Meet the maker Gina from New Forest Craft Market

 Meet the maker

A little bit about me and my Creative work.

My colourful stash of sumptuous yarn

My name is Gina and I am the founder of the New Forest Craft Market Group on Facebook. 

I am an artist and take Pet Portrait commissions and host paint parties and crochet lessons through Creation Station.

I also design my own crochet patterns and sell crochet items under my Tangle Tree Creative website.

My path to becoming a creative.

It's always cliche when someone says they have been creative since they were little, but I really have. I can not remember a time when I didn't have a pencil and a sheet of paper to hand and felt the urge to create something. Just ask my Mum, I used to drive her bonkers most days with, "What can I draw next?"

My memories are of copying characters from my older brother's Beano comics, to being affected by colours and sometimes coming home from school with a headache because I had seen too much colour that day. I sensed that was a bit of an odd phrase from a 6/7 year old when my primary school teacher gave me a worried look. How can colours give you a headache? I would often feel nauseous when I saw too much red and green together! I guess it's a bit of synesthesia.

My Nan would always marvel at my ability to learn something new quickly. She said that I could put my hands to anything, though my Dad probably did not approve of my thirst for knowledge when my hands picked up a hand powered-drill and drilled a hole through the living room carpet to see what would happen.

Lucky for me our house had a shed where my Dad had a workbench and lots of tools. I would spend hours in there (even in the colder months) cutting wood, sanding them and making models. He let me make the handles on the aviary that he built in the shed. I became his helper when decorating and still love to decorate and hang wallpaper now.

Looking back it was obvious that my education followed my passions; GCSE creative subjects and finally, A levels of Art, Design and Technology and Graphic design. University followed in Graphic Art and Design and I graduated in 2000. 

How I started with my crafting journey.

My First ever crochet project Christmas trees

I took up crochet in 2015 with a group of friends and we taught each other the basics. 

We still met regularly to crochet (until Covid restrictions). I started to get creative with my crochet work and started to make my own designs and patterns. 

More than just a hobby.

Early 2020 I was chatting to the lovely people at Moors Valley about holding paint parties and crochet lessons at their beautiful location. We planned to start that summer, but Covid had other ideas.

A paint party in full swing

It wasn't really an option to just sit and wait for restrictions to lift; I needed to get inventive. Everyone could see the changes in the way consumers shopped, we started to appreciate supporting our local shops and creatives. In a time when many people's finances were under pressure and strained, I was blown away by everyone's commitment to supporting local and caring for our own community.

This inspired many discussions with Shane, how could we could support the community we lived in? I had a flurry of commissions over Christmas ordering my pet portrait decorations and some Crochet items. These came from a local Ringwood Christmas market Facebook group.

Some of my pet portrait commissions

Not wanting to lose this momentum I started up the New Forest Craft Market Group. I wanted it to run all year round and be more than just a platform for people to post their creations. It promotes local creatives across multiple social media platforms, highlighting the amazing work that is on our own doorstop.

Our lovely New Forest Craft Market creatives

As well as supporting local creatives, I wanted the group to give back to its community and fund-raise for local charities and schools. 

In between setting up the New Forest Craft Market and continuing with my orders, I am always busy with new ideas and experimenting with new mediums.

My latest passion is Resin art which is a shared creative past time that myself and Shane have explored together. Once we are able to get a bigger workspace (my sofa and dining table is not fit for purpose anymore) we hope to upscale our projects. 

Seascape resin word art

Resin seascape is a seashell

The Future.

I hope to start off where we left off with workshops and start my paint parties, crochet lessons as well as Resin Art workshops. I can not imagine my life without a creative outlet, and being able to support others has given me a new drive in the creative industry.