Need a potter

or an artist. Here is a selection Kirklees based craft persons and artistes. they have been gathered together by the Host organisation. Host also organises studio open days in the Autumn – just in time to buy those hand crafted Christnas presents.

More artists can be found working in Bates Mill

Love is in the air…

Valentines day?

Need a card?  so check these out .

Huddersfield based company and cute cards and plastic free – ooohh baby that feels really good….

Dont like wooden hearts? They have monkey cards and love words … visit the site

Read the blurb…. 100% RECYCLED WITH BIO-DEGRADABLE CLEAR BAG Printed on 100% recycled smooth white board. Each card comes with 100% recycled C6 brown craft paper envelope inside a clear bio-degradable bag. The bag is made from corn starch which is fully bio-degradable and compostable, breaking down to just CO2 and H2O – as green as you can get! Dig The Earth!

 For other plastic free cards check these out.

Recycled jewels and belts

Jewellery designer Heather Shaw produces handmade, quirky pieces of jewellery. Having a particular love for recycling and reclaiming unusual pieces, to incorporate in her jewellery. Collecting vintage, antique and found objects this Huddersfield based designer produces one off quirky items of jewellery.

for more click here

Home made and Edible Lip balm

Well looks like winter is finally here – again – and the need for a good lip balm has never been greater. But whatever you use you will ingest small amounts of the product and while there are lots of good natural lip balms on the market, lots contain stuff that is not so tasty. In additional to synthetic preservatives and flavours, white petrolatum the basis of many balms, is derived from petrol. Yuk

Alternatively, making your own lip balm is really easy and can be made from natural ingredients that are actually edible. This recipe is from The Soap Tub, a Huddersfield firm that supply base ingredients for making balms, bath bombs and soaps

1 tablespoon beeswax pellets

1 tablespoon roughly chopped shea butter
1 tablespoon grated cocoa butter
1 tablespoon sweet almond oil

1 tablespoon castor oil

Melt the whole lot together and pour into little pots to set – the end result is a really nice, very effective lip balm. Pots and ingredients can be bought from The Soap Tub or as they are now called castle hill cosmetics – visit them on line at www.castlehillcosmetics.co.uk or phone them on 01484-453453
As I work out doors a lot digging mud, applying lip balm from a pot with grimy finger is not ideal. I use wind up style (lip stick type ), tubes instead of pots. You can reuse old lip balm tubes – you will need to wash them out obviously and rewind them. Sometimes you have to push the base plate down a little before they will wind down. Or you can buy new, empty tubes from www.aromantic.co
Filling the tubes is fiddly and a small funnel helps.

Queensgate Market

One of my favourite places to shop. 

Location, contact and opening times

Here you can get un wrapped cheese and ham and even smoked fish so avoiding plastic packaging (polluting and potentially damaging) .

There is also a wool shop

Finally it is a grade two listed building and not for the usual Yorkshire town Victoriana reasons but because of its blatant 70s design. Follow the links for design notes, tile association and architects comments.

Art Space Bates Mill

 Artists Studios Open Weekend

There will be a wide range of artwork as well as fashion and accessories to view
and for sale. Great for Christmas shopping.

  
To see whats avaialable go to art space uncut

Preview Night: Friday November 28th 6 – 9pm   
Saturday, November 29th 11- 6pm  
Sunday, November 30th 10 – 4pm

Eco Cards

Cards  have been the bane of my life - I mean greeting cards not gambling or credit cards – thats all in the past.

Greeting cards  — there are times when you need to send them … but when you go to buy them they come wrapped in icky plasticic which I am boycotting

I love my friends but I love the planet – what to do?  I know you can send e cards but thats just mean. No cards = no mates in my shallow social circles.

So check these out from  carte postale – printed on sustainable board, printed with vegetable inks and  they come in biodegradable cellophane wrappers.

You can buy them from tamed meadow cards in Byram Arcade, Huddersfield

Locally made sketch books

What you need for christmas is a note book to write down all your lists…

Or perhaps something for the sketcher in your life.. or a diary for the new year.

So why not buy a locally produced book from Pink Pig? Made in Emley by hill dwellers apparently.

Ingredients

The paper they use to make their books 

• Made from wood pulp from managed forests in Europe,
• Made in Kendal in the Lake District.

So doing their best to keep the ‘carbon footprint’ down.

Good Works

They donate .5% of their turnover to the RNLI

Buy them…

Available by post from the pink pig website or buy in person from Calder Graphics in Byram Arcade or A1 Stationers on Kirkgate

Milkmen

Where to buy wool

There is a wool store in Queensgate Market Huddersfield

Wilkinsons used to stock a very basic range of needles and wool as did Beatties

Further Away But Well Worth A Trip…..

The wool cellar in Coldspring Mills is full of discount wool – from the extremely strange to the lovely Debbie Bliss and pure silk Noro. Well worth a vist though rather far away.You could combine it with a trip to Denholme Velvets