Folksy Friday

Yay - I love Folksy Fridays.This week I've been questioning Granny Ruth! I asked her if I could feature her because her shop is just so beautiful and bright. It makes me smile just looking at it.

Take a look at her shop here.

So lets clear up a little something first - she is NO granny and her name is Nichola.

"Granny Ruth's is named after my mum and my Grandma (who are both grandparents, and called Ruth) the people who taught me my skills and gave me my love of crafting. People think I am Granny Ruth, but although my middle name is Ruth, I am a few years off being a grandparent yet! My kids are just 8 and 5." 

 So, how did it all start...?

"It probably sounds twee, but I can't remember a time when I wasn't creating things. As an only child I entertained myself by drawing and make things with paper and glue. I had a couple of craft books which were very well used. I spent a lot of time with my grandma who taught me to crochet and press flowers and to bake. My mum taught me to knit and how to sew. 

At school we were fortunate enough to have an amazing textiles dept in the art studios where I learned weaving, screen printing and batiking amongst other things. At college I discovered ceramics which I love and then went on to study ceramics and glass at university, but my love of textiles has always stayed with me.

Over the last 15 yrs crafting took a back seat as full time work and then children became the centre of my life. I started to make presents for people in recent years out of neccesity but they where always very well received and my friends and family encouraged me to sell what I made. 

I started selling on Folksy last October after a friend set me a deadline (I'm no use unless I have one!). I started off selling Christmas decorations which surpassed my hopes, and I was so busy making them to sell that I nearly didn't get any Christmas presents made!

Folksy is brilliant! I have made some great friends through Folksy which help me quite a lot. In normal life I feel quite isolated in some respects as non of my friends are at all arty/ crafty, so it is great to be able to spend time talking to other crafts people and learning from them. In the future I want to concentrate on getting the branding of Granny Ruth's sorted out, and as I recently bought a kiln and a potters wheel I want to open another shop selling hand thrown ceramics.

I work at my table in the corner of the kids play room. It is a complete bomb site, much like the rest of my house Who'd be tidying up when they can be crafting!  I generally get settled down to making in the evenings when the house is quiet. I stay up far too late and don't sleep enough, but the evenings are when I'm awake and when I get my second wind! "

Thanks Nic for letting me feature you here, and good luck with it all.