Long Time No See…

So, here I am! In my new house and beautiful new garden with a wonderful new Suffolk beach to explore almost at my doorstep, hence the lack of blogs – for which I apologise. A lot has happened in the world of Laura by The Sea in the past few weeks… My new studio space (AKA: the spare room) is working nicely for me, my first craft fair Clutter City at The Norwich Arts Centre went very well and feedback towards my work was just overwhelmingly positive. My favourite comment on a unique vintage ceramic necklace which was promptly sold was “Oh wow this is fantastic! I wish I had thought of that.” As my Mum put it there have been many PPM’s, “Proud parent moments” recently.
Whilst setting up at Clutter City for which we were quite late no thanks to the frustrating Norwich road works and silly one way systems a blonde lady started perusing around my stall, examining every piece of jewellery I put out. I can remember nervously approaching my first potential customer and to my utter amazement she said to me… “Have you ever thought of selling wholesale? I own a shop in Norwich and would love to sell your work”. I took her card and was just absolutely buzzing for the rest of the day. Overall, sales were as expected for a first craft fair, a few small pieces but nothing spectacular.

Anyway, to cut a long story short you can now purchase my handmade jewellery at Poppy Valentine, Royal Arcade, Norwich and thanks to an old colleague of mine at Big Blue Sky, Wells-next-the-sea. These two wholesale orders, amongst other Internet sales via Folksy have completely cleaned me out of stock! I am now trying to make more jewellery to replenish my stock so it is a very busy time. I never expected Laura by The Sea to take off so suddenly. Next stop, London (hopefully)! I am trying to find some more contemporary jewellery fairs to sell at and fingers crossed The Princes Trust will award me with a start up grant to get things moving a bit faster.

My First Craft Fair!

I have some great news!… I have been invited to sell my ceramic jewelry pieces at my very first craft fair! Called Clutter City Markey at the Norwich Arts Centre, UK, it is “a platform for creative independent crafters / artists / collectives to sell their work” and they “focus on original, quirky and unique items including DIY clothes, jewellery, badges, sewn items, paper goods, prints, paintings, comics, zines and more”. I think my work will fit in fantastically and am over the moon they want me to have a stall!

It is in just 3 weeks time (on Sat 26th June) so I had better get making. There are now so many things to think about – making stock, of course, handmaking labels, getting a craft table, marketing, printing more business cards, updating all websites (beginning with Artfire of course!) and possibly most important of all finding display stands for my work. I would like to use only recycled/upcycled things to display my items and am thinking about using vintage tea cups to hang earrings and antique suitcases to hold smaller items. Considering the name of the craft fair I think it would be a good idea to sell less expensive items alongside my regular items that customers can rummage through. Maybe I could sell some vintage crockery that is not suitable for upcycling into jewelry? Hmm…

Well, I must get cracking. Please contact me if you have any advice or experiences you want to share from your first craft fairs. I’m treading into unchartered waters for me here!

Contemplating Writing A Book

I have recently started writing a regular blog for Beside The Seaside (See http://www.besidetheseaholidays.com/blog/) and taking research from my BA Hons degree dissertation on The British Seaside I am writing a regular article to drum up support for a revival in all things from the sea. From Punch and Judy shows on the sands to that holiday feeling one gets when walking around the colourful seaside resorts. As a result of this blog I have had various compliments on my writing style and am building up quite a wide reader base. I have been considering making my 10,000 word dissertation into a book for a while now however, have never had the confidence to even begin thinking about a project of that magnitude! But after some wonderful comments I am beginning to grow as a writer and my confidence is flourishing. This is directly influencing all of my creative processes and the huge task of getting published now seems not quite as daunting as once thought.

My mind has been full to the brim of jewelry design ideas, writing ideas and blogging thoughts and this morning I got thinking about a particular comment from a regular reader who kindly said “You have a wonderful writing style Laura”. For years I have been trained in the fine arts, in particular painting and contemporary ceramics and have never studied English literature except during my GCSE school days. However, after many years of student life those days seem somewhat hazy. I was therefore both surprised and puzzled by this compliment, what is my writing style? Or more to the point what are writing styles? Until now I only knew of fiction and nonfiction writing but after punching the words into Google I quickly found the fairly recent genre of creative nonfiction…

I am by no means one to stereotype people and constrain myself to a certain box because that would, of course, dampen my creativity and restrict inspiration but after considering writing my book and approaching a few publishers this writing style seemed to pop out at me almost immediately. I say it is fairly recent in terms of being scrutinized by the critics the same as fiction and poetry but ultimately, the primary goal of the creative nonfiction writer is to communicate information just like a reporter, but to shape it in a way that it reads like fiction. This could include personal essays, memoirs, travel and food writing, biographies and/or literary journalism. Therefore, in the future if anyone asks what type of book I am writing I will say “a creative nonfiction about the British seaside”.
I am hoping to turn my knowledge of history and the seaside alongside personal experiences and family stories into a book. I will write about my great Grandfathers fishing boat that was lost at sea in 1957 with all of the crew members and want to use accounts from newspapers and my grandparents (his daughter) to make it a moving yet educational read about all things by the British coastline. I have the research and background knowledge and just need to get my pen and paper out and begin writing. Yes, I know what you are thinking… Pen and paper?! I much prefer actually feeling what I am writing and write outside most of the time so I guess the first thing I need to do it buy the biggest note book I can find and try to fill it with my passions and ramblings. I can only prey that someone likes it and wants to turn it into a book.

Leave the World Behind, Go to the Seaside!

Why do so many men fish from the beach near Lowestoft when they catch so little? “They just want to be in a place where they have the world behind them, and before them nothing but emptiness” wrote W G Sebald in his book The Rings of Saturn. In my opinion, when it comes to Lowestoft thats the best place to have it, behind you and out of sight! However, I was reminded of this quote when flicking through this months Coast Magazine and it got me thinking about why people still flock to our coastline. We are, after all, inherently an island nation so perhaps our genes naturally gravitate towards the sea but has it’s appeal remained the same as it has always been? What has kept us British so interested in our beaches and seaside resorts?… I have already discussed in a previous blog the beliefs of the ocean and sea air’s health giving powers but as seaside resorts and social attitudes evolved, so did the coasts appeal.

In 1924 The Sunlight League was established, indicating that medical attention had turned away from sea bathing to sun bathing and therefore by the 1930′s tanning had firmly gripped the nation. Laws regarding gender segregation and modesty were dropped and the seaside was no longer a place for prudence and “proper” ladies. It was then, in the 30′s, that the common sight of women in bathing suits and quite often even less was emerging. You could say there was no longer a need for those slot machine telescopes which lined the promenades. Shockingly, the earliest evidence of moral deterioration at the coast can be seen as early as 1860 in a sketch by Thomas Rowlandson. It portrays Scarborough beach in the distance with the cliffs in the foreground exposing turning telescopes spying on the naked dippers. Therefore, even with the segregation of the sexes (which lasted over 100 years in selected resorts) prurience and voyeuristic attitudes were a part of seaside resorts from their outset. After all, what else do you do on holiday if you can’t relax and have fun?

One of my favorite forms of seaside entertainment has to be the What The Butler Saw mutoscopes, showing risque flip books of peep shows and through the key hole images. Musical and comical performances quickly replaced pretentious orchestras, beauty contests began to take place on piers, Punch and Judy shows were in even shown inland and hotels were increasingly used for open sexual relations. George Orwell once said that crude comedy and frivolity was a “staple of seaside entertainment” and this it true. The double entendre entertainment implies a common background with all visitors to the seaside, the only difference is upper class holiday makers were a little bit more reserved. As you can see this soon changed. I do think therefore, that the British seaside has always been an attraction to holiday makers because of it’s ability to break down social attitudes and boundaries. Whilst on holiday people, whether they are from the Victorian era, inter-war times or the twenty first century will always act more garish and will never fail to let their hair down.

In answer to my initial question then, the seaside’s appeal hasn’t changed and W G Sebald was correct in thinking that people go to the coast to face their back on the world. But in doing so they also created a new world of fun, frivolity and risque past times that we all still enjoy now-a-days. We may have lost the true meaning of the Punch and Judy tale and Donald McGill’s naughty postcards may not be as outrageous as they once were but they never fail to still raise a cheeky smile.