This year, forget queuing in identikit shopping centres, weighed down with plastic bags full of expensive, mass-produced tat, and instead find the perfect gift at the Made in Newcastle Christmas Fair.

It can be difficult to find special pieces that don’t cost the earth, but there’s something for everyone at the Made in Newcastle Christmas Fair. With over 30 independent stall-holders, all enthusiastic about their craft and motivated to give you the best possible customer service, the Fair promises a huge range of hand-made products for you to choose from – and what could be nicer than enjoying a stress-free shopping experience in a beautiful church setting, with drinks, mince pies and lovely Christmas music!

So this year, stay clear of tax-avoiding multinationals, treat your nearest and dearest to something truly unique and boost your local economy by pledging your support for home-grown businesses.

Let us know you’re coming!

]]> http://www.owleyesmarket.com/made-in-newcastle-christmas-fair/feed/ 0 http://www.owleyesmarket.com/printworks-photoshoot/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=printworks-photoshoot http://www.owleyesmarket.com/printworks-photoshoot/#comments Thu, 11 Oct 2012 17:21:40 +0000 Chloe http://www.owleyesmarket.com/?p=912 Running a small start-up business often means calling in favours wherever you can, and a couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be able to bring together a group of talented people for a collaborative project, when I headed down to London for Owleyes’ first “proper” photoshoot.

The plan was to shoot a collection of pictures for some of the new pieces I’ve been designing, and it was really exciting to have some great people involved. We had an amazing day shooting in a fantastic location in Chiswick, which was formerly a print workshop and is now a living space/art studio inhabited by a group of up and coming artists, one of whom was our photographer Alex Poll.

I roped in my beautiful friends Lola and Annick to model for me, and even had a go myself! It turned out to be rather fun, and with help from our lovely London-based make-up artist Sophie Connelly (find her on Twitter! @sophieconnellyMUA) we definitely looked the part.

I’ll be using the new shots in press releases and to update the website in the next few weeks, so keep your eyes open for those! In the meantime, here’s a fun team shot we took at the end of a tiring but rewarding day. Thanks to everyone for all your help, I love you!

If you’d like to feature Owleyes in a blog or publication, drop me a line via the contact form, and let’s talk!

So, this week I’ve found a great little tutorial from Stripes & Sequins – really simple to do, but looks amazingly effective! I think this is a good make to have a go at, because the brooch will work beautifully with summer outfits, and will serve as a lovely bright addition to snuggly winter outfits too!

Gorgeous.

The tutorial is so straightforward, they’ve even supplied printable positive messages! I think it’d be nice to create your own too, using a few words that mean something to you or a photo of somewhere or someone you love. You could even use it as an opportunity to get sketching and draw your own fun message! Even if you only slice up some balsa wood (SO satisfying!) I guarantee you’ll be cheered.

Studs can be bought online for around 20p each, but I was short of time and didn’t want to wait for them to be shipped from the USA. So I dug out an old belt, and sliced out the studs using a scalpel – they were riveted in, so I sliced around them leaving a circle of leather round the base. This helped the glue to stick, since the studs had very narrow rivets (its worth noting that if you want to glue your studs on to your shoes, you need to find some that have a nice wide base – these are usually the screw in type, rather than the ones  with the little sharp bits, otherwise they won’t stay on!)

And so I’d like to introduce Owleyes ‘Make & Do Mondays’!

Every Monday I’ll post a link to a lovely tutorial I’ve discovered, then you’ve got the rest of the week to find the bits and bobs you’ll need, ready for a nice little weekend make-session!

I thought I’d start off with a really simple, but effective tutorial for this gorgeous hair comb, from amazing DIY style blog PS. I Made This, which is fast becoming one of my favourites… I can’t wait to try this out – it’s a great way to use up fabric scraps that aren’t really useful for much, but I just haven’t been able to part with.. I KNEW they’d come in handy for something!

Click the photo for a link straight to the tutorial (Image Copyright of PS – I Made This)

Recently I was asked to feature in a short film to publicise Rise Up, and I immediately said yes. I’m not usually one for being in front of the camera, I definitely prefer being behind it, but it ended up being quite fun!