Spitalfields Designers & Makers Christmas Market

A few (well quite a few) photos from the Designers & Makers Christmas Market on Saturday 17th December 2011 in London. I'll be there again in 2012 on Saturday 21st April and 16th June (although that seems an extraordinarily long way away).

 The Butterscotch & Beesting Stall

 And again.

 And again. From a different angle though. 

Some of my new digitally-printed cushions hanging on a drying rack.

New earrings, silver-plated necklaces and a few brooches.

 Jewellery, ceramics and Betty Butterscotch's Fizzy Wizzibees, which old sold out again – yey!

A Heidi LaLarge Sweetie-Day Bag with ceramics and potion bottles behind, all sitting on a lovely shelf I picked up on Abbeydale Road.

Lovely Betty in a new porcelain bowl, handmade by me and fired with a clear glaze to let the creamy hue of the clay shine through.

 

A little handmade porcelain sugar bowl featuring Heidi LaLarge circling the tightrope.

Small corked decanter bottles with a paper Bumblewick Beesting Magical Supplies label for your own magical scribblings, sold singly now too, as requested by a 12-year-old boy I met at Kelham Island Victorian Market.  

A Magical Potion Kit and individual potion recipe cards hanging behind. 

Magical Menagerie Magnets and cushions. 

More shots of the cushions featuring Butterscotch & Beesting characters.

I think these two are my favourite.

  Courage T-shirts and sweeties.

 

A super cool FigFig2 dress hanging next to my stall.

 A FigFig2 top.

 More FigFig2. Love the spine vest, and the ceramics.

FigFig2 jewellery. 

FigFig2 is my sister's range (she's called Sue Westergaard). She started the original Fig Fig brand in the mid-80s with Paul Adams, and sold her printed tees and other garments at Greenwich market and through shops nationwide. The designs were collaged and reworked from Victorian engravings, Fifties magazines and encyclopedia illustrations, and manipulated into surreal instructional diagrams, like how to dive from a fish.  Last year, Sue's godson Gabriel started to wear the original t-shirts when he went out gigging and got loads of compliments, first from friends and then from strangers too. Sue decided it might be time to re-invent the brand. Some of the new garments use the original designers, and there are new ones mixed in there too. You can read more about FigFig2 on her Facebook page here. I'm totally in awe of her work, its originality, wit and composition, and I'm so pleased it's here again. 

Magical Menagerie Badges

Ooh that dastardly monkey. It seems he simply can't keep his wand in his pocket.

Look what's he's made now...

A Squeacock 

Squirrel (Sq), Seahorse (ea) and Peacock (cock)

To be honest, she is feeling rather prickly about the whole thing.

A Fleabit

Flamingo (Fl), Peacock (ea) and Rabbit (bit). 

While immensely beautiful, he fears his current guise is not altogether as masculine as one might hope.

 

A Master

 Meercat (M), Rabbit (a) and Rooster (ster)

Who seems oddly oblivious to his transformed state (he's quite possibly been too busy looking out for danger to notice).

A Froocan

 Frog (Fr), Rooster (oo) and Toucan (can). 

Although the Froocan is very much enjoying wallowing in the sympathy of all at the Butterscotch & Beesting Circus, he is secretly rather pleased with his new look, and has also discovered a fondness of flying. While Betty Butterscotch has on several occasions offered him a spot of her special Antidote, he has so far refused and she is beginning suspect he may be quite content to stay this way...

All these Magical Menagerie badges are now available in the Butterscotch & Beesting Shop.

A sneak peek under the Big Top Canvas

Look what Bumblewick Beesting has been brewing...

Bumblewick's Magical Potion Kit...

 With Four Potion Recipe Cards

A Conical Flask with Swirling Sticks

A Bottle of (Quite Possibly Authentic) Unicorn Tears...

Violet Carnation Petals (essential in many a magical potion)...

Deep Sea Pearls and (totally edible) Extracts...

And even a Dispensing Bottle, among lots of other magical delights

Coming very soon to the Butterscotch & Beesting Shop

A Kettle of Fish

I just found this... 

Strongman Box by Kettle of Fish

Totally, totally love it, especially his rather dapper moustache. Very appropriate for Movember. There are more beautiful gifts and lovely things in the Kettle of Fish Shop on Folksy. (Folksy's had a bit of a design revamp and is looking very fine, may I say.) 

Butterscotch & Beesting will be at...

Saturday 19th November (11am to 5pm)

Old Spitalfields Market, London E1

I'll be 'borrowing' a little bit of my sister's FigFig2 stall at the Spitalfields Designers & Makers Market this Saturday. Hurrah! FigFig2 is absolutely awe-inspiringly fantastic. Really, really, really. You can read more about FigFig and look at all the amazing prints here

Sunday 27th November (12noon - 4pm) 

Reet Sweet, Millennium Gallery, Sheffield 

Can't wait for this one. Reet Sweet has taken over where Craft Candy left off. It should be super super good, with lots of brilliant handmade gifts and treats. Take a look at the Reet Sweet Website or read the Reet Sweet blog here

Saturday 3rd December (11am-3pm)

Julefest, Clifford Infant School, Psalter Lane, Sheffield

Oh how I love Christmas, and there's nothing better than a Scandi Christmas. Being part-Danish, I couldn't resist these festivities. I (me, Camilla) can't actually come to this one, as I'll be dressing up as a Victorian at Kelham Island, but I've magicked a little helper, and so the Butterscotch & Beesting Circus will still be there! 

Saturday 3rd December (10am to 7pm) & Sunday 4th December  (10am to 5pm)

Victorian Christmas Market, Kelham Island, Sheffield 

If you fancy a gloriously Dickensian Juletide, the Kelham Island Victorian Christmas Market should be perfection. I shall even be donning Victorian costume (any ideas or offers of a Victorian Circus outfit would be ever-so welcome). More on the Kelham Island website 

Roll Up! Roll Up!

Betty's been ever so busy lately and has just finished a new batch of Coconut Fudge Ice.

Ooh, what could be prettier than those delicious pink and white sweet coconut layers? 

Except maybe an extra creamy layer of fudgy loveliness on top. You really do spoil us, Betty.  

And who is that dashing gent on the front? Hold on a darn-ticking minute. Isn't that world-famous conjurer and ringmaster at the Butterscotch & Beesting Circus, Bumblewick Beesting? Cunning bowler hat disguise, Bumblewick – you almost had us fooled. 

Get it while it's at its freshest bestest from the Butterscotch & Beesting Shop.

(Plus if you take a quick trip over to the Facebook page, and 'like' us while you're there, there might even be a little discount treat for you...)

Solomon the Simian

Here's a sneak peek of Solomon the Simian, resident troublemaker at the Butterscotch & Beesting Circus, and maker of the peculiar muddled-up animals in the Magical Menagerie.

Solomon the Simian

Accidentally adopted by conjurer extraordinaire Bumblewick Beesting on a trip to Persia, and brought back to the Butterscotch & Beesting Circus.

 Don't be taken in by his big innocent eyes, this is one dastardly snub-nosed monkey and no mistake. 

A Darker Turn This Halloween...

The sort of magic practised at the Butterscotch & Beesting Circus isn't normally of the dark variety, but I make an exception for Halloween. So today two Victorian dolls mysteriously came to life, while one poor Edwardian boy-child was zombified.

As you will observe, the Littlest Doll also turned out to be a most-terribly terrifying zombie. 

The Middle Doll appeared to be made from porcelain, but with spider-like lashes.

And the Littlest Doll referenced both Pierrot and Twiggy in her costume design and make-up. Quite an achievement for one so small. 

Eventually, after hours spent chasing squirrels, the zombie became stuck in a tree... 

... so, all's well that ends well. 

The Butterscotch & Beesting Circus will resume normal carnival-style magic first thing tomorrow.

Magical Menagerie Magnets Made By Me

A Poohorse... tee hee

Pelican + Rooster + Seahorse

The animals of the Butterscotch & Beesting Circus have been muddled into marvellous magnets! Each Magical Menagerie Magnet packet has a head, middle and tail, mixed into magical menagerie creatures by the wand of that dastardly monkey, Solomon the Simian.

**** If you are not yet familiar with Solomon, he is the most-terribly troublesome monkey accidentally adopted by Bumblewick Beesting on a trip to Persia, after he offered to mind the animal for his frazzled-looking owner while he nipped to the bathroom... a bathroom from which he was spotted escaping and consequently skipping away minutes later, singing a merry tune. Since that time, Solomon has wreaked havoc at the Butterscotch & Beesting Circus, forever stealing his master's wand and playing tricks on the other creatures, muddling them up with magic. And while this does make for an interesting menagerie, it is terribly tiring for the poor animals involved. ****

A Tincan

Toucan + Flamingo + Pelican

With these new magnets you can help to unmuddle the animals by collecting the packets until you have enough pieces to restore each creature to its original self.

A Frelipus and Plobit

Or, if so inclined, you could take a leaf out of Solomon's book and make your own magical combinations, but the animals might not be best pleased...

 A Patycan

Puppy + Platypus + Toucan

And because they're magnets, you can stick them on your fridge, or on anything else magnetic that takes your fancy...

A Reerg

Rabbit + Meercat + Frog

... and mix around the heads, middles and tails whenever the urge takes you. 

Huffhopper

Or you can get them already muddled, like this Huffhopper here, who is a mighty fine jumper, although somewhat smug. 

 Tattercock

And the fabulous Tattercock. 

Such fun!

They will be available to buy from my Etsy shop very, very soon.