Hello and welcome to the May issue of the HotHive Textiles newsletter. It has been a busy month for us in April with the launch of HotHive Textiles and the re-launch of the website. We have had some great feedback already, but if you haven’t yet seen the new-look site then do drop by and tell us what you think (www.hothivetextiles.com).

We also welcomed a new member of staff to HotHive Textiles this month. Dave Clegg has joined our team to help us improve the site even more and offer great new benefits to everyone who uses it – if you have any ideas or suggestions he would love to talk to you about them. He can be reached on 01386 760406 or emailed at david.clegg@thehothive.com.

Following on from our incredibly successful project pages launched last month (they have received thousands of hits already) we have a new opportunity for all the crafters and artists out there with our fabulous kit pages. We are now stocking kits from a range of artists and designers to bring some creativity and inspiration into your lives. Subjects covered include machine embroidery, needlework, felting, appliqué, devoré, patchwork and much more, and with kits starting at just £7.95 they won’t break the bank either! Take a look at our kits here or read on for more information!

Best wishes
HotHive Textiles (textiles@thehothive.com)

Fairtrade Bag Design Competition Vote for your favourite now!
	The bag design competition organised by HotHive Textiles to celebrate World Fair Trade Day has now closed and the attention turns to the visitors of our website to vote for their favourite design. Artists and designers were invited to submit their design ideas for a fabulous fairly traded organic cotton shopping bag. The theme of the competition was ‘India’ and we encouraged entrants to incorporate their own creative ideas to produce a vivid design. The winning entry will then be exclusively produced for HotHive Textiles by pioneering Fairtrade company, Bishopston Trading, who provide work for tailors and handloom weavers in rural India. HotHive Textiles recently published an article about them, which you can read here. Take me to the Full Article

Kits now available at HotHive Textiles
	Have you ever fancied making your own devoré scarf or appliquéd wall hanging but didn’t know where to begin? Or do you love the idea of trying your hand at creating your own fabrics? If the answer to any of these questions is yes then our new kit pages are for you. For the embroiderers out there the gorgeous hand embroidery kits are guaranteed to appeal. The kit contains everything you will need to make a needle keeper, scissors keeper, button bag and large sewing bag to keep them all in. The kits are available in either blue or brown and would also make a great gift. The animal-lovers among you are going to fall head over heals for our selection of adorable needle felted animals, guaranteed to make you smile. You can choose from a turtle, elephant, hummingbird, kangaroo, ladybird or penguin, with more cute creatures coming soon. Take me to the Full Article

Join our textile community

Take a listing in HotHive Textiles to get in touch with the textile community and be sure your work will be seen by the people who matter!

A basic listing in the directory is absolutely free and there are some fantastic low-cost packages available for those of you who would like to promote your business even more.

To list yourself today please click here or for more information give us a call on 01386 760406

Super Cute Crochet Project
	Cico Books have recently published a fabulous new book called Super-cute Crochet, which teaches you how to make your own super-cute amigurumi family. The book shows you how to make 35 gorgeous creatures, including a bird, bear, chick, bee, elephant, baby goose, giraffe, mouse, panda, parrot, crocodile, reindeer, and many more. The patterns are really easy, so you can make as many as you like, and the creatures will grow fast on your crochet hook! When you’ve crocheted the bodies, enjoy adding clothes and accessories to make each little cutie a real character. With 35 patterns to choose from, there is sure to be an animal there you’ll love. There’s also a techniques section at the back of the book to show you the simple crochet stitches you’ll need. Take me to the Full Article

Opportunity for artists to sell their work at craft and design show
	HotHive Textiles has just learnt of a great opportunity for artists and designers to sell their work at a fabulous craft and design show held at the Cross & Stable Community Centre in Milton Keynes. The event, Eye to Eye Collective, is taking place on Saturday 16 May as part of Arts Open Weekend. The show will feature a mix of paintings, ceramics, prints, photography, textiles, jewellery and wood and the organisers, Feather Graphics, are appealing for artists working in any of these mediums to contact them if they wish to have a stand at the event. Take me to the Full Article

Cotton On: a conference exploring cotton from plant to process
	There will be a one-day conference later this month exploring the fascinating fibre of cotton and challenging participants to find the most sustainable ways forward for using it in their work. Cotton is the world’s most popular fibre, and this conference brings together campaigning organisations, retailers and businesses, certification bodies, designers and researchers together in one place to explore and debate the many ethical issues surrounding it. The conference will be taking place on Saturday 9 May – World Fair Trade Day – and is open to anyone with an interest in cotton and its uses; from fashion students to ethical consumers, from textile manufacturers to campaigners, from clothing retailers to certifiers, from development students to designers. Take me to the Full Article

Calling all Jacquard Weavers
	HotHive Textiles has had an email from fashion designer Suzie Brown, who is looking for a jacquard weaver or weaving company who could produce some fabric for a fashion collection she is working on. Suzie would prefer the fabric to be made from cotton yarn and initially requires 4-10 metres of fabric to produce some samples of the garment design. There may be a larger order at a later date. If you can help Suzie then please contact her with a quote at hisuziex@yahoo.co.uk Take me to the Full Article

Friday Focus: Andrew Salmon, organiser of the Knitting and Stitching Shows
	This week we have been talking to Andrew Salmon, organiser of the Knitting and Stitching Shows. This is a must read interview for all artists and designers with ambitions of being featured at these great shows. Your textile exhibitions provide inspiration for many visitors with a passion for textiles and craft. What inspired you to set up Creative Exhibitions? Jan King the other organiser of the shows and myself were both working for plc companies and wanted to break out on our own. We did so, and were consciously looking for an area which hadn’t really benefited from a major show. By coincidence, a friend had started a small, embryonic stitching show but was terrified about the risk she was taking – she had her house on the line and that made her very nervous – so the inevitable happened and we took it over. I freely confess that, in those early days, the subject matter was fairly irrelevant to us but I soon developed a real love for textiles, which I hope comes through in our events. Take me to the Full Article

British Traditional Crafts to bring Medieval Dover Castle back to life
	The Royal School of Needlework RSN is among the many British crafts companies commissioned by English Heritage to create an extraordinary array of period furniture, wall hangings, textiles and artefacts for Dover Castle to evoke the appearance and atmosphere of the keep, or the Great Tower, on the occasion of a royal visit around 1184. Using the same techniques and spirit of past embroiderers to produce specialist decorative work worthy of Henry II, the RSN will create four pieces of embroidery to decorate the King’s Hall and the Guest Hall. The most important piece is the King’s Hall backcloth, which features the lion rampant, the symbol of statehood, as its central design. The lion symbol appears again on the King’s Standard, reinforcing that all are in the presence of the English King. Take me to the Full Article

Giveaway
	This month we have three copies of Super-cute Crochet, a gorgeous new book published by Cico Books, to give away. The book teaches you how to make 35 fabulous creatures including a goat, elephant, baby goose, giraffe, mouse, panda, parrot, crocodile, and many more. You can see a sample project taken from this book in an article further up the newsletter, or read a full review of the book below. For your chance to win one of these books simply email your name and address to textiles@thehothive.com with �crochet� in the subject line. Good luck! Congratulations also go to last month's competition winners, who each win a copy of Dionne Swift�s fabulous new DVD, Demystifying Devor�. The winners are Lucy Antwis from York and Louise Paemen from Abingdon. Your prizes are on their way to you! Please note that HotHive Textiles and Cico Books will not pass on your details to any third party at any time. We will only use your email address to administer the competition, however in the future we may use your email address to send you details of offers, giveaways and promotions that may be of interest to you. If you would prefer not to receive such information from either HotHive Textiles or Cico Books please indicate this on your email.

Super Cute Crochet
	Super-cute Crochet By Nicki Trench Published by Cico Books ISBN: 9-781906525392 Price: £12.99 Reviewed by Helen Jordan This is a book is book that lives up to its title. The patterns in the books are for the very popular tiny figures called Amigurumi. What I particularly like about this book is that each design has a sentence or two describing an aspect of the ‘life’ of each of the characters. There are three dozen of these, from eggs with eyes, a range of exotic animals, to my favourite, Dimitri the donkey. There is one pattern which breaks away from the standard of using only double crochet: the fish brothers, who look rather splendid in their treble crochet ‘scales’. There is a useful introduction in the book and at the back readers will find just enough technical details on how to crochet. For anyone who has young children or is just a ‘big kid’ themselves, this is a book filled with ‘super-cute’ ideas. Click here to purchase

Diary Dates
2-4 May 2009	Weald of Kent Craft Show - Penshurst Place, Tonbridge
9 May-6 June 2009	Fabric Works - The Grant Bradley Gallery, Number One St. Peter's Curt, Bedminster Parade, Bedminster, Bristol BS3 4AQ
9 May-21 June 2009	Object as Muse - Kirkaldy Museum and Art Gallery, Fife
14-17 May 2009	Quilts UK: 2009 Open Competitive Quilt Show - Severn Hall, Three Counties Showground, Malvern, Worcestershire WR13 6NW
15-17 May 2009	Collect: the international art fair for contemporary objects - Saatchi Galleery, Duke of York's HQ, King's Road, Chelsea, London SW3 4SQ
15 May 2009	E17 Designers Market - Asian Centre, 18a Orford Road, London E17 9LN
16 May 2009	Eye to Eye Collective - Cross & Stable Community Centre, off V9 Downs Barn, Milton Keynes MK14 7RZ
27 May-16 September 2009	Deviants - Hove Museum and Art Gallery, Hove

Word 4 Word Design and Publishing, Suite 8, King Charles Court, Evesham, Worcestershire, WR11 4RF
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