JUST A CARD INDIE WEEK DAY 2 - JEWELLERY

If you missed yesterday’s post, explaining all things JUST A CARD, then catch yourself up here: www.chelache.com/blog/2020/11/23/just-a-card (including greetings cards shopping recommendations).

Indie Week is all about encouraging people to support small independent businesses and each day I’m sharing a few of my favourite places to shop. Today it’s jewellery and if you know me you know I love buying and wearing unusual earrings! The majority of the product images I’ve chosen are unsurprisingly earrings and I seem to be going through a blue phase as I’ve inadvertantly chosen a lot of blues!

Clicking on the images above will link you to the shops where you can buy from and support these small businesses. I’m in no way affiliated with or paid by any of them; I just enjoy sharing cool things with others and spreading the love.

P.S. If you want to buy me a birthday or Christmas present, these are all on my wishlist! Hint, hint… :)

This is just a tiny selection of the amazing stuff made by awesome people (not huge corporations) that you can find out there.

If you have any other recommendations or suggestions, feel free to comment below. And of course do share this blog post! The more people we get on board with the JUST A CARD mentality the better!

“Every sale, however small,
is the difference between a vibrant creative community or a boarded
up business.”

— JUST A CARD campaign founder Sarah Hamilton

FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM TO BE KEPT UP TO DATE &

BE SURE TO COME BACK DAILY FOR MORE OF MY RECOMMENDATIONS:

  • MONDAY: CARDS

  • TUESDAY: JEWELLERY

  • WEDNESDAY: TEXTILES

  • THURSDAY: CERAMICS

  • FRIDAY: STOCKING FILLERS

As I’m having a bit of a blue obsession today, here are some blue things I’ve made!:

Men's Knitted Tie Pointed End - Waves
sold out
£58.00
Hackney Handwarmers - Reef
£86.00
Small Hand-knitted Cushion - Blues
£88.00
Knitted Striped Hand-Warmers - Waves
£48.00

JUST A CARD - INDIE WEEK

JUST A CARD Indie Week 23–27 November 2020; The colourful, independent alternative to Black Friday!

Did you know that today marks the beginning of JUST A CARD’s Indie Week? It’s a week to celebrate independent shops, artists, makers & small businesses and an antidote to the fast-purchase culture of Black Friday.

If you don’t know what the JUST A CARD CAMPAIGN is all about, then check out the website here: justacard.org

Everyone should get involved. If we all spread the word and shopped more thoughtfully, we could really make a big difference!

““If everyone who’d complimented our beautiful gallery had bought just a card we’d still be open.””
— JUST A CARD campaign founder Sarah Hamilton

I've always been passionate about supporting small, independent businesses, even before I was one myself. Variety is the spice of life and how very boring it would be if we all bought the same stuff from the same big companies.

It's more important than ever to keep our indie shops and businesses alive, if we want to see them survive. If you want to continue to have choice, then you need to make thoughtful purchasing choices now, before all the interesting shops go under and are gone for good.

Instead of copping out and buying all your Christmas presents from Jeff the multi billionaire's popular online megastore, make a bit of effort; seek out the local alternatives! Instead of buying something of dubious provenance and quality, when you buy from a small business, you're getting something that a whole lot of love and thought has gone into. And each purchase you make makes a huge difference to that seller.

When you buy from an independent business you are supporting creativity, diversity, local communities. You are shopping more thoughtfully, more sustainably and more ethically.

Being a maker and small business owner myself, I've been lucky enough to discover a whole host of amazing businesses and their products over the last few years, in part by exhibiting alongside them at tradeshows and the like . I honestly think if people knew that such great stuff was out there, they’d never bother with the high street chains or huge online marketplaces (you know the one I mean).

And they’re very often not more expensive either, often pricing themselves very competitively, even though the quality is almost certainly much higher than the mass produced alternatives. There is so much to choose from out there, but if you need a little pointing in the right direction, I’d like to share a few of my favourite places to shop…

Every week-day this week, I’m going to share links to some of my go to indie shops / makers that I buy from myself, focussing on a different category each day. I’m going to kick it off with CARDS:

Clicking on the images above will link you to the shops where you can buy from and support these small businesses. I’m in no way affiliated with or paid by any of them; I just enjoy sharing cool things with others and spreading the love.

This is just a tiny selection of the cool stuff made by awesome people (not huge corporations) that you can find out there.

If you have any other recommendations or suggestions, feel free to comment below. And of course do share this blog post! The more people we get on board with the JUST A CARD mentality the better!

“Every sale, however small,
is the difference between a vibrant creative community or a boarded
up business.”
— JUST A CARD campaign founder Sarah Hamilton

FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM TO BE KEPT UP TO DATE &

BE SURE TO COME BACK DAILY FOR MORE OF MY RECOMMENDATIONS:

  • MONDAY: CARDS

  • TUESDAY: JEWELLERY

  • WEDNESDAY: TEXTILES

  • THURSDAY: CERAMICS

  • FRIDAY: STOCKING FILLERS

Check out some of my products here:

HALO HEAD / NECK BAND - VAN GOGH
£42.00
Knitted Art Hand-Warmers - Hockney
£48.00
Transition Scarf - Reef
sold out
£68.00
Transition Beanie - Rodchenko
£54.00

or go to www.chelache.com

LIVE SESSIONS ONLINE: DATES FOR YOUR DIARY!

Here’s an overview of the times and dates of my live sessions over the next two weeks:

All times shown are GMT (London, England)

Click the images below to register for each event (if applicable)

If you're wondering what PechaKucha is, then I've explained it here.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY, MADE MAKERS:

  • 5th November 7pm - Made Makers goes live

  • 5th November 8pm - Layla Chelache & three other makers give short PechaKucha presentations about their work (live on Zoom; please register here for free)

  • 6th November 3pm - Layla Chelache gives you a tour of her studio on Instagram Live (follow @chelacheknits on Instagram and tune in from 3pm)

  • 8th November 6pm - Made Makers closes

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY, HANDMADE CHELSEA ONLINE:

  • 10th November 11am - Handmade Chelsea Online goes live

  • 10th November 4.30pm - Keeping the craft of hand knitting alive. Go behind the scenes with Layla Chelache in her knitwear studio. (live on Zoom; please register here for free)

  • 13th November 5.30pm - Modular Knitting Workshop with Layla Chelache (live on Zoom, pay as much as you like, please register here)

  • 15th November 6pm - Handmade Chelsea Online closes

If you have any questions, please send me a message and I’ll try to get back to you as soon as I can: