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#EtsySheffTile: an Art Installation

17 November 2016 by admin

If you visit our Etsy Made Local 2016 Sheffield Market this December at the Sheffield Town Hall, you’ll have the added bonus of viewing our team’s art installation. The art installation takes the form of individual tiles and is based on personal representations of Sheffield.

What does ‘Sheffield’ mean to you?

josephinedellow-without-border — #EtsySheffTile ‘Sheffield Town Hall’ by Josephine Dellow

maxwellharrison-work-in-progress — Jayne Maxwell Harrison’s jewellery craft (MaxwellHarrison) features in her #EtsySheffTile.

Created by our team members, the makers were asked to create a tile in either abstract or true representation form of what Sheffield means to them – each message being unique. The main challenge was: How much detail could be fitted onto a 10 x 10cm tile?

The makers were encouraged to give thought to the environment by upcycling materials where possible, drawing on Etsy’s Mission & Values of creating a lasting world. The end result is an interesting collection of 2D and 3D pieces of art with each tile revealing its maker’s connection to Sheffield and the materials used in their craft.

creating-etsyshefftile-at-etsycraftparty — Cora Fung of Takaracrafts (left) at the Etsy Craft Party, working in fine detail on her tile.

Back in June, one of the team leaders held an Etsy Craft Party. This global event is an Etsy initiative providing the opportunity for local makers to connect and create. The party was a small affair, but a great excuse for fellow team members to link the making of their tiles with a social gathering. The day was shared through our social media channels using the hashtags #EtsyCraftParty and #EtsySheffTile.

The art installation was open not only to our team members, but the general public and we were honoured to have the involvement of two local schools. Pupils from Year 1 through to Year 6 at Oasis Academy Watermead and pupils who attend the after school club Dragon’s Den at Marlcliffe Primary School all joined in by creating a tile based on what Sheffield means to them. Three tiles were jointly chosen and the lucky winners, along with their adults, have been invited to attend our exclusive preview evening on the eve of the market opening where they will have the opportunity to meet with the Lord Mayor of Sheffield.

dragons-den-after-school-club-work-in-action — A tile being created by a pupil at the ‘Dragon’s Den’ after school club, Marlcliffe Primary School.

The adult-child collaboration provided a wonderful connection with the ‘Year of Making Sheffield 2016’ by linking our team members – Sheffield’s current makers – with local children – Sheffield’s future makers.

The children certainly outnumbered our team in the number of submissions and for this, their enthusiasm and the school’s participation must be congratulated. All-in-all, we have been amazed by the quality of the tiles which adults and children alike have taken their time to create. Truly, this has been a celebration of community, connection and creation.

The art installation will be unveiled at the preview evening on Friday 2nd December where it will remain on display throughout the weekend for the duration of the market.

We invite you to come along to the market where you will not only be able to start and finish your Christmas shopping in one weekend, but where we hope you will take a little breather out of your busy shopping schedule to view the art installation.

We challenge you to find the meanings of what ‘Sheffield’ means to its community!

#EtsySheffTile ‘Team Logo’ made using upcycled fabric by Barbara Rose of BarMadeBags.

Martha and Hepsie: Now Available in John Lewis Leeds!

20 October 2016 by Sophie

Our team members Martha and Hepsie are celebrating a very exciting new stockist this week. You can now find them in the new John Lewis flagship store in Leeds! We had a little chat with them to find out more…

Who are Martha and Hepsie?
We’re a sister team based in Sheffield and Devon designing and selling our own collection of homeware, stationery and gifts.

Martha (the northern one!): With a degree in Textile design from Nottingham Trent, Martha moved to London to develop her career in design and production working for designers Lisa Stickley and Gisela Graham. With experience under her belt Martha returned to her Northern roots relocating to the steel city of Sheffield to focus on Martha & Hepsie, where she designs all the whole product range.

Hepsie (the not so soft southerner!): Gaining experience from placements at Mathew Williamson, Copperwheat Blundell and trends agency The Bureaux during her Fashion and Business Studies degree at Brighton, Hepsie returned to Devon and progressed a career with jewellery brand Kit Heath. Now she is ploughing everything she knows into Martha and Hepsie.
What is the Martha and Hepsie ‘story’?
We both craved autonomy whilst working for other people and whilst Hepsie was on maternity leave we decided to set up the business initially as a 5-9 hobby with the dream to make it full time, then a couple of years later the businesses we were both working for were affected by the recession and we were both made redundant within 6 months of each other – this was our sink or swim moment and we decided to put on our armbands and dive in at the deep end with ‘Martha and Hepsie’!

Despite living in two opposite ends of the country we’ve embraced technology and don’t need to physically be in the same room as we share all our business documents online, we both have samples and we phone each other a lot!
Our brand strapline is – designs inspired by life, who we are and a little bit of laughter…! We’re both quite confident, a little cheeky and love to laugh! So our designs are bold in pattern and colour and have characterful narratives to go with them.

All our designs are illustrated by hand in Martha’s snug Sheffield studio and made in Great Britain.

Where else are you stocked?
We sell to a selection of independent retailers across the UK and as far afield as The Falkland Islands, as well as on our own website, Etsy and Not On The High Street.

What does it mean to be stocked in John Lewis Leeds – at a shop on home-turf in Yorkshire? Both personally and for the business?
To be acknowledged by a store such as John Lewis is a real milestone for our business which makes all the hard work we’ve put into growing Martha and Hepsie so worth it. We’re both very proud of our local roots and to launch in a brand new John Lewis in Martha’s home county is the icing on the cake.

You can see more of Martha and Hepsie’s products in their Etsy shop or follow the on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Photography Workshop and Social

5 October 2016 by admin

We all know that photography is a big factor in selling our work on Etsy. It’s always one of the key messages from Etsy and many of the team have talked about improving the photography of their products at different times.

We’ve also talked about meeting up in a more social way – we have monthly meetings, but they don’t always leave much time for chatting and getting to know one another. When the opportunity to combine photography and a team social arose, it was too good to miss!

Heather (one of our team members) is a professional photographer and offered her photographic services, with team members able to book a 30 minute photo shoot of a number of their items.

The Venue

The Holt kindly reserved us a table and let us use their space in their industrial cafe freely. In return we agreed to drink lots of coffee and book lunch with them – this did not prove to be a problem!

Several of the team booked Heather to take photographs of their items to use in their Etsy shops and publicity, ranging from jewellery to knitting and crochet.

Heather worked with the team members to provide advice about what would be best for their products to fit in with the Etsy style and to find out the type of images they wanted.

Other members of the team bought their own cameras, equipment and props to photograph their items in the former industrial space. Others of us just came along for the food and a chat!

There was lots of talk about our shops, sharing of photography tips and our Etsy Made Local Market. There was also some cross promotion of items from team members in the same shots.

Food!

After an hour or so we had a fantastic lunch with more coffee, and of course cake… We’d pre-ordered the lunch so we could concentrate on the talking and photos!

Modelling

After lunch more photos, and some of the team (aka Donna) got roped in for modelling duties – which as you can see, she loved! Donna is seen here modelling a shawl by Katie and a one of Barbara’s bags.

It was a great opportunity for us all to have more relaxed meet up, take lots of photos and to think more about photographing our products for our Etsy shops. This was our first event like this and it proved to be a popular venue and event – I don’t think it will be our last! You can see a brief snapshot of what we got up to below:You can read more about taking photographs for your Etsy shop via our product photography blog. Heather specialises in weddings, events, portraits and product photography. You can reach Heather via her website at http://heatherisobel.co.uk

The Holt can be found at 156 Arundel Street, Sheffield S1 4RE and offers a fantastic range of drinks and food in a quirky, industrial setting that was perfect for our event.

Herd of Sheffield

6 September 2016 by admin

Sheffield Sellers on Etsy team member Laura Gray of Doodle Monkey was selected to design one the the fabulous elephants for the Herd of Sheffield earlier this year. This is her story about how it all happened and the design of ‘her’ elephant:

I submitted a design to Herd of Sheffield back in November and the sponsors chose their favourite at a special preview evening. My design was chosen by GRI.

The Design

Laura Gray's Herd of Sheffield Elephant - Symbiosis — ‘Symbiosis’ – Graves Park

Whilst travelling around Asia and South Africa, I noticed the symbiotic relationship between birds and elephants. The birds would clean and groom the elephants whilst the elephants provided the birds with food such as insects. My addition to the herd, entitled ‘Symbiosis’, shows how creatures great and small rely on each other and can exist in harmony.

The colour palette I’ve used is a nod to the colours of Sheffield – the reds and oranges of the brickwork, the blues of the painted woodworks (used in the old industrial buildings) and the yellows and greens of all the green spaces throughout the city.

The Elephant Trail

There are 58 large elephants around Sheffield that make up the trail. The elephants will all be auctioned off at the end of trail in October to raise vital funds for the Sheffield Children’s Hospital Charity.

The charity raises money through donations and buys life-saving equipment, funds vital research and treatment for thousands of children from across the world and helps to create a comfortable, engaging environment for their patients.

www.herdofsheffield.com/the-trail

Laura Gray

Laura founded Doodle Monkey, an Illustration, Design & Photography business, in 2012 after spending 6 months working abroad with monkeys (what else do you do after splitting up with your husband?). She graduated from Aberdeen College in 2001 after studying photography & design, and has since worked as a freelance photographer, digital artist and illustrator. She now receives regular commissions for logo designs and artwork for websites, flyers and posters. She also sells her work as prints and products, which are humorous and quirky in design, at various stockists, markets and also her Etsy Shop. You can also follow Laura on social media:

Facebook – Twitter –Instagram