Lucie Harris at Made in Newcastle

Made in Newcastle welcomes Lucie Harris to our Exhibition space...

In her own words, Lucie explains her creative process:

I studied Painting at the Slade School of Fine Art (1990-1994) and then completed an MA at the University of Northumbria. (1995-1997)

This work is inspired by celebrities and fed by my addiction to magazines. I am fascinated by the surface of these images and what lies behind the carefully made up faces. I went through an especially intense Grazia period. I picked out iconic images of women we love to look at and who intrigue me about their interior lives. I use a range of materials including oil paints, watercolours and felt tip pens. I am inspired by artists Elizabeth Peyton, Stella Vine, Alice Neel, Lucian Freud and Chaim Soutine.

Grand opening at Made in Newcastle

The first day nerves of the new Empty Shop project from the Made in Newcastle Team is over! A fun packed days was had by all and the shop was busy, busy busy!

Remember our current empty shop will be a month long project so come and get your wonderful array of handmade goods form the MiN team whilst you can and do your bit for the handmade industry whilst you can.

Thanks to the lovely Brittany Coxon for taking the first of our new product photographs.

Grand Opening Dec 2010

Made in Newcastle will be opening to the public this weekend!!! YAY!!! Come and get your last minute christmas presents from the new store...

Made in Newcastle will be at 79 Grainger Street for the holiday season.

Visit Facebook for more information

Good News Everyone!

We at MiN HQ have been working our little (and big) socks off and have managed to sort out a new location for the shop.

Made in Newcastle will be at 79 Grainger Street for the holiday season.

That's next door to Greggs and across from the Bigg Market. We have a bit of work to do before we are ready to go but we aim to be open for next Saturday. We've already had a few MiN helpers in to transform this empty box of potential into our wonderful new home.

There is plenty of big, empty space to be used, the back area (below) will make an excellent space for workshops, exhibitions and guest makers as well as MiN members.

Oh look, we can see our old home from one of the back windows! Wave everybody, wave. 

A photo from last night just before we packed up, as you can see plenty has already changed from those very dusty first few pictures. Lots of cleaning has been done and we've painted the back area a lovely shade of white. You might also notice the floor in the back area is different, we must say a huge thanks to Jamie for recycling some heavy duty shelving into a wonderful raised floor, a quick coat of paint and that will look super classy (it really already does).

Even Emily and Elise could feel the creative potential in this shop and got to work on colouring some lovely pictures. Good work girls. 

Stay tuned for more news on the new shop and for details of our opening day!

Made in Newcastle Metro Centre fair

The North East is 'thigh High' in snow, but despite this many of our lovely MiNNies and Artistic creatives of the North east turned out to present their wares at the Made In Newcastle Chrsitmas Fair at The Metro centre yesterday.

Should you have some spare time to pop along today, it would be great to see you there! If not, watch this space for the soon to be lauched 'phase 2' retail space for Made in Newcastle...

Made In Newcastle Christmas Fair

Hello there! Long time no speak.
Well we have some news for y'all. Although we've not quite yet got the new premises sorted for the shop, the We Make North East collective are still beavering away with projects.
Last month we ran a bauble decorating workshop for charity at the Metro Centre. In return for all our grafting the lovely peeps at the shopping mall are allowing us to use the central space of Exhibition Square to host a Christmas fair.

The fair will be on the 1st and 2nd December and we have lots of lovely artists designers involved selling all sorts of gorgeous lovingly made gifts, at very reasonable prices.
We will be in the Metro Centre from 10am - 10pm so please come by and say howdy, tell us that you miss us and make us feel all warm and cosy :) ha ha.

Also there are still some spaces left so if you want a stall on either or both days. Spaces are £30 for one day or £50 for both. Please note you will need public liability insurance and you will need to provide your own table (chairs we already have). All money generated from the stall hire will be put into setting up the new MIN shop which we are now in sniffing distance of sorting out.
If you would like to know more contact lucyfarfort@yahoo.com for details.

What Now? (A tale of two MINs)

The last trading day of MIN at 22 Nun street was on Sunday just gone - a lovely day with lots of lovely people.
The yard sale raised an unexpected £102 for the new project, which is ace! So a BIG thanks to all those who contributed as this will go towards funding our new endeavor. Which brings me nicely round to the question ‘What Now?’ ....

So here is a little tale:
Once upon a time a lovely lady called Rachael lived in a city called Newcastle Upon Tyne. She walked around the city one day and felt uninspired by all the empty shop spaces she saw, once inhabited by the good people of the city selling their wares.
At that moment it occurred to her - ‘I will take an empty shop and transform it in to something wonderful’.
With a little help from the friendly Newcastle City Council genies and a lot of searching, the perfect shop was found. Rachael quickly used the power of the ‘Magic Makers Horn’ (oo er Mrs). This enchanted item was bequeathed to her at a magical craft market some months ago. She blew on the horn and summoned forth creative people from every corner of the city. Together they used their skills and powers of making and formed the mighty ‘Made In Newcastle’.....

Okay, okay this is going on a bit, so we’ll skip the next bit of the story and we’ll just cut to the present day -

Over the time in 22 Nun Street the makers and artists involved have grown, which has resulted in a really great network of creative people keen to add an independent stamp to the face of Newcastle’s High Street . This group of makers & artists created from the sea of MIN have now formed as a collective. To make this bit as dramatic and exciting as possible - this group shall hence forth be known as the ‘We Make North East’ collective.

We are happy to announce that this Tuesday we received the very happy news that we’ve been successful in securing some further funding to get us set up in a new premises.
Now it gets a little confusing, but here goes - We Make North East will be continuing the project at a different location and guess what? That shop, gallery come workshop space will still be known as ‘Made In Newcastle’. Yayy! Its back.

Thats right, just like a phoenix MIN has risen from the flames of our beloved 22 Nun Street which we expect is now coated in tinsel & baubles ; )

At the moment we don’t exactly know where the new property will be. Although, we do have a very good idea, but don’t want to tempt fate by telling you where it is likely to be until we know for sure.
Anyway it is expected that in a few weeks time we will have everything sorted and we can rebuild a fresh & very tasty Made In Newcastle (MK II).

In the words of the Terminator...’I’ll be back!’

Newcastle Craft Mafia fair at Made in Newcastle

The Newcastle Craft Mafia fair at Made in Newcastle on saturday was a great success.

Showing upstairs in the gallery and Sewing cafe for the day were:

Irish Granny

Thread Spider Textiles

Rule Britannia

Sitting on the wall

And a few other crafts people showed up to make the event a truly fun packed day! thanks to all craft people and visitors!

This was the first market for Peggy Day.

Josie Clementine and her uniquely gorgeous knitted pieces

Claire Wilsher's Fabulous socks monkeys

Sally Cinnamon shows of her quirky resin products

Last Exhibition this week

Bye Bye 22 Nun St Closing Event

Come and join our farewell to 22 Nun Street closing celebration on Sunday 10th October from 12noon - 5pm.

The current inhabitants of 22 Nun Street, Newcastle, otherwise known as MINnies will be leaving for pastures new to form fresh projects & empty-shop endeavors. The last trading day will be Sunday 10th Oct and to celebrate we will be offering some tasty nibbly treats and refreshments to entice you in. We'll also be holding a special YARD SALE to raise funds for a new project coming out of MIN - so drop by and see what bargain oddities you might find.

After closing the MINnies will be having a goodbye drink at Lord Leigh Park & Lady K's Funky Butt Club at the Cumberland Arms in Ouseburn if you would like to join us.

22 Nun street may soon be a distant memory but there is exciting news on the horizon, so watch this space!