Exciting News...

So I can finally reveal that I have been offered a place at the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair (GNCCF)!!!

This is a HUGE event, the largest of its kind in the North and it is such an achievement to have been offered a place. Out of over 300 applicants I am one of 150 designer makers who have been offered a place. Yay! Happy happy girlie :)

So pop the dates in your diary now: 4th-7th October 2012

Venue:

Hardman Square,

Spinningfields,

Manchester City centre.

I shall bring you more details in due course but for now, why not have a nosy at the website to get a taster of what you can expect...

Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair - 2012 Exhibitors - Textiles - Sarah-Jane Hocking
http://www.greatnorthernevents.co.uk/

The Blood Bag Project

I completely forgot to post pictures of the second Blood Bag I made....

Busy bee!!!

So much to tell you and so little time! Had a crazy few weeks but lots of exciting things have been happening. All shall be revealed over the next couple of weeks so watch out for plenty of blog posts spilling the beans!


Cat Bolton, 2011, Once Upon a Saturday Gardens



Freelance for Cocoon

Way back last summer, when I did New Designers, I met a lovely lady who was in the beginnings of a new business start-up. She was looking for fresh, young new design talent to create limited edition textile art. I submitted some freelance work and viola, my design is now available from Cocoon Fabric Art. Check out my design in cushion form and wall art, each in four size options.

Tree Quilted Wall ArtLimited Edition Design By Sarah-Jane Hocking©Cocoon 2012

The Blood Bag Project Workshops

I have held a number of craft workshops with a group of year 4 children from a local primary school. We have done two after school sessions and two afternoon sessions to create 'Blood Bags' for 'The Blood Bag Project' organised by my friend Leigh.

I have posted about 'The Blood Bag Project' previously which you can read here.

Between the nine children they made a total of 14 blood bags. They all found Chloe's story very sad and were really keen to help make Chloe better. The kids took great joy in explaining to their classmates what we were doing and why.

On Friday 18th May the school held an art exhibition. Each class had studied a particular theme and created art works which were up for sale. The exhibition was open from 2-5pm and we had a table where we worked on the blood bags. We got lots of interest from parents and other pupils in the school and had flyers on hand for them to take away. Hopefully we inspired other people to get involved too.

Some of the finished Blood Bags

close-up of the finished Blood Bags



The pupils hard at work on exhibition day.



Lending a hand; an after school workshop.





Exhibition: Julie Arkell at The Bluecoat Display Centre

Julie Arkell, Image courtesy of the Bluecoat Display Centre website.

I met up with some of my old course friends in Liverpool last weekend to go to the Julie Arkell exhibition at the Bluecoat Display Centre. We all decided that when we are grownups with our own houses we would like one of Julie’s adorable figurines to adorn our new abodes. Hopefully we won’t be waiting too long!

If you want to pop down to see Julie’s exhibition it’s on at the Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool until this Saturday 12^th May.

The Bloodbag Project

The Bloodbag project organised by Leigh Bowser aims to raise awareness of Diamond Blackfan Anaemia (DBA) and offers you a chance to show your support and do something to help.

Leigh's neice, Chloe suffers from the rare condition DBA. Chloe needs regular blood transfusions to survive. Find out more about Chloe's story here.

Leigh, like many others is unable to donate blood so cannot help Chloe through what appears the 'normal' route. Therefore she wanted to find an alternative way to help. That is how The Blood Bag Project was born.

As a sign of your support and to help raise money Leigh has created a community project, The Blood Bag Project. She is asking you to create a textile blood bag (using the template here). The bags must be made from textile and must be created using the template so they have a sense of unity. The rest of it is up to you. The blood bags will be exhibited in some way and then will be auctioned off individually with 100% of the profits donated to The National Blood Donation Service (50%) and The Anthony Nolan Trust (50%).

Don't forget, you can also give blood. Find your local blood donation centre here.

You can follow the Blood Bag Project via the website, on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.

Here's my first blood bag: