End of an era (well a short era)

Tuesday saw the closure of the Made In Newcastle shop. Some of you may already know that this is an empty shop project which i have been heavily involved in over the last 10 months.
It began in July last year when a lady called Rachael Streather set up the first incarnation. After its premature closure in October 2010 due to a paid tenancy offer, I went about sorting us out another premises and on 14th December (or abouts) the shop at 79 Grainger Street, Newcastle Upon Tyne opened. We managed to hold this shop for the full intended 6 months and on the 31st May our time there was complete.

I won't bore you with all the ins and outs of the set up and how it came to be, as it is a long story. However if you want to know more about the project you can read the Made In Newcastle (MiN) blog and you may want to read the post 'A tale of two MiNs' which I wrote when the 1st shop closed in July and attempts to sum up events in a more interesting way.

The shop was hard work, but i feel a bit lost now its gone. It was a great place to network meet like-minded makers and artists and also a fantastic opportunity to showcase & sell my work. Still its not all over, the MiN project is still going to continue but i think we'll be doing it in a different form net time - possibly a more community engagement type project, where we have a studio space which we can offer workshops from.

Now that the shop is no more i am looking for new places to stock my prints and cards in, so if you have any suggestions please let me know as i would love to find some new lovely stockists. I've just finished an illustration which i am going to put on the wall of a very cute little coffee shop called Piccolo Coffee in the Grainger Market soon and hope to add it to my Folksy shop too. Here its is hope you like it: