Devon for over a decade with my lovely partner and our dog, Jack.
How did it all start?
I spent my childhood summer holidays busy in Dad’s workshop, hammer and saw in hand (health and safety wasn’t big in those days in rural Brittany!), and on Mum’s kitchen table, drawing and painting.
I had been working as a web designer since leaving Uni. I enjoyed it very much, especially since I worked from home, which really suits me. However in the last couple of years, the need for something new was niggling at me. I just couldn’t decide what. I knew I wanted to go back to hands on creative work and be my own boss. I always thought it would have something to do with working with wood, which is very close to my heart and very much in my family’s.
Featured Seller – Frugal Cool
Posted by onThis week Coriandr’s Featured Seller is something a little different. A creative collective of friends and neighbours from Scotland, manned here on Coriandr by Nicky. I really like this eclectic and vibrant shop full of all kinds of sustainable goodies!
Frugal Cool
Introduce yourself…
I’m Nicky Orr, I live in Musselburgh, just outside Edinburgh. I promote sustainable design and eco craft through projects and events. I support people who aspire to save the planet through their business. Frugal Cool is one of my projects. It’s new, it’s hectic and very exciting.
How did it all start?
For a few years, I’ve been watching my neighbours and friends create wonderful craft. I want to support their talent and we all share a commitment to make our world healthy and safe. So it’s a craft business with a green twist.
I make things myself too, I love textiles particularly. Crochet is my latest addiction.
Have you always sold online?
Yes, my professional head thinks online. I’m a shopkeeper’s daughter though, so craft markets are easy. I do two or three each month, all within 35 miles of Musselburgh. It’s definitely a learning curve, and I’m getting to know which ones to avoid!
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Featured Seller – CeeGee Jewellery
Posted by onHello, it’s Monday again! A new week and a new Featured Seller. My Coriandr seller this week, makes beautiful sterling silver jewellery and loves to use unique artisan produced lampwork beads in her pieces…take it away…
CeeGee Jewellery
Introduce yourself…
I’m Carolyn and I run CeeGee Jewellery Design from my home near Knutsford in Cheshire. I make sterling silver jewellery mainly using semi-precious gemstones, Murano and lampwork glass.
How did it all start?
After over a decade working in investment banking in London my husband and I moved up to Cheshire (not far from where I grew up). Whilst job hunting I made some jewellery for my sister’s wedding in an effort to save some money. That was all it took for me to get the jewellery bug and pursue a completely different career path!
Have you always sold online?
Yes. My first few items were sold on eBay, which was useful for testing the water, getting feedback and checking my jewellery was good enough to sell to the public. Not long after that though I set up my own website and now sell online through that and three other sites including Coriandr.
Featured Seller – Nutmegclick
Posted by onHello!
This week my featured seller is all the way from India with her eclectic kitsch pop bazaar! Assorted curios, ephemera, supplies and restored vintage abound in this wonderful and vibrant Coriandr shop. Take it away…
Nutmegclick
Introduce yourself…
I am the mute daughter of a wanderer who was born in the alps and ran away with a clan of clever gypsies to join the circus in Moscow where I fell in love with a communist who left me in Prague, swept away by a mob.
At least I find that very likely.
Actually, I’m just a gal named Nutmeg who travels the world with her mad pipe-organist husband, wee daughter, and way too many trunks of vintage ephemera! I’m wild about German philosophy and French films, like to take things apart and put them back together in curious ways, and am forever on a quest for aesthetically chipping paint and perfect lighting. Presently we live in a great large traditional house in India where we collect old pulp novels, chase our various muses, and try to have conversations which shift between three or four languages at once!
How did it all start?
Nearly everything I make is comprised of vintage items which I have collected over the years. I’ve loved vintage ever since I was a wee lass pawing through the many trunks of dusty whatnots in my grandmum’s attic. I grew up in a small town, and it was hard for me to find clothing that expressed my style – so I started dressing in lovelies that I found at estate sales, and my first flat was decorated entirely with thrift-store finds, since I loved to make up stories about the other people who had owned them (and it was kind to my starving-artist pocketbook!) Later I became keen on the ‘freegan’ revolution, which is basically using old things instead of buying them new whenever you can. Now I’ve expanded that to the global scale, and love to spend an afternoon poking through the sundry whatnots at a second-hand bazaar or haunting defunct publishing houses.
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Featured Seller – TomatoTea
Posted by onI’d like you to meet Katrina from TomatoTea this week…she produces beautiful hand dyed, hand spun yarn – very unique and colourful for all you knitters out there! She also creates lovely, colourful crochet work and machine sewn purses…and what’s more, there’s 10% off all yarn in her Coriandr shop until 31st July – so if you get your skates on, you may just manage to grab a bargain!
TomatoTea
Introduce yourself…
Hi there! I’m Katrina and I love to play with fibre. The name TomatoTea seems to intrigue people but all it comes down to is a love of homegrown tomatoes and a nice cup of tea :)
How did it all start?
Back in October 2005, I learnt to crochet as I love hats and was inspired by a Katamari Damacy one I saw on DeviantArt. This branched out in 2007 when I finally learnt how to knit after many failed attempts! This then branched out again into learning to dye yarn as I received a huge barrel of wool yarn which was mostly white or cream in colour. And just recently, I have now learnt to spin my own yarn!
Have you always sold online?
I started selling online in the usual place under a different name in 2006. This didn’t go so well so I let it rest for a while and came back as TomatoTea in February 2008, selling in 3 different places. I stumbled on Coriandr in Spring this year and loved the look of it so much, I decided to dedicate selling my goods online to it.
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