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Thursday 22 October 2015

Out and About: The London Design Festival and Oxford Instameet

The last few weekends have been busy for us... we've been out and about at various events, sourcing new stockists, catching up with our current makers and meeting other local Instagrammers and bloggers.

The last weekend of September saw us head down to London for the last few days of the London Design Festival. Taking place in venues across the city, there were over 400 events celebrating the very best of contemporary design. It would have been easy to have been there for the full week of the programme, there was so much on!

We were there for a special Crafty Fox Market, held at Kachette, Shoreditch's disused Victorian train station which now acts as an events venue. These markets are so useful for us to attend- quite often there are a few of our stockists there, so we get to say hello in person (important when so much communication is done via email!) as well as see the work of potential new stockists, which is much easier in real life. They're also great for introducing us to newer makers, especially Crafty Fox with their Uncovered scheme

We saw a few friendly faces, including the lovely Ruth & Brendan from i am acrylic and Rosa Pietsch with her gorgeous new display (check out the engraved mirror and gold leaf display boards!)  














We then found our way through the busy Brick Lane Sunday crowds to the Old Truman Brewery for the Etsy: Four Corners of Craft exhibition. This was somewhat smaller than we were expecting but still had lots of lovely things to look at. Whilst not everything there would have fitted in at the Old Fire Station, it was interesting to see Etsy's pick of the best contemporary craft. I particularly loved the matryoshka dolls with golden horns by Red Earth Designs.



















The following weekend I went along to the Oxford Instameet, hosted by the wonderful ladies at Independent Oxford along with photography and lifestyle blogger Natasha from Candy Pop. We all met at Modern Art Oxford's cafe for a cup of tea and cake, before heading off around the city to take plenty of snaps. First stop was the Oxford Castle for regular street food market Bitten Oxford- many a delicious stall, including the Cheese Truck with their divine grilled cheese sandwiches- Anna and I couldn't help but try the Cropwell Bishop Stilton with bacon and pear chutney! We then took a stroll along the canal path, down to Jericho, before heading back into the city centre for a pitstop at Jericho Coffee Traders. 

It was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon, meeting lots of new faces and having a great explore around the city. I'm looking forward to the next one in December- why not come along?

Ooh, and just a final little note- we'll be at the Independent Oxford Christmas Market at Turl Street Kitchen on Saturday 28th November. Hopefully see you there!

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