Fathers day's fast approaching!

It's Father's Day on the 20th of June, so it's time to start getting organised! I thought I'd showcase some of my own items that would make good gifts for the occasion, mainly my cufflinks and keyrings. These are all available in my facebook store and most in my Folksy and Etsy stores. The photos link to my facebook and Folksy stores (all in £) to see prices and to buy in $ visit my Etsy shop.

Folksy Friday finds...

Letterpress printing is one of those things that one day I'd love the chance to do. Traditionally it's where a negative is made of the image you want to print (like a block or movable type-the loose metal letters you used to find in newspaper printers), the negative is inked and then pressed into the paper to produce a print. Because of the pressing motion letterpress printing is usually indented to various degrees, which you can see in some of the examples below. This is probably what I like so much about it, it has a tactile quality, and also due to the inking and press process no two can be produced exactly the same - mass production but not.

Letterpress printing can be used for everything that more modern printing is used for and is commonly used for high quality wedding invites. Now more modern processes have been devised it isn't as common as it once was as it's more labour intensive and more reliant on non-automated processes. There are some lovely printshops out there doing amazing work - but more about them in a future post! Right now here's some letterpress finds from the UK handmade marketplace Folksy to kick off my "Folksy Fridays".






From left to right the people featured above are AarkvarkOnSea, Biplane Press & Design, Lapwing Printworks, The Home Press and Print for The Love of Wood. Click on the pictures to visit the items or on the names to visit the shops.

Recent swap...

I'm new to the world of swaps, I didn't even realise they existsed till I started getting involved in craft/handmade forums! But they can be quite a big thing and a chance to sample work from other crafty people. I heard that SpoiltPig was organising a cat themed swap and thought I'd give it a bash!

My swap partner was Izabela from Blue Fish Handmade and you can see the lovely things she sent me below. There was a little handmade crochet (or is this style called Amigurumi?) lilac cat, which has been promptly claimed by my own cat as his new favourite playmate, some stickers, some cute wee buttons and a wooden cat decoration too.



I've also added pictures of a couple of the things I sent Izabela, a pink necklace with a black cat shillouette and a set of four fridge magnets with different cat designs on them. I'd also sent her some shrink plastic to try out and some fluffy tiger stickers. I enjoyed swap, hope Izabela did too!