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Meet the Maker: Sandra Hardy

We are excited to welcome expert Textile Designer-Maker Sandra Hardy to Living Crafts Cirencester Park for our debut year over 29th – 31st May 2021.

Sandra is an expert in her field, she designs and makes ladies coats, jackets, hats & scarves in both everyday styles together with more decorative 'specials'.

For these she uses a quality, sustainable & versatile 100% boiled wool fabric, all of which are made in her St. Ives studio, and sold mainly at large scale Design & Crafts events around the country.

The desire to design and make her own textiles was always there, and for many years she focused on teaching, writing about, studying & exhibiting textiles. Her first recollection of being involved in textiles was helping her Granma make a patchwork quilt using cereal packet hexagon templates.

During this time numerous craft magazines began to be publish her work and she contributed designs for many projects, mainly in needlepoint. This led on to having several craft books published.

Fast forward through many years of gaining qualifications, and then a move to Cornwall changed everything. This business was started about 10 years ago and she hasn’t looked back since!

Starting up her own business has always been a dream, so after giving up all teaching when moving house it provided the ideal opportunity. Initially creating screen printed cushions & other items, with one style of jacket as an experiment, but Sandra soon decided that her real interest lay in designing & making a range of well made, quality jackets and coats, in very wearable styles.

Since the start she has wanted to create items that were distinctive, 'a little different', and eye catching. It has always been important to her to wear clothes that she also felt good in , which she strives to achieve with all her coats & jackets.

Over the last few years Sanrda has spent time experimenting and adapting some of her decorative stitch techniques so that they have become unique. A number have now been commissioned for special occasions such as weddings.

The enthusiasm for creating her 'next make', combining all the elements of colour, texture, decoration, shape & style has definitely not waned after 10 years, with inspiration for these coming from so many diverse sources such as fashion archives, the natural environment but also glimpses of colours combinations, architectural features, exhibitions, paintings and so much more.

To find out more about Sandra Hardy and her amazing handmade designs visit her website at https://www.sandrahardy.co.uk

MTM SH 11