meet a maker monday

this week i'm a little early! so, grab a cuppa, put your feet up and lets meet gemma from sugar&rhubarb ...

Please introduce yourself …Hi, I’m Gemma and I’m the owner and designer of homemade goodies and Ninja Kitties sold by Sugar&Rhubarb.

How would you describe your work / style?Ooh I’d probably have to say shabbychic and most importantly fun. Everything I make I secretly want in my own home, I wouldn’t dream of selling something that I didn’t 100% love. Whenever I sell something I want the buyer to open it and be as excited about it as I am; so there’s a lot of care and attention to detail put into each item.

Do you sell your work? If so, what helped you decide to start selling your work?When I first started to learn to sew I used to give most of my products away to family and friends. Then I started to come up with so many ideas, and my skills grew that I thought people might actually want to buy some of my work – thankfully I was right! I was nervous to start with, there’s always that moment of self doubt when you think people won’t like your style or products, but with lots of support from friends and family I managed to get over it and set up my folksy shop. Since then, there’s been no looking back. I keep a notebook with me and I’m always jotting down new designs and ideas, it’s wonderful to be part of that whole process and seeing the final product sell from its inception.

Where can I buy your work?Here at Sugar&Rhubarb we love folksy and this is our main outlet. We also have smaller shops on DaWanda and Etsy: www.folksy.com/shops/sugarandrhubarb. People can also come to us with custom requests through our website www.sugarandrhubarb.com

Do you have a website or blog address?Our website is www.sugarandrhubarb.com and we also have a facebook group. Plus our popular softie Ninja Kitty also documents his plans for world domination on his own blog http://ittybittyninjakitty.blogspot.com/

Is there any other craft skill you would like to learn?I’d love to learn to screenprint. I’ve got so many ideas for cute posters and when I finally find some time I hope to learn and start creating some designs. I have so many prints in my house (I love Bold & Noble) that it would be nice to have some of my own hanging up next to them.

Anything exciting planned for 2010 you’d like to share?We’re hoping to keep on growing, attract local shops into stocking our items and hit those all important craft fairs.

If I wasn’t doing this, I’d be …
Baking cupcakes until the cows come home.

I couldn’t do this if it wasn’t for …
My sewing machine, the support of friends, family and all those other fabulous folksy sellers.

Describe your perfect day.
Eating a bacon sandwich with a giant cup of sugary tea, and then head to the sewing machine for some craft time.

What do you do to relax?
Update my blog, surf other blogs and shops I love, sew and maybe watch a bit of Glee or some other new series on the TV.

Marmite … love it or hate it?
Love it, but hate marmite ricecakes….. eugh!

What animal would you be, and why?
A meerkat, weirdly cute and always looking out for what’s coming next.

What’s your weakness?
Yumyums…… especially Waitrose ones.

How do you keep motivated?
Sales are the thing that keep me most motivated – the thought that someone else actually likes what I’m doing. But mainly coming up with new ideas to make in the future, the day when that notebook is empty is the day when all motivation will be gone – it’s not happened yet, so fingers crossed!

What advice would you give to someone just starting out?
Don’t be scared- you’ve got nothing to lose! Start small on places like folksy.com and then market yourself like you’ve never done before – be shameless!


thanks for chatting gemma, your work is beautiful and ninjakitty is fab! lovely to come across another simon's cat fan!