Crafty Ladies

The event included unusual and stunning items ready to be wrapped and hidden away, as there were gift ideas from wooden door signs to venetian glass bead jewellery to handknitted hats and original bags.

The fair was organised by Clair Bula-Edge and Fiona Stevens, two mums with youngsters at Little Common primary school who became friends and realised they had creativity in common. They decided to get together with other "crafty ladies" to share ideas and sell their work together.

At the event on Saturday afternoon Clair was selling her bold and colourful doorsigns made out of the wood recycled from her fence which was blown down, and Fiona had on display her handmade jewellery and delicate fairy decorations.

Clair commented: "We thought we would get together and bring craft up to date. Nothing is expensive here because we know nobody has got any money. We potter away during the year and have a sale at Christmas. We meet as a group every now and then and see what each other is doing, and we work towards this sale.

"It is fantastic - the sale was really good last year and this one is even better. Craft does have that doily edge to it - we are moving away from that, and we want to bring it into the 21st century."

Fiona is a trained silversmith whose decorative items are made from recycled and vintage materials. She has always enjoyed craft work and said: "We thought we would put something together in the recycling theme so people can see what we do and think about recycling themselves. As young mums we find if people ask about what we are wearing and where its from, and we say we made it outselves, they are interested. So we had the Christmas fair last year and came up with the title Crafty Ladies, and it is really popular...the next thing maybe is to get a website - I would like to sell the fairies as a package for children and people to make themselves."