Yoga at the 'Green Fair', Bury St. Edmunds

On Saturday 1st November 2014 the action group 'Sustainable Bury' is hosting the 'Green Fair" at the lovely venue: The Apex in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England. The 'Green Fair', a free family event, will be open from 10am-4pm with lots of exciting things on offer.


I'll be instructing a free Hatha yoga class 10am-10.45am so if you want to 'have a go at yoga' please come and there will be a mat waiting for you. After the yoga session I can be found at the lovely Neal's Yard Remedies and Holistic center's stand, so do stop by and say hello. If you have a moment please take a look at the beautiful website by Neal's Yard Bury St. Edmunds .


For information about the 'Green Fair' please visit Sustainable Bury and The Apex

Fibrefusion, Contemporary Textile Art Group at Rufford Craft Center

Fibrefusions very exciting textile art exhibition at the beautiful gallery at Rufford Craft Center will be on display until the 21st September 2014. Our exhibition opened about three weeks ago and has been very well received by +2000 happy visitors. 

For more information about the exhibition and how to get there please go to 
Fibrefusion' website and Rufford Craft Center  
We look forward to see you there!

Wonderful Sock Monkys

A couple of month ago I was introduced to making sock monkeys. Honestly I had never heard of sock monkeys, let alone had the desire to make one. In the Sindano textile group that I belong to one of the other members offered to teach us a workshop and of course I was in. Oh did we have fun. You wouldn't believe the giggles as the monkeys started to shape up and the individual 'personalities' started to emerge.

On the photos you can see our wonderful creations. Who would imagine that each monkey is made from just one pair of socks. All turned out so totally different and cute. Mine is the pink and white striped girl with the turquoise face :-)

When searching the Internet I found this beautiful sock monkey photo instruction on Craftpassion .
I wasn't aware of the sock monkeys had been around since the late 1800. Here is a link to a brief to the history .

                    

Fibrefusion, Contemporary Textile Art Group, at Snape Maltings April 2013!

Fibrefusion, the textile art group that I belong to, will be exhibiting at The Pond Gallery, Snape Maltings, Nr. Aldeburgh, Suffolk, IP17 1SR, England from Thursday 25th April – 1^st May 2013. The exhibition is open daily 10am – 5pm and there is no admission charge.

The theme for this, our brand new, exhibition is ‘Structure’. The theme has been interpreted in lots of exciting and very innovative ways by Fibrefusion' 14 group members pushing the boundaries within textile and fiber art.  For more information about Fibrefusion and our publications please visit Fibrefusions website
 

 

We feel very fortunate to be exhibiting at the beautiful Snape Maltings  with its very tempting) shops, restaurants, the fabulous concert hall and music festival initiated by Benjamin Britten. If you have more time available, then what about a spot of hiking in the stunning countryside?  A visit to Snape Maltings is always a great day out regardless the weather.

 

We look forward to see you at our exhibition which will include a separate sales area. Group members will be available all days during our exhibition and will happily answer the questions you might have.
The work show in here is a taster of my body of work 'Plain | Simple' which will be on display in the exhibition.

'How to' Compose a Tweet

 

Being active as a small business owner of SewDanish on Twitter is a lot of fun, but time consuming. How do you get people (and potential customers) to actually click on your tweets?

It is all too easy to drown and disappear in the massive flow of ever changing tweets.

 The other day Cory from AquarianBath , and a friend of mine from the UniqueWomenInBusiness (UWIB) group, contacted me. In UWIB we, amongst others, cross promote each others businesses on twitter. In a Google doc we collect tweets that we want team members to exchange.  Cory wanted to let me know that the SewDanish tweets, that she schedules on average get around 30 clicks and asked what my ‘secret’ was.

 

For a while, I have been paying close attention to what type of tweets catch my eyes and actually make me click through on a link. In general those tweets are very short, to the point and quite often involve a question. I guess, I get very saturated with lots of words and empty noise.

The way I’m building my business tweets within the 140 characters is:

      ·       a short, sharp punch line
      ·       shop name and possible tag line
      ·       the active link
      ·       #tags
      ·       the twitter @name.

I feel it is very important for branding and trust worthiness alike, to have the shop name written out properly in the tweet. Personally I don't think, that the twitter @name is a strong enough tool for shop branding. The @name is internal twitter lingo. One cannot count on having the shop name in the active link, as most links are automatically being shortened.

Not having your shop name in the tweet, can leave the reader feeling insecure and deciding to skip the tweet all together. I know, that I don’t click unless I’m certain that it is a legit link.

 

I have as well been paying attention  to what #tags are being used on twitter. I think the busier twitter gets, the more people are using the #tags for searching for a like minded audience/customers. In my tweets I have been experimenting with the #tags trying out various combinations. As an added bonus to the clicks, I have gotten new followers, which I directly can trace back to the use of #tags.

 

Italy, Apennines (Inspirational photos #2)

 

I love taking photos using them as starting point in my textile design work. A lot of my photos taken when travelling are quite often 'wierd' detailed snapshots which I find hugely intriguing as the texture seems to be the focal point rather than the motive itself.

This is a small selection of photos taken when on a fabulous hiking trip to The Apennines, in the Northern part of Italy between Florence and Bologna.

 

Parmesan cheese galore!

 

 

                           The beautiful portico's found throughout the beautiful city of Bologna.

Autumn Moods by SewDanish

'Autumn moods' by SewDanish

Summer is coming to a close. Autumn is getting closer day by day. BIrgitte

autumn sale, light wight Car... naftul $76.00	Dry Beauty- Romantic Leaf Pr... BvsWphotograph... $24.00	Fabric Hair Clip, autumn flo... SweetSapling $8.50
Modern Continental Lace Bobb... Lacebobbins $13.50	Handspun bulky alpaca yarn /... thefibretree $7.99	Summer Wildfire, Set of thre... TheCountryBlue... $12.00
gray and yellow ochre ogee o... giardino $38.00	Jewelry Wooden Box Made With... LittleWoodyDuc... $9.40	Beige kitchen wooden cutting... ArtCafeColibri $55.00
Asian Pear Flavored Lip Balm... sapeterapi $3.50	Crochet Coasters - Scrubbies... pomegranatefar... $10.50	Handmade crochet toy.Unique... Kimuka $115.00
Animal photography, for him,... Raceytay $50.00	Set of 12 Paper Bows, Recycl... PollinatorHand... $35.00	Medium sized star shaped eye... girlindustries $1.95
Owl charm bracelet BlueForestJewe... $23.00

Treasury tool supported by the dog house

Hope you enjoyed my selection of beautiful handmade autumn finds from a selection of superb Etsy shops.

Journal Cover From SewDanish Featured In Sewing World Sept.2012 Issue!

I'm so happy dancing! My quilted journal cover shown above is featured in the September issue 2012 of Sewing World magazine http://www.sewingworldmagazine.com/ .

In July I was contacted by Fiona from the Sewing Directory http://www.thesewingdirectory.co.uk/ if I was interested in having my quilted book jacket included in a selection of handmade finds from the internet. Needless to say that I was very interested and very appreciative of her thinking of me and my Etsy shop http://SewDanish.etsy.com

The loose cover is available in several color combinations and fits a hardback A5 book which is included. So when you have filled the book with your drawings, thoughts, travels, inspirations for future cooking ideas..... then you can recycle the cover on a new book.
This cover can also be custom made to fit an otherwise plain ring binder.
Please find my entire selection of journal covers and other book related items here http://www.etsy.com/shop/SewDanish?section_id=5450660
 

Textile Art Exhibition, Woodbridge Library, Suffolk

Looking for a great day out in beautiful Suffolk, England? Why not spend some time visiting the lovely historic town of  Woodbridge, Suffolk?

Fibrefusion, Contemporary Textile Art Group is currently showing their very popular traveling exhibition 'Seed Heads' at Woodbridge Library, New Street, Suffolk, IP12 1DT, England.
The exhibition will be on display until 30th July 2012. The exhibition is open daily 10AM - 4PM

Several days through out July, Fibrefusion group members will be attending the exhibition, demonstrating something craft/sewing related. I will be stewarding all day Friday 27th and Monday 30th July. Do stop by and say hello :-)

For more information please go to:
Woodbridge Library and Fibrefusion' website.

Birgitte Hendricks /SewDanish brand new website!

A week ago I finally took the plunge, signed up for and created a personal website www.BirgitteHendricks.com . I had my blog and my shop SewDanish but a proper website was missing.

I have for the longest time been searching for a website set up, but nothing had been quite right. I really don't know anything about html language and even though relativly swift on the computer, when it gets too technical, I bow out gracefully. I'm pretty much always up for a challenge, but this just seemed such a different avenue to go down, let alone spending time on.

Then a couple of weeks ago I came across a review on Handmadeology regarding a website design company called IndieMade .The review was very positive and I started to do a thorough research to collect as much information that I could find, before deciding to sign up.

It has been fun and for the most part a very straight forward process creating my website. The day I signed up, I spend about 6 hours straight and got really far with ‘filling in the blanks’. Of course, like with all new setups, one has to get a feel for what is going on, but all in all I found the whole setup very intuitive to use. I still have some tweaking to do, but for now I’m actually rather pleased with the result BirgitteHendricks.

One of the great features is, that I was able to import my Etsy shop (or at least half of my listings within the standard package that I signed up for) automatically. A couple of times I had questions to the support team of Indiemade and they responded very quickly.    

How-To PDF ePattern Scandinavian Basket Weaving

I'm proud to announce a new addition to my Etsy shop SewDanish - Scandinavian Textile Art! A download'able, illustrated tutorial PDF file on how-to weave the lovely traditional Scandinavian baskets found in my shop, is now available here

The 10 page written instruction is written in English, but I'm planning on making a Danish translation available in the near future. You will find 24 black and white step-by-step photos explaining the process clearly. Detailed instructions follow the photos.
You will learn how to make a basic basket. The basic basket can then be used as a starting point for taking the technique a lot further. Over the last year I've taught several basket weaving workshops, where I have tried and tested my instructions, before going 'public'.

I hope you'll have as much fun making the baskets as I have. This is such an old basket weaving technique and I truly believe that it is so important to pass these techniques on, before they disappear.
Please note that I'm very happy for you to sell your finished baskets. The copy right only applies to my written instructions and they may therefore not be shared, copied, distributed, reproduced or published in any form or media without my consent.

Thanks to ExtraPointPress  you also have the option of downloading the basket weaving instructions to your Kindle  from Amazon.com .

Baskets from 'SewDanish' on the Etsy Front page!

This totally beautiful treasury curated by Katerina, the owner of MayaHoney made it all the way to the Etsy Front page to day. YEAH! and congratulations to Katerina!

So well deserved. The treasury is stunningly curated and I'm so proud to have two of my baskets from SewDanish included in this fantastic selection of beautiful handmade items. Enjoy!

 

'The best is yellow' by MayaHoney

 

Glass Christmas Ornament Sun... AvolieGlass $25.00	Winter Fashion Nuno Felted s... nafanyafelt $105.00	Kitchen photo - Simply Surpr... Raceytay $15.00
RESERVED Yellow leather circ... katrinshine $16.00	Green leaves vintage yellow ... zaiazoom $23.00	Needle Felted Pear Bowl lauraleeburch $50.00
Cross stitch necklace with t... skrynka $25.50	Basket hand woven ocra golde... SewDanish $24.00	Yellow beaded lava necklace ... DevikaBox $27.00
Table lamp, accent lamp, nig... FiligreeCreati... $45.00	Small notebook, journal fabr... HelloVioleta $15.00	Yellow Amigurumi Crocheted H... AllSoCute $16.00
Hanging Kitchen Basket - Set... vesselsandware... $74.00	Cocktail Ring, saffron yello... BelindaSaville $59.50	Queen Anne's Lace Hand P... SylwiaGlassArt $30.00
Lemon Yellow copper Enamel s... SilverLinesJew... $33.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.