Craft fairs. Chances are we have all been to them and have fairly pre-conceived ideas of what goes on; couples with long, lank grey hair sit silently behind Formica topped tables in village halls, as fluorescent light illuminates their collection of hand whittled wooden animals, crocheted doilies, knitted dolls sporting Picasso faces and homemade things for keeping smaller things in. Historically they have not been places of much fun, rather they have tried to keep alive crafts that once would have been both useful and decorative, but are now redundant and generally practiced with little skill or imagination. But all that is changing. For some time now “stitch-and-bitch” sessions have been springing up all over the country – knitting is back, and its cool. A resurgence in DIY – from making clothes to soft furnishings, useful or purely decorative – has meant that an increasing number of people of both sexes are taking part in modern craft; they are becoming makers.

It is a trend that seems to have come back into fashion at exactly the right time, when people are tightening their belts and looking for ways to own – and buy things - for less. In fact, it seems that this modernisation has come about simply by skipping a generation; people born in the seventies would most likely have had at least one parent who could sew, cook, make clothes for their children or make curtains; skills that would have been taught to them by parents from a previous generation. But as the need for these skills diminished, they predominantly only surfaced in the form of the craft fairs of yesteryear. But this new wave is born from an aesthetic, artistically driven movement, and its emergence is exciting and cause for celebration.

One of the things that has helped the emergence of this ‘Craft Mafia’ are websites such as etsy.com, an American site which provides the general public with a way to buy and sell handmade items. Launched in Brooklyn in 2005, it works in a similar way to ebay or Amazon. Sellers list items for a small fee and have their own ‘shop’ on the website. Etsy has thousands of sellers, offering everything from handmade jewellery to vintage clothing. In the states there are also well-known shops and fairs such as Renegade Handmade in Chicago. And now it’s coming to Norwich…

For a year The Arts Centre has hosted Clutter City, a bi-monthly fair started by Kelly Robb, herself an accomplished craftster, which attracts stallholders from both East Anglia and beyond. Two people who have been there since the beginning, are Gemma Correll and Kate Seaward, part of the Fine City Friends, a small group of Norwich based artists. As a result of the continuing success of both the fair and their personal sales, they had the idea of opening a permanent concession in a larger Norwich based shop, and as Gemma explains, when owner of The Perfect Pad, Nick Flint, offered them the space they jumped at it.

“I noticed that I was selling more and more of my handmade products at Clutter City, as well as in the various retail stores around the country that I sell in. I love browsing other people’s products online and at craft fairs; there are so many talented craftsters in Norwich and I’ve made lots of friends at fairs as well as through sites such as etsy, flickr and twitter. Kate and I loved the idea of promoting and selling the work of artists that we admire - we had started to do this at Clutter City but we felt like we needed our own, permanent space.” And so Cherry Cherry was born. “Everything we sell is independently made - nothing mass produced. We sell stationery; notebooks, note-cards and postcard sets; handmade jewellery, purses, badges and brooches, cushions and plush toys. We also sell art prints and ‘zines, which are independently produced, small circulation publications. The shelves in Cherry Cherry are covered in handmade goodies, from cushions made from vintage fabrics to hand-painted mugs. Everything is reasonably priced, ranging from £1.50 for a card up to £50 for a hand crafted leather purse.”

They sell the work of around 30 different artists and craftsters, as well as their own. About half of them are from the local area, artists like Anthony Zinonos, Norfolk-based illustrator Anna Wadham, and Rosie Nolan who runs Boho Boutique jewellery, as well as products by artists from across the UK such as Julia Pott, Stuart Kolakovic, Heidi Burton, Denise Ann Holmes and Melody Seal.

“We have personally handpicked the products we sell,” says Gemma. “We think that Cherry Cherry is truly unique in East Anglia. People who might go to London to buy the sort of products we sell can now just come to Norwich! We felt that Norwich was really lacking a shop that sold affordable and exciting handmade products. We think that it’s so much better to buy independently handmade gifts, rather than the same old high street, mass produced rubbish!”  

www.cherrycherryshop.com

Words > Henry Layte