New gift ideas

Over the past few weeks I've been keeping myself busy making new products from my hand woven fabrics, and a selection is now available in the gifts section of my website shop.  If you're looking for inspiration for Christmas why not take a peek, there's a variety of gift ideas with a good range of prices to suit every pocket.  Finally, after months of searching for the right product I've managed to make some cuff links by combining acrylic resin and my fabrics.  The cuff links have a sterling silver plated stem and feature a tiny piece of hand woven fabric suspended in the resin.  

They are both decorative and durable, which is really important as your cuffs get lots of use during the day, especially if you work at a desk.  Each pair is presented in a little gift box and make a lovely gift for men and women, especially with this season's androgynous fashion trend on the catwalks.  It's definitely all about the tailoring and these little gems can easily bring a bit of sparkle and colour to a simple white shirt.  They have the appearance of glass without the weight so you won't feel like you've been doing a work out at the gym all day!

Next are my little notebooks with hand woven covers. I've been making and selling these for a few months now and generally only put them out at shows as they go quickly. The covers are made of fine lambs wool and cotton and woven in a classic stripe combination, the colour ways change dependent on my mood so I rarely weave the same colour story twice. Being a typical Gemini, I get bored easily so like to keep it fresh. The notebooks are standard A6 books which can be bought in any good stationers, such as Staples or Smiths so, when you've finished the book you can just slip the cover off the old one and pop it onto the new one. This gift just goes on and on until you get bored with the colour, then you can always pop back to my shop and buy another!

Lastly are my hot water bottles, a classic hot water bottle sitting in a lovely hand woven cover which is lined in fleece and fastened around the neck with a little ribbon.  I must admit, I really like these and am tempted to keep one for myself but I've only made four and they were time consuming.  Not only was the fabric quite a complicated structure and, it was almost a metre wide, took me ages to thread up on the loom, it also required me to use all 16 of the shafts on my loom, something I haven't done for ages, so my right leg was definitely getting a good work out during the weaving.  Just to add insult to injury it shrunk up to almost half it's width after washing so, needless to say, I was getting a little frustrated by the end of it, but I think the effort was worth it.  They are really soft and I can image snuggling up with one on a cold winter's night and feeling very warm and toasty.

All of these products and more are available on my website while stocks last and I am continuing to offer free postage and packing on all purchases (UK only).  If you like what you see but I don't have it in your colour, I am happy to take commissions but please give me as much notice as possible if you need it by Christmas.