Coriandr Express

Frute Juce

1. Please introduce us to who you are and tell us a bit about your craft.
Hi My name is Alison and I live in Milton Keynes. I live with my partner who is a tree surgeon. We live in a well established housing co-operative that has been running for over 30 years, we have been here for 25 of them. I have 3 adult children and 3 grandchildren.
My craft is 'I do a bit of sewing'! I have always enjoyed using a sewing machine and just made things for family and friends in the first instance. I discovered freemotion sewing and thought it would be a fab way to write on fabric. I did this on a few bags and things and it grew on me. I do make a lot of other stuff as well but that is mainly for my own amusement, this includes bead making, knitting, painting to name a few.

2. How would you describe your style and how did that style evolve?
I think my style is something that has evolved through having a Mum and Dad who always made things so I grew up with them trying to create anything before they bought it which I didn't appreciate at the time. My Mum used her sewing machine a lot and made our clothes. My Dad had a fantastic shed which was full of tools and tons of tobacco tins full of nails, screws, fixings etc all that he had saved in some way from being thrown away. My Mum taught me to knit, crochet and use a sewing machine when I was small and my Dad got me into fixing things.

So the 'make it' gene has been passed onto me. I made a lot of my kids clothes. When they were born you could only buy pink, blue or yellow baby things. So I sewed them black trousers and red, yellow and green stripy knitted jumpers, long wee willy winky winter hats. So Knitting and sewing was my main thing.

3. Who/what inspires you?
My family inspires me, especially my daughter who keeps me up to date with what is going on. I am 'big' on family so I still make a lot for them, nothing nicer than making little teeny clothes for babies. I am also inspired by machinery, tools and the like, as you can see with my freemotion embroidery, I have a comprehensive tool kit which I use to fix computers and other things which I enjoy (it is true I am a geek and proud!). You don't get much cooler than mixing a baby vest with an adjustable spanner!

We have a lot of wildlife around Milton Keynes where we are over run with rabbits, I love them and they keep returning to my creative space. Birds are a big thing with me which I entice into my garden with little treats. But sometimes it may be the fabric itself which just shouts out what it needs to be made into. You can't ignore that.

4. What do you do if/when you have a creative block?
Anything other than try to make things. I just turn my back on it and wait for my creative mojo to return. My best ideas time is when I first wake up in the morning so I tend to have a pen and pad next to my bed and just jot things down for the future use. Sometimes a scan through this list will get me going again. I am driven by interest and desire to enjoy what I do so I don't force it, this method has never let me down so far.

5. Where do you see yourself being in a year's time?
I would like to see myself financially support my 'day' job. I work part time teaching adult education classes in Photoshop and HTML which I love. So I would like to carry on making things but add to my collection and obviously up the sales so the angst of having to earn money is reduced a little. I have been asked to make some baby items for a shop in Bristol which will be fun. I wouldn't want sales to go through the roof as I don't want to turn my craft into a production line, I could keep up with production on a larger scale but want to keep it real.

6. What do you like about being a seller on Coriandr?
I like the friendly supportive atmosphere. There is a forum where you can go if you have questions or need help with something or advice.
Other sellers are active on the forum and do help each other out.
Matt who runs Coriandr is quick to respond to questions and has made use of sellers views and needs to shape Coriandr which does not necessarily happen with larger online venues.

Listing items is good as it is very straight forward, not lots of pages to go through and I like the fact that the pages are clean allowing your work to come out of the page not the design of the website.

I am impressed with the talents of the other sellers, always amazing.


7. Which other Coriandr Sellers do you like?
I would be hard pressed to pick one seller from the many on Coriandr it is fairer to say that there are lots of individual items that I really love. If I were given a pocketful of dosh it would not be hard to spend it very quickly on Coriandr!