The Make Believe Cafe blog has a new home. You can find us at http://www.makebelievecafe.com/

Check it out and tell us what you think. 

K, L & E

x

Just to let you know that Lou and I (Emma) are leading a free crochet drop-in at Much A Do About Books in Alfriston this Saturday. We are encouraging people to drop in and crochet granny squares which will be made into a blanket to be raffled at the Alfriston Festival this summer. For more details visit Much A Do About Books’ website. It’s a great opportunity to visit this lovely bookshop and have a crochet and a natter. We may also be holding a class for beginners in the morning.

Come. You know you want to.

Emma x

One of the things I love about Make Believe Cafe is how easy it is to pop up, make and go.  When we cover the tables and unpack our boxes, it’s like opening a charm; something alluring and warm spills out, women appear at the dark doorway, shake off the damp evening and step into the light.  We all sit together, just for a couple of hours.  We chat, laugh, drink, make and suddenly it’s late and time to pack away the fabric, scissors, thread, beads and possibilities until next time.

It was lovely at Wickle - easy, really quite productive and so uplifting.

Lou x

If you have time before the end of March, you must try and squeeze in a visit to a wonderful exhibition currently showing at the Women’s Library in London about domestic crafts. This is how they describe it:

“(Hand Made Tales: Women and Domestic Crafts) is a timely exhibition focusing on the role domestic crafts play in many women’s experiences. It draws on the connections between the current revival of domestic crafts such as sewing, gardening, and cooking and the historical roots of the domestic arts within the home. The exhibition will allow visitors to explore and learn the stories of crafts and the women involved in them through personal tales and fun interactive projects. Come and discover treasures that share the intimate bond between generations from the once mundane to the now treasured heirlooms of families past.”

I was lucky enough to have the place to my self and spent ages reading every label and sign, as well as taking some sneeky shots for our blog ( I didn’t use flash). Here are some of my favourite bits:

This notice really spoke to me. In my navel gazing moments I do think about how and why I make things. I used to be a milliner and have had the experience of making things to sell. I eventually grew tired of endless repeat orders of my more popular hats and no longer sell the things I make. These days I make things for myself but more often they are presents for family and friends. This is one of my main outlets for my creativity and self expression. I jump for joy when new babies are born and I can whip up a bib. I love it when visiting friends I come across things I’ve made for them or their children. It can give me quite a shock because I am rubbish at documenting what I make and often forget about them. It’s like bumping into someone familiar. Very few people see the things I’ve made and that does make it intimate. I promise I won’t ramble on any more.

Look at this patchwork! The notice said that paper was quite precious in those days and was always reused. It was kept in the patchwork, not removed as we do today. Think of the history on all those scraps of paper.

I love Pearly Kings and Queens.

There are so many ways to store craft materials and tools, often very personal to the owner. I inherited my grandmother’s silk threads in her own home-made  sort of fabric roll. I rather like this idea too.

This one made me laugh the most. I own a copy of the Patricia Roberts book. My grandmother knitted me one of the fantastic cardigans in it. I don’t think either of us realised that we were tapping into the ‘sub-cultural trends of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, such as “Two-Tone, post-modernism’!

We were invited to leave a craft tip on the washing line. These are my favourites.

Well that’s my small snap shot of it, there’s lot’s more about the Women’s Suffrage and the WI . It’s well worth a visit. It’s rare to find such a personal representation of domestic craft. It made me think of all the time I’ve shared with my grandmothers, my mother and father and many many friends, just making things.

It’s nearly time for our March Hair event at Wickle!

This picture of vintage ric rac flowers inspired me to learn how to make them as decorations for hair accessories with a flavour of spring! 

There are some great tutorials on the internet. I liked this one at Flower Allie.

This is not a great photo of what I came up with.

If you can, join us for an evening of wine, cheese, and making (and delving into jars of beads, boxes of ribbon and bowls of buttons).

It costs £10 (you can pay on the door or get in touch with Wickle to reserve a place). It starts at 7.30pm and ends at 9.30pm (got that wrong on the poster).

Emma

In a world that is stressful there is something so comforting about coming together to giggle and make.

Saturday saw 15 ladies gather for Pimp Your Pants.

The room was part of a bigger warehouse. We dressed it in the most simple fashion - I wanted it clean, bright and uncluttered. Think a cross between Warhol’s Factory and a fairy wedding and you have it! Nina Simone belted out that she was “Feelin Good” and our make believers sipped dry cocktails. 

For someone with limited making skills - yes I am really that cack-handed - the prospect of Wonderweb, fabric glue and hot irons was so exciting. Finally I was being let loose with the making kit!

It was a true delight to rummage in the ribbon box and cut shapes. I stuck on sequins, splodged the fabric paint and ironed on skull patches.

All around the room girls were doing the same thing. There was a very calm atmosphere with people chatting, music playing and relaxed laughter. Outside the wind was howling and we were safe and busy making.

As with all of our events, when the time was up people wanted to stay on. This was a break from the real world - a chance to let your mind wander and play with sparkles and glue! Downstairs the good folk of Cafe Des Artistes had supper waiting and the evening rolled on in a sedate and yummy fashion.

A huge thanks to Emma and Sam for helping me to run and create this event. It was my baby and one that I am very proud of.

The next day I met up with a good friend who had pimped her pants with us - “Are you wearing them?” I whispered. “Yes” she grinned. I felt like I was in a secret girls club… shh

Kelx 

I think I could write a column about things you can do with a Toast catalogue. It’s worth signing up for it just for it’s usefulness around the house. The wonderful photography and Farrow and Ball colour palette make it a good substitute for wrapping paper. I have made origami stars out of it. A friend of mine uses it as sketch books for her children, the scenes are already there, her children add the action. The scene setting mood shots, devoid of sultry looking models are the best bit.

Next week Make Believe Café are hosting their first event of the year, a Valentine’s sort of evening, devoted to making chocolate boxes, to be held at Wickle. I have been doing lots of research and found it quite difficult to find anything that inspiring. There is plenty about making boxes but the styling leaves a little to be desired. I did find one site called Vintiquities Workshop with a Victorian Christmas decoration which inspired me to give our chocolate boxes a Victorian flavour. What shall I use to make the boxes? They have to be card. Enter the Toast catalogue cover! The subtle photography and chalky, dusty colours already have an antique quality. I found lovely Victorian style scraps at Le Boudoir. Any way, enough chatter, here are the results:

They can be as plain or as decorated as you like!

The Valentine’s Chocolate Box workshop will be held at Wickle, 24 the High Street, Lewes, East Sussex BN7 2LU, 01273 487969 on Thursday, 3rd February at 7.30 - 9.30pm. Tickets cost £10 and include fizz and little eats.

Bring your Toast catalogue.

Introducing Sam Reece - Sam will be the guest tutor at our forthcoming Pimp Your Pants event.

“I am a graduate of Chelsea school of Art and after a successful career as a designer, have crossed the Rubicon between commercial ‘needs must’ and passionately inspired artwork.   

I delicately restory/rework intricate found pieces andbreathe new life into them. The pervasive sensitivity is one of a palpable realisation of fairytale and dream. Let the story evolve…   

+ And in answer to your questions:

What gets you up in the morning? - Breakfast
3 words to describe your work:   - delicate - chic- treasured  
3 artists that influence your work: -Roni Horn-Rothko-Anish Kapoor
What do you want to be when you grow up?  - Ballerina of course. “

In preparation for Valentine’s Day, Make Believe Cafe invites you to Pimp Your Pants.

Bring your (clean) undies and together we will turn them into lovely lingerie.

Ticket price includes drink on arrival, expert tuition and all the materials you need to tart up your knickers/boxers/Y-fronts.

Cafe Des Artistes will be serving their delicious suppers, should you wish to linger.

What you need to bring - 

·         A smile

·         A pack of plain cotton pants in your size!

When: Saturday 5^th February 2011, 5-8pm

Where: Cafe Des Artisites, Phoenix Industrial Estate, Lewes, East Sussex, BN7 2QJ.

Tickets cost £12

Do you remember those girls at school who could whip up fascinating origami secret-number-finger-things from bits of exercise book at break time? And jump about, in and out of elastic, singing complicated rhymes. They usually ended up in the hockey team. 

Each flap revealed a secret message or vicious barb.  

Or pointed a sharpened pencil at our destiny.

It happened to the best of us.

So imagine how pleased I was to finally learn how to make my own. And that, all this time, I have been just a few simple folds away from a glorious future.  

These are our tickets for Sunday’s Paper Caper.  

The secrets to a new life of boundless creativity and fabulous wealth lie within their folds.

Lou. x

I have been having a brilliant time, making a vignette in a shoe box. I’m doing it for a number of reasons. Firstly as preparation for our forthcoming event, Paper Caper, on 12th December, and partly for an exhibition of work by local artists called Artists on Parade, being held this weekend to raise money for a very wonderful thing which happens each summer in Lewes called Patina Moving On Parade. At this parade all the children from all the primary schools who are moving up to secondary school parade through the streets of Lewes wearing the most fantastic costumes made from withies (sticks of willow) bent into shapes, covered with tissue paper, to form animals, flowers, anything. Last year’s theme was the jungle and the streets were crowded with exotic plants, crazy insects and frightening beasts. As well as being a spectacle, it is also extremely moving. Here is the poster and if you are in Lewes this weekend do pop in and you might buy a masterpiece and raise money for this very special parade.

Now, back to the vignette. As well as making decorations at Paper Caper I thought it might be fun to do something that fuelled the imagination. Inspired by a friend giving me stacks of old postcards, I decided to use them to make a vignette in a shoe box. I have always loved museum displays where you are invited to look into peep holes and spy another world, whether it be real or imaginary. I turned to my trusty computer and the internet for instruction and found just what I needed here, at the V&A.

It was snowing heavily when I made this and the town outside appeared to be black and white. I think this inspired my choice of postcard as a starting point for my scene. It is of an ornately timbered house in black and white. I set it in a snowy wood. I showed it to my husband, Graham, who said that it reminded him of Wakelin Hall. A shiver ran up my spine and I was back in my teens, when I first met my man, tittering and teetering back from the pub in his village. In the middle of the village, behind a scrubby, wooded front garden stood… Wakelin Hall. It was a timbered building and had been empty for years. In the day time you never noticed it was there. But at night…. Some said they had seen a candle burning in a window. Others had dared to run up the path. I always quickened my pace when I went past Wakelin Hall. So this is what my vignette is about.

Here it is so far.

It has been a joy to do. Stage set designers are my new heros. My scene is very simple but looks quite complex when you see it through the peep hole. For me it has been an experience of less is more. I had other characters in there, more trees and sequin stars but it became a bit crowded and frustrating to look at because the eye couldn’t focus. Next I will seal it up with the lid and decorate the out side. I’ll show you when I’m done.

Emma 

THIS is brilliant.  Watch it.  It’ll only take a minute.  

I’m  investigating papercraft. Properly. Before our Paper Caper on the 12th.  Talent is unfolding itself everywhere. Yesterday at the Artists And Makers fair at the Foundry Gallery, I discovered Lydia Crook, artist and paper engineer.  Why didn’t I take a picture of her stall?  Or discover her months ago?  Here is just a small example of what she can do. A print for our youngest daughter.

You must  look at her WEBSITE.  And follow her BLOG. Quite awesome. And annoyingly youthful.

Someone had decorated the Foundry windows.  I want to live there. With a huge bed and woodburning stoves.  And make stuff.

Lou x