The Last Few Months in Crooked HQ

No rest for the wicked. Its been a very busy few months here in the Crooked House. Constant shows and festivals over the summer months ie Larmer Tree Festival, Camp Bestival, Wilderness Festival, Burghley Horse Trails and many more. Thank you to all the loyal customers who enabled me to visit my family back home in the states for the 1st time in 2 years for some much needed TLC. Since October we've been working on a new collection of beautiful fairisles, taking my knitwear in a totally new direction!

 I also have a new found obsession for TWEED, feeling so creatively overwhelmed and looking forward to start yet another new collection after Christmas, ALTERNATIVE BRIDALWEAR. This is going to be MEGA...Mega Good...by Megan Crook...Get Crooked

Look what arrived today! Sari Ribbon direct from Kalkutta and Hand Painted Silk on its way for more Yarn Necklaces. Sold over 70 of these bad boys in the last 2 weeks so will be keeping my hands very busy making lots of new gorgeous colourways. £20 each or 2 for £30 and now offering a FREE Yarn Necklace with every sale over £50.

Upcoming Events

                     Dec 8-9th, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

For all you local lovelies please come and have a nosy at my beautiful abode and studios. Mulled wine, nibbles and a warm welcome await you because at the Crooked House those who come as strangers leave as friends!

Shiny and New

So I finally took some time yesterday to jazz up the blog a bit having spent approximately 5 minutes on it the first time round. That cloudy background has been driving me crazy. I hope it looks good for you guys too as I have a pretty old school basic screen to work so it isn't always possible to tell. I'm super happy with the template I downloaded and adapted from Pugly Pixel (which has become one of my favourite and most resourceful blogs), it's also where I was inspired to try out our new banner using scans of fabric from the new Crooked collection which I orginally did for the website - so it's nice to re-use them. It also means I finally bothered to have a go with my own clipping masks which probably seems ridiculously  simple to photoshop geeks out there (that's cause it is) but as I'm just figuring it out as I go along, I had neglected to learn this useful little trick, so yay me!

Anyway there are still somethings that I think could do with tweaking but with with the Designer Open House & Arts Trail just around the corner I doubt I'll be getting to it for a while. In the meantime I'd love to hear any comments or suggestion you might have on the changes. I'm really happy to see that comments are starting to trickle so thank you Miss Bangkok and other anonymous commenter, it's lovely to hear your positive feedback.  Tori x

Introducing

Alice Kell

So about a week or so ago I got to meet Alice Kell who popped round for a chat and to discuss her up-coming exhibition as the headlining artist of our Designer Open House & Mini Arts Trail. I saw her work exhibited in an empty retail space on the Derby high-street  a few years ago and never forgot it, so I was very chuffed when one day on Facebook she pops up as someone I might know. I didn't know her but as I was looking for someone new to fill some space on the Crooked House walls I decided to send her a message and a few weeks later on a sunny afternoon she was knocking on our door.

Suddenly I'm aware that I am feeling a little shy as she looks to me to lead the way so thankfully Megan shows up to break the ice, we discuss her art and show her the house I am pleased to find her to be approachable and candid. She tells us about her three main areas of focus; politics, beauty and lesbian art the latter of which intrigues me. Perhaps, like me you wonder what that entails? Well it seems for Alice it involves watching lesbian pornography trying to find 'moments of beauty' which she then interprets into line-drawings. I like this, while I'll happily admit it's the beauty that attracts me to her work, I enjoy her subversive edge and though I'm no art aficionado I am relieved to see she is not overly pretentious, she shares my dislike of artistic elitism and I think her work reflects this. So I'm very pleased to introduce Alice Kell, who also sent us this interview with Marley Butler creator of the artists' collective Naplew Productions, enjoy!

 

Introducing...

With the Designer Open House & Arts Trail only two weeks away I decided to take the opportunity to get know some of our contributers a little bit better so I'm very pleased to introduce to you Erica Godfrey - creator of the deliciously quirky, 'environmentally trendy' fashion brand Oddly Enough. Erica's work was first brought to my attenion by Leren Connor of to-be-irreplaceable as another designer who gets their thrills from breathing new life in objects people once regarded as junk. As a blogger, it probably comes as no surprise that I'm a big fan of up-cycling and more and more these days it seems to be cropping up as the fashion buzz-word of the moment so I'm thrilled that Erica has decided to jump on board as we created the Designer Open House  with a view of it being one of the ways we can help promote local creative talent and I would certainly view Oddly Enough as one to watch. She was kind enough to tell us a bit about her self so here she is in her own words:

WHO IS ODDLY ENOUGH?

Oddly Enough makes handmade and up-cycled, gifts and accessories. All items are handmade from odds & ends, we give them new life in one form or another.

Each item has its own individual personality, and is guaranteed to be 100% unique.

WHAT IS THE FOCUS OF YOUR WORK?

My aim is to show the world that with resourcefulness and imagination up-cyled, ethical fashion should not have to compromise on style or more importantly colour! My designs are heavily influenced by the resources available to me, through gathering and hunting for unwanted or unusable stock.

WHAT IS YOUR INSPIRATION?

Oddly Enough was born as a reaction to waste, responding to the fast changing fashion industry which rids itself frequently of last seasons prints, fabrics and trims. By using traditional craft techniques in new ways and using alternative materials, I turn this waste into something new and desirable.

Taking on a new aesthetic; 'Pop Vintage' our new collection combines garments and accessories incorporating up-cycling and re-use.

A Message from Megan

Sometimes there is just so much to do it boggles the mind. It's been a while since our last post and since then I've been away for 10 days exhibiting first at Penshurst Place in Kent, I stayed in Tunbridge Wells with Tori's cousin Karl who was kind enough to put me up in his bachelor pad for a few days. Despite the rain I had a really good time at Penshurst, I was lucky enough to display my Peek-a-boo Tier dress at the entrance of the show which drew lots of lovely people to my stand which was great. Then after a brief trip into London to stay with my wonderful friend Monica Boxley and went fabric shopping! :)

Also got myself some Earings by Suzie Dale-Smith

 Then onto Hatfield House in Hertfordshire where I stayed at Almshoe Bury Farm, the oldest dwelling house in Hertfordshire which sits on nearly 800 acres of land. Had an amazing weekend, with record sales on the Friday and my smiles continued. I'm really pleased with the reaction to my new collection and it was exiting to get feedback many of my most loyal customers whose reactions were just as kind. I also got to catch up with many of my favourite designers and makers and meet new ones as well.

Now that I'm home I'm going to be cracking on with commissions and starting to plan the Designer Open Studio in June, not to mention I'll be exhibiting at Patchings Festival in Nottingham on the 14th - 17th of June and I will possibly have one more date to announce soon so I'll keep you all posted. I've got plans for my new fabrics too soon keep an eye out on new styles the will be appearing on the website soon. Just to say a big thankyou to all my wonderful customers and I will speak to you all soon. Love Meg xx

P.S.

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