Mary Queen of Shops

Well now, as I said, January has been an exciting month for me. Not least because of my exciting opportunity with Mary Queen of Shops!

Through a Society of Designer Craftsmen email I was made aware of a great opportunity. The producers of the television programme ‘Mary Queen of Shops’ wanted up and coming designer/makers to produce pieces to help change the fortunes of an independent retailer by giving it an edge over the high street with interesting products and pieces.

I applied (with my lovely new photos)and was thrilled when I was selected as one of only a few makers to go down to London, meet Mary Portas and the shop owners and show my work. The craft day took place on 14th Jan 2010 in Kingston upon Thames. It was a long but exciting day, with a lot of filming.

It was a bit nerve wracking to be pitching to Mary and the shop owners, especially in front of a film crew but it went quite well and I was able to talk confidently about my work.

Unfortunately my work wasn't picked to be stocked in the shop as they had changed the theme of the shop to 'new and old' and picked pieces that reflected that. I did find out however, that we hadn't just been selected by the tv company and that Mary herself had selected us, which is a big deal! The clip will probably be edited to only show the makers who were selected, but there is still a chance my work might be featured on the show when it airs this spring. I've been invited to go back down for the relaunch of the shop in early Feb, but it's a bit too far for me to travel (nearly 3 hours each way)so I don't think I'll go. Fantastic day though, really enjoyed it and met some other interesting makers. Will hopefully have some photos of my work being filmed if the man emails me.

Over and out (until tomorrow because I have more news!)