Frances Ayres
Hi, I’m Frances! I am the owner of This Crafty Octopus. I live in Huddersfield and work in various crafty spaces in the local area! The global pandemic has made me spend a lot more time on my craft business. It’s been good to work on lots of the projects that I have been developing.
I wanted to bring a smile to people's faces and feel connected to others. I think this third lockdown has been the hardest and I felt we needed a reason to smile. I have also been thinking a lot recently about craftivism, I am trying to grow my practice of that step by step and this seemed like a good first public project.
This purse was created as a workshop for @sunflowerskillsclub on Instagram who have been doing tutorials during lockdown. Its been really interesting to see how different organisations have been finding new ways to carry on their work and I have enjoyed joining in with the Sunflower Foundation to continue their fundraising efforts when they can no longer carry on in person events. I wanted to do a workshop teaching basic mosaic knitting because it’s a beginner friendly colourwork technique and you don’t see many tutorials for it.
Francis Ayres
I quickly got on board with putting a rainbow in my window! This one is made from crochet which is a great craft for creating sculptural items. I really liked the idea of making someone smile and I have been enjoying seeing everyone’s rainbows when I am walking. The act of walking has become so much more important to be able to see sky and birds.
After making the rainbow for my window I decided to add rainbows to my mini crochet earrings collection. These earrings are popular. I love using recycled items and the blue beads are from a charity shop. I am looking forward to charity shops opening again so I can have a good browse. One nice thing about having time is being able to develop collections all at once. Putting all the mini crochet earrings up at once was really satisfying.
The actual bookmarks and hearts were old stock from when I first started my small business and had just been sitting there, so kind of upcycled I guess! I follow an account @crochetrogue on IG and they hide things around their local area and I wanted to join in but it's hard to make things with my mental health so bad. It just seemed like the perfect time to share the old stock. So I used some of my scrap wool plaits that I make when I am anxious, but need to do something with my hands, to attach positive little notes to them. This made it a smaller project!
It felt really nice to sit down and write and attach all the notes! I really enjoyed the feeling of making things not for profit and having the aim of sending out some positive vibes. It was also great to find fun places to hide them! I hid some along a local canal in nooks in the walls and one hole in a tree. And then I went for a socially distanced walk with a friend which made it a group effort, perfect for the positive vibe aim. I didn't want to put them in plastic bags so I tried to put them out on days when it was unlikely to rain.
