Paper Happy Birthday Bunting and an unexpected commission

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BRIAR PATCH GOES GLOBAL! (Well, France anyway)

One of the reasons I like undertaking commissions rather than making stock items is that I never know what I’ll be asked to do next. So, when a friend asked me to make some Birthday bunting for an outdoors party in France, how could I refuse? As I hope you can see from the pictures each letter was individually put together with background images featuring the birthday girl’s favourite stuff. Because I didn’t know how much space there would be to hang the finished article, I packed the letters up (after very carefully checking the spelling) with little pegs so they could be arranged to fit on site. By all accounts the party went off well and I’m now waiting for a flood of commissions from France – optimism is my middle name!

IS THERE NO END TO MY TALENTS?

Living on the Isle of Man means you either ride or race bikes, or know someone who does. By contrast, crafters are thinner on the ground, which meant I had a hurried commission recently to replicate a very specific style of racing number, needed to complete a replica of a famous racing bike. The owner of the bike may have been a dab hand with spanners but not quite so skilled in drawing/ painting the number “8”. Briar Patch to the rescue! A solid 15 minutes’ work with my trusty Silhouette and some black vinyl saw the job done. And, as a bonus, Channel 4 (a UK TV station) did a report on the racing and there was the finished article lurking in the background during the introduction.

Joann x