Truly beautiful feltwork from Teona

I am absolutely blown away by the shear beauty of this felt work by Teona. It is so fine, exquisitely soft and really stunning. I have never seen felt work like it!

This black and white scarf is so soft and exquisitely beautiful. It is also totally unique. It measures 169 x 1.5cm and is priced at £49.










These hats are very different and quite unique, on right a black felted wool cloche style with a gorgeous pink flower price £59 and the left a similar style but black with a light grey turn back and an applique pink flower design with a scattering of diamante studs price £49. Both very 1920's design and very flapperish!




This gorgeously soft and very fine felted wool scarf is light grey in colour with a black design running down through and finishng with a black felted rose. It is decorated at both ends with more roses. Price £45
A dream of a scarf!

The black felted wool hat has a turn back cuff and is decorated with 3 diamonte studs. Price to follow.








This stunning black and scarlet red scarf is not only so soft but is just a joy to wear. Felted wool with the red design running down through the length of the scarf finishing with a felted red rose. Both ends of the scarf are decorated with more roses. There are two sizes and prices are £45 and £59.
This is my favourite!












And finally 'Still Life' a felted wool collage. I am rather lost for words here, this work is so amazingly real, so tactile and yet a real work of art. This would be a total joy to own. Priced at £130


If you are interested in purchasing any of the above items then you can either contact us by email www.perrancrafts@gmail.com or you can phone the Village Crafts shop on 01736 711808 and we will be pleased to send you the item you require. My apologies but we do on have an online shop at the moment.

Valerie

Ravelry - I'm there - come and find me!

The news today is that I have managed to get myself, Cornish Wools and Village Crafts on Ravelry, the worldwide chat room for knitters everywhere.

If you visit me 'Prussia' and the Cornish Wools entry you will see that I have not managed to master the general workings of the site quite yet, but I am there!

New yarns into the shop last week were Sirdar Escape DK and Sirdar Eco DK (100% pure wool, natural and undyed). We also took delivery of Prym Bamboo knitting needles and lots of other associated knitting bits and pieces.

Over the last 3 weeks the weather in this part of the UK has been really bad with so much rain and gale force wind but my dogs Sharna and Layla just love it and romp and play even as they do in the middle of summer, they never seem to mind just how wet they get.

Today - the good news is that the sun is shining and the rain has gone for the moment together with the wind - and its just lovely!

The picture here was taken from the cliff path looking out to the Greeb rocks, near to Boat Cove.

It was a good weekend at Village Crafts, the weather continues to be kind to us and Lynfield Craft Centre has been buzzing especially yesterday, Sunday 27th September when it was host to a Charity day for the Parkinson's Society. Hosted by the Cowhouse Gallery there was live music provided by Glyn a member of the gallery and his band who put everyone in the holiday mood. There was the Parkinson's Society stall with lots to buy and raffles and the members of the Cowhouse gallery had each donated a piece of their work to the special raffle of the day with paintings, ceramics and artwork to be won for the price of a raffle ticket. I was lucky to win a prize - the ceramic hare wall hanging made by Janeve Bainbridge and other lucky villagers were Andrea Robinson of the Old Post Office who won a Dave Robinson picture and Michael Ball of West Cottage who won a Kay Cotton picture.

To advertise our Spinning & Weaving workshops which are set for Friday 9th and 23rd of October, Carole Grace our workshop tutor was demonstrating how to spin yarn from raw sheep fleece on a Drop Spindle. She was also using an Ashford wheel spinning yarn from local fleece from a flock of Lleyn sheep farmed on the Roseland Peninsula. Carole had various items she had produced, wonderful shawls and jackets, rugs & runners all beautifully made by hand and produced using the old traditional methods of hand spinning and weaving.


If anyone is interested in the Spinning & Weaving workshops please email: cornishwools@live.co.uk or phone 01736 711808 for more information or to book your place.

Here are more details on the workshops - limited to 10 persons per session:

Friday 2nd October 2009 - 2 sessions at £12.50 each
10.30am to 12.30pm - Spinning for Beginners
1.15pm to 3.15pm - Weaving for Beginners

Friday 23rd October 2009 - 2 sessions at £12.50 each
10.30am to 12.30pm - Spinning for Beginners
1.15pm to 3.15pm - Weaving for Beginners

reductions for more than 1 session - 1 full day £20 & 2 full days £30

Both workshop days are to be held in the Church Room Perranuthnoe

Enjoy discovering either or both of these traditional and useful skills. Emphasis will be placed on individual interests to allow a range of outcomes from the production of yarn for knitting or crochet to woven tapestry and fabric. Equipment and materials are provided and may also be purchased from Cornish Wools. Tuition is by Carole Grace, a qualified, former college lecturer in art and woven textiles. No previous textile experience is required. Tea and Coffee is available but you may wish to bring a packed lunch.

Follow up days to include regular 'workshop' sessions (e.g. knitting, crochet, rug making, natural dyeing etc) are planned to expand the range of textile knowledge and experience.

So why not come and join us - and try for yourself the old traditional skills.

A visit to Trevarno Garden with Barbara & exciting jewellery making wonderful gifts

Trevarno Garden is a must!! - If you have never found this beautiful place then you just have to go and see all the wonderful things it has to offer. If you are looking to get away and commune with nature then you can do just that, you can meet with friends or just be alone and dine in the conservatory restraurant, scrumptious food wholesome and good, but not all of it! there is a huge selection of mouth watering and yummy deserts and cakes on offer as well.

Then there is the gift shop, the gardening museum, the Trevarno shop shop and of course the Peacocks - loads of them - up in the trees and just everywhere and making their eirie and haunting call.

The weather on the day I visited recently was not at its best, mixed sunshine, cloud and the odd spit of fine rain! - but that didn't stop my friend Barbara who was over for a visit from her home town in Germany and I from exploring the gardens, enjoying a super lunch at one of the outside tables on the lawn (in the sunshine), watching the peacocks and enjoying the trees, unusual plants and flowers expecially the deep red 'gladdies' down by the steps near the conservatory. We had a lovely day and I am sure you will too.

New in at the Village Crafts shop this week are some really lovely items of fashionable and different jewellery. Not expensive this time - easily affordable for presents and a joy to wear just anytime, no need to keep for special high days, holidays and nights out. Birthday and Christmas gifts (I know but already there are people buying!) are not a problem here because we have a huge selection of gifts to choose from.

Jewellery - lots and lots of choice at Village Crafts - silver, copper, gemstone, pearls, amethyst, and Cornish tin - pendants and necklaces, bangles and bracelets, rings and broochs - there is so much to choose from. This pendant on the left is selling at only £11.95

And finally for today I must just show you this beautiful Indian leather Elephant purse. Fair trade and a lovely little gift idea at £3.95

And so - that is all I have time for today I must get on and get all the new stock priced and into

the shop - so cheerio for now from Val and 'Sharni Babes' one of my best pals - here she is - bless her - she is so patient and waiting for me to finish the diary so that we can go for a walk across the cliffs to Marazion - and perhaps have a swim down at Trenow Cove - Lovely!!

Moomaid & Trenow Honey and knowing that someone is listening to me

Its been a strange day! - both weatherwise and just generally. The weather hasn't really known what to make of itself, it's warm but not hot! HOT! which is what we were longing for this August and there are grey clouds in the sky and yet the sun shines periodically - so there's hope. It's certainly been a good day for getting out and about and Perranuthnoe has seen a fair number of visitors, many just drifting around, others making the most of the beach and the sea, and serious walkers with hiking poles akimbo striding out for all they are worth. I was asked this morning on my way back from walking the dogs
Sharna and Layla, if this was the way to Porthleven! Some serious walkers they were - they were certainly going to need the poles!

Destination Porthleven - Leaving Perranuthnoe, first you need to make for Cudden Point which is the Eastern boundary of Mount's Bay. At Cudden point our 'walkers' would need to pass by Pixies Cove, a fine chasm, riddled with caves into which the sea rolls with great effect in rough weather, then there's Bessies Cove, once the site of an inn frequented by smugglers and kept by one Bessie Burrows then, coming to Prussia Cove. In the 18th century this cove was the head-quarters of a band of smugglers whose leader, John Carter, was called by his followers, the King of Prussia, after the hero of those times. Hence the name of the Cove. It was John Carter who cut the harbours and the road and adapted the caves, and he is the hero of many tales of the good old days. Shades of Smuggling, French Brandy and Revenue men.

And so back to our Serious Walkers complete with hiking poles! and onwards and upwards to Porthleven
A mile eastward of Prussia Cove is the beginning of Praa Sands, with it wonderful sandy beach, lots of places to eat and of course the restored and yet still haunted Pengersick Castle. - following the sweep of the bay our walkers must continue with rucksac, stick and pole along the cliff path to Porthleven - up hill, down dale and over many ancient styles. Eventually they will arrive at Porthleven, and one of my favourite views - looking down on Porthleven Harbour with its many fishing boats, gift and craft shops and lots of really good places to eat. Our walkers can then relax - they have made it - completed the trek from Penzance to Porthleven which must be 15 miles or more - difficult to say when it all up and down and round! Well done them!

Now Moomaid's quite a different thing altogether and with Trenow Honey it's to die for - really it is. Moomaid is 'some' beautiful icecream made down on the farm at Zennor with Clotted Cream and Chocolate and Fudge really Cornish and yummy. Why Trenow honey - well my friend Karen has her bees down at Trenow all buzzing around and collecting pollen from the wild flowers on the cliffs roundabout and some time ago she gave me a lovely big tub of honey and there's nothing so good as a dollop of Moomaid (clotted cream) and a twirl of real Cornish honey - mmm! - to be honest that was my treat to sit down today and write my diary. I could have been wandering along the beach paddleing!

And then - what do you think? I have been writing this diary for only a little while but every time I wrote a little more and posted it I used to think - where is it going? whoever is going to find this? and who is going to be reading it? would anyone be reading it! I actually do have one follower but would you believe it - its a dog! lovely to have a follower but a dog and I bet it can't read - shame really.

And then today - Val came in - no not me but a lady called Val (just a coincidence - no I am not making this up!) and would you believe it - well I couldn't - her daughter who lives in Oxford had found me and our little shop 'Village Crafts' and had said that Val should come to see us and have a look around - in Val's hand was a printed 'off the computer' sheet headed 'Val's Diary' - you could have knocked me over with a feather!

It was lovely to meet Val, it seems she does some lovely craft work - textiles in one form or another and we found lots in common to talk about - at the moment she is working with an embellishing machine and making collages from all manner of things. Val is going to come again and she will bring some of her work for me to see - I am really looking forward to this and to seeing her again.

So the time has come to bring this to an end - and I haven't yet talked about anything I was going to originally - like lovely gift ideas, beautiful scarves and jewellery that has just come in and new Cornish Ganseys and Chunkies, post cards from Murrey King and lots and lots of other things - anyway enough for another day.

'Weird Fish' have arrived!!

No don't get me wrong - I have not just returned from a day's fishing off the beach at Perranuthnoe with a haul of weird and wonderful fish, the 'Weird Fish' I am referring to
is a quailty clothing brand that has style,individuality, a sense of fun and offers great value for money.

Weird Fish clothing is worn by men, women, and children. People wear Weird Fish for just about every activity; walking, sailing, gardening, shopping or just going to the pub/restaurant.

And - now I am excited to annouce that we have become stockists of Weird Fish!! Our first consignment arrived yesterday and today it is hanging on the rails in the Village Crafts shop.


Weird Fish ethics - direct from the company -


'We think we are an ethical company. we concentrate our ethical approach on the factories where our clothing is made.

We insist the all production of Weird Fish is based in the "home" and that all of the factories that we deal with are clean, modern and safe.In Turkey our production is mainly in 100% cotton fabrics. Cotton is a "natural crop" product and Turkey is one of the largest growers of cotton in the world. Any factory in Turkey that employs more than 30 people must by law provide them with a hot meal each day as well as transport to and from work.Weird Fish employs a full-time agent and three full-time quality controllers in Turkey. We are working with our suppilers daily and we are confident of their ethical behaviour.

In China and India we do not have full-time representation but we have a full-time very experienced quality control manager based in our UK offices who spends much of her time travelling to and working with the factories in these countries.
We use the same factories as some of the best known clothing brands and we make certain that all of our production is based in the "home" factory. We do not allow any manufacturer to sub-contract our work.We would like to think that all of our garments are produced from "green" organic sources, but this is very difficult to verify and we are not in this position yet.

What we can say is that the companies manufacturing Weird Fish clothing all employ adult workers in clean, modern conditions and pay a fair wage to their employees and this is the most important thing to us. '

To continue - The manufacturing industry in this country has been in decline for many years - and if things have to be made abroad then - they must be made on a fair trade basis.

At Village Crafts this has been our aim - and it will continue to be so

So come to our shop in Perranuthnoe if you can - we will be really pleased to see you.

How much more can it rain today!!

We are obviously paying for the few nice hot days we had last week. Today has been miserable, if this keeps up then we will all end up with web feet!

Still, knowing Cornwall, it won't last and soon we will have wonderful hot and steamy sunny days(fingers crossed). The beach will be full of families and there will be this endless stream of people going up and down the road past Perranuthnoe Village Crafts and the Craft Centre loaded with surf boards, wet suits, buckets and spades and towels not forgetting the sun cream to get a piece of the action.

Perranuthnoe beach is very good for surfing and a recent happening is that we now get bus loads (small buses) of new surfers coming with the surf school learning to surf. To me it doesn't look easy but then I have never really tried (some reference to hens/chickens here perhaps!). Often in the morning when surfing conditions are good and I am walking my dogs Layla and Sharna around the point at Perranuthnoe, there are sometimes up to 15 to 20 surfers out there enjoying themselves. Often I just stand and marvel at their tenacity and skill, they never seem to mind the cold - surfing Winter and Summer alike. What a wonderfully exhilirating pastime it is and I think that like Golf once you get the bug you are called whatever the weather.

Going for a paddle & looking for Bladderack

Today has been a lovely day, sunny and warm with people on the beach, swimming and just generally enjoying themselves. As we have both been working today Kevin and I are going to meander down to the beach shortly to look for Bladderack seaweed and also to have a paddle - good for the soul and for the feet!

I use the Bladderack I collect, after it is well washed, dried and chopped, as an addition to the Cornish Palm Natural Soap that I make. It gives the soap a truly local and Cornish element and the use of Seaweed improves the skin's texture and colour. It is packed with vitamins and minerals and is also very therapeutic.

The process of making soap is quite a long one and because I firstly need the Bladderack to dry and then the soap needs around 8 weeks to cure, my Seaweed Soap will not be ready for at least another couple of months - but just watch this space I will let you know when it is!!

The first week of the Summer Holidays

Monday, the first day of the Children's Summer Holidays and we are keeping our fingers crossed that the weather will be good. Perranuthnoe beach is a lovely safe beach within Mount's Bay, good for children, a wide sweeping beach with lots of sand and rock pools. Good for making sand castles, building moats and flying kites. Good for swimming and surfing too.


Down at Village Crafts, a new week begins with a new batch of visitors to the village and the area. Although I am often busying around doing a miriad of jobs I do love to be in the shop meeting people, coming from all round the world. Last week I served a couple from the Isle of Gotland off the coast of Sweden, famous for the Gotland breed of sheep. The lady was so interested in knitting and weaving which is indiginous to the island where she lives and like Cornwall there are heriditary knitting patterns and stiches which evolved originally from fishing communities. Like the Isle of Gotland many Cornish villages had their very own knitting stitch which when incorporated into fishing gansies (the Cornish word for a Jumper) and worn by the fishermen of the village was a form of identification should they be lost at sea. Quite clever and intuitive in a era when there were no Passports, Driving Licences or ID cards, perhaps we should all wear a Cornish Gansie, life would be so much easier.



The exclusive
'Mounts Bay Plate'
by Holly Jackson - unique to Village Crafts and to be found no where else in the country. Commissioned by myself Holly made these plates as a favour because they are really very expensive to produce. First she makes the plate and fires it. Then there are five layers of different coloured paint which is swirled to make the pattern, then the plate is again fired. Holly then chips out the design of St Michaels Mount and the lighthouse etc, once she is satisfied with the design she covers the plate again in a clear glaze which is fired again. Quite a process - so you will understand why these things are not cheap. Added to that is the fact that Holly Jackson is a former 'Troika'artist and each plate made has her Troika mark. To check this fact you can look her up on the following link. www.antique-marks.com/troika-pottery-marks.html


Holly Jackson plates are for sale in the Village Crafts shop priced from £35 to £50 each. If you wish to buy a plate please email us on perrancrafts@gmail.com and we will be pleased to hear from you.

Welcome to Perranuthnoe Village Crafts

Hi my name is Val and together with my partner Kevin we own and run our craft shop 'Perranuthnoe Village Crafts' in the heart of Perranuthnoe village. We began the business five years ago with no customers and for the first couple of years very little in the till at the end of each day but since then and with Kevin's patience and determination we have built up a village store where you can buy all manner of things. Free range eggs produced by Karen's chickens (they can be seen just off the track down to Trenow), fresh Bread every day, Cornish Milk and Butter, local Godolphin Honey, Cornish Apple Juice and finally Village Crafts own range of preserves.

And then there are all the local crafts, we now have work from well over 70 local artists and crafts people on display. There is a huge selection of local artist cards, prints and artwork and locally made pottery and wooden sculptures by Sam Vado. Annie's Angels take pride of place in a number of the gallery windows together with Ollie James paintings of St Michaels Mount.

Beautiful leather bags and hats from Owen Barry, and locally made jewellery by Debbie Lord, Carla Jennings and Lucy Kemp. Silver and gemstone rings, pendants and bracelets, Cornish Tin and Serpentine pendants and earings and locally made porcelain jewellery and buttons by Crispin.

There are books, childrens toys, music CD's from local musicians Sue Aston, Annie Henry and Medwin Goodall and fairtrade gifts and clothes. Needlework kits, knitting wool, Pachamama jackets and country clothing by Jack Murphy.

Only yesterday we had a delivery from Lyn Lovekin who makes the most fantastic willow baskets. Lyn lives within a couple of miles of Perranuthnoe, she grows her own willow which gives her basketwork a unique, distinctive and very Cornish appeal. She follows traditional methods and has replecated the Cornish Croust Box which the men of years gone by used to take down the tin mine or out into the fields with their lunch in it. It would also make a very handy work box too.

Lyn Lovekin's Traditional Cornish Croust Box - £95

available from Village Crafts

Lyn has also invented the Cornish Willow Back Pack which is unique to her own personal design, it is light to carry and very practical. A real talking point and a good means of carrying your picnic lunch.

Lyn Lovekin's Cornish Willow Back Pack £95.00

from Village Crafts Perranuthnoe

Village Crafts in Perranuthnoe is now becomming 'the place to go' by local residents and by visitors to the area. Many visitors return year after year and often they make a special journey to come and see us again and many have become friends.



This is what is special about Village Crafts - it's all about people, not only those whose crafts we display in the shop or those that call in for a quick greetings card and gift but also those who seek us out by recommendation. The word is out Perranuthnoe is the place to visit - why not come and find us we would love you to call in and if you do say Val invited you.