ameliagreenheart

Great news for us today. We will be exhibiting at the "made-it" Craft Fair in Weatherby Town Hall, Yorkshire this coming Saturday, 25th September. The event starts at 10am and ends at 4.30pm. We would love to meet you there. ameliagreenheart will be selling a selection of our gifts including the lovely tie-bags and fascinators made by Laura and the bowls I make.

We have also joined Twitter! I went to a Business Link "Be Inspired" Seminar last week in Doncaster. The speaker was Emma Jones. She was lovely and inspirational! A great combination. She has a website called "Enterprise Nation" which promotes homeworking and small businesses. Definitely worth a look if you are running a small business from home. Emma is very keen on social networking as a way of connecting with people who need whatever service or product you are selling. I have enjoyed twittering so far. I must admit that I have avoided it until now but actually it is such a good way to keep in touch with new ideas and share what you are doing with like-minded people. If you are interested in following ameliagreenheart on Twitter search for us via our email ameliagreenheart@yahoo.com or our name ameliagreenhart (yes spelt that way on Twitter).

I'm enjoying working at Henshaws Yorkshire in Knaresborough. I am there one day a week and learning to handmake paper with my colleague Helen. I have met some brilliant people who have given me some fantastic ideas for my own work and who make me laugh and dance and sing. What a great bonus! I would like to have a go at making paper for ameliagreenheart product labels. I was thinking it would be interesting to make it out of leaf fibre and I plan to try oak leaves first. I have been talking with our very good friend Dr Allan Hall about trying to make paper from woad leaves. When we can find a source for these we will give it a go.

On my train journey to and from Knaresborough I have been reading a very interesting book "Viral Loop: The Power of Pass-It-On" by Adam L Penenberg. It analyzes the power of 'word-of-mouth' recommendation and gives examples of the rise of some of the businesses we all use such as Google, Facebook and YouTube. I am finding it very engaging and funny sometimes. I especially like the description of how the website "Hot or Not" came about and how it became an interweb phenomenon in a very short period of time. If you haven't come across it yet where have you been?

Seriously though, it is a good read. It reminds me of the buzz I got from reading Malcom Gladwell's "The Tipping Point" and "Freakenomics" bySteven Levitt and Stephen Dubner.

We will also be exhibiting at at least two more craft fairs this year: The FLARE Artists and Makers Craft Fair at the Hotel de Ville (Town Hall) Ripley in Yorkshire on Sunday November 21st (from 11am until 4pm) and The Chapel, Cemetry Road, York on Sunday 28th November (also from 11am until 4pm).

FLARE are also holding a Craft Fair at The Tithe Barn, Church Lane, Nether Poppleton, Yorkshire on Sunday 14th November between 11am and 4pm. We are really looking forward to these events and hope to see you at them too. Best regards, David.