Sarah Walters meets the designing duo whose Manchester craft fair is now big business.

Four years ago, Didsbury mums Ann-Marie Franey and Angela Mann had a crazy idea.

After more than 20 years of travelling to London to the capital's biggest craft fair, Origin in Old Spitalfields Market, Ann-Marie decided it was time to turn her interest in craft into a business.

Formerly a TV producer at Granada, Ann-Marie talked long-term pal and former nurse Angela into the idea and, two years later, they launched the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair at Manchester Grammar School.

Around 3,500 people attended; among them was a scout from the newly developed Spinningfields area of Manchester, who quickly offered them a sponsorship deal to bring the four-day craft fair into the city centre in a huge marquee.

Now about to open for its fourth year, the GNCCF attracts around 7,000 visitors. Its growth has been far more swift than Ann-Marie ever anticipated, even though she knew there was a market out there for makers and appreciators of contemporary craft.

“I came back from Origin and thought, 'Why is there nothing of that standard in the north?',” says Ann-Marie, who grew up making craft with her mum.

“There clearly was a gap in the market; the north west is a particularly busy place for craft. But a lot of craft fairs up here are very amateur and poor quality, but the big show in London has exceptionally good work by top makers.

“Our plan was to have a fair full of good quality craft for the north of England that helped northern makers everywhere from Derby into the Highlands of Scotland. We knew a lot of them couldn't afford to do the shows in London because of the additional expenses of travel and accommodation, so they were often excluded from the shows purely because they didn't make enough money.”

GNCCF now operates as a Not For Profit business and gets around a quarter of its funding from the Arts Council. Times are tough at the moment; not only has funding become harder to come by, but buyers are also having to keep a tighter hold on their spending.

Ann-Marie and Angela, though, are buoyed by the continued support of Spinningfields and by the numbers coming through the door. This year, almost 130 makers are represented at the fair; it's a little smaller than last year because, for the first time, it's going indoors to Quay House, on the corner of Quay Street and Byron Street.

Which means the GNCCF panel of experts has had to be even more selective. A set of experts, curators and craftspeople, the panel looks for uniqueness and a quality finish – but they also need to satisfy a broad range of buyers with affordable and bespoke pieces.

Jewellery, textiles, ceramics, glasswork and woodwork are represented in the show. It's a balance that, last month, scooped the show the Small Tourism Event Of The Year title at the Manchester Tourism Awards.

Which is more than Ann-Marie and Angela – who met 11 years ago at an antenatal session at Withington swimming baths – ever imagined would happen. But in these difficult financial times, it's just what the show needs.

“The recession has affected us big style,” says Ann-Marie. “A lot of makers are taking time out to develop their work rather than making stuff.

“Sales are down and makers think they can't afford to do the shows, which is a bit short sighted because you have to speculate to accumulate.

“Everything we sell is a luxurious, frivolous item at the end of the day – you can buy a cheap mug from Ikea for £2, so why spend £20 on one with us?

“For me, I do it because the provenance is very important, knowing I'm benefiting someone very talented and skilled advance their career is very important, and people do still like to be surrounded by beautiful things.”

The Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair opens on Friday (10am-6pm) and runs until Sunday (until 5pm). £10 weekend/£8 concs, or £6 daily/£5 concs, under-16s go free with paying adult. Tickets for the preview night on Thursday (6pm-9pm) can also be purchased on the door on the night, £10 (includes glass of wine). A full list of makers and ticket information can be found at greatnorthernevents.co.uk.

Andrea Lord, founder of &made, based in Manchester Craft & Design Centre, city centre.

At the best of times, I am a novice with a needle and thread. And yet, here I am, an hour after meeting &made founder Andrea Lord, with a rich-looking Christmas pudding pin cushion to take home and a fistful of new skills.

 Under her expert guidance, making it seems like a fairly simple challenge – done leisurely as we chat. And it also proves Andrea's reassuring encouragement is not ill placed; craft is not a mystery that can only be enjoyed by the few.

 To further the understanding of traditional and handmade crafts, Andrea regularly leads practical workshops, such as the Crafternoon Tea sessions at The Whitworth Art Gallery, to demystify the skills.

 And you can see why people would want to learn from her. Lining the shelves in her bijou shop at Manchester Craft & Design Centre, in the bohemian Northern Quarter, are rows of potted cacti pin cushions, exquisitely embellished home furnishings, dainty keyrings and chic purses.

 Like all the Craft Centre stallholders, she sits making new stock in her studio shop all day. But not very long ago, she was spending her time sewing up shirts for Postman Pat as an animator for children's television.

 After graduating from Manchester Polytechnic (now Manchester Metropolitan University) with a degree in graphic design and illustration, Andrea joined her pals Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall at their new TV production company – the now world famous Cosgrove Hall, in Chorlton.

 There, she worked on several unforgettable kids favourites, including Chorlton & The Wheelies, Cockleshell Bay and Wind In The Willows. More recently, she worked on Postman Pat and Rupert Bear.

 She started &made two years ago after Cosgrove Hall was absorbed into ITV, closing the Chorlton studios and making most of its staff redundant. And though she says life as a maker and designer is a 24/7 job, she loves being her own boss and talking with the customers who buy her work.

 “When I was first approached by the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair to take a stand, I said, 'Oh no, I'm not good enough for that!',” laughs Andrea, who lives in Hebden Bridge.
 “I went along to the second fair as a customer and thought it was fantastic. It's just this huge marquee full of wonderful creative, talented people and I thought, 'I have to work now to see if I can be this good'.

 “The fair gets your work in front of new people, other retailers, other makers, and a whole different customer base. Doing it for the first time last year, I started to see my business all coming together.

 “It's the biggest show I've done, and now I've done it once I'm looking forward to this year with less trepidation!”

and-made.com
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Catherine Chester, jeweller, based in AWOL Studios, Ancoats

Another studio and a whole new set of skills – this time, Catherine Chester has let me loose with a welding torch. And as I watch her pop the butterfly back on the silver earring I've just made, I must confess to a little proud grin.

 A graduate in 3D design from Manchester Metropolitan University, Catherine is exhibiting at the GNCCF for the first time. She's also newly graduated, having completed an additional year long business development course in June as a bolt-on to her degree.

 She considered studying psychology, and that now feeds into her jewellery. She also ran a market stall when she was a teenager importing and selling unusual jewellery, which taught her a lot about how people interact with special pieces.

 “People were always so interested in what I'd got, asking how I made it, but of course I hadn't made it – I had to tell them it was from Peru or Africa,” Catherine remembers.

 “People were so excited by the process that I thought, 'I've got to get into this'. I always imagined I'd go to university to do psychology, and I wrote my dissertation about psychology and the human desire for the body and how jewellery affects and is affected by that.”

 Her pieces, which retail from about £50, are handmade in silver and gold and often feature cameo settings – many using archive images of 19th century nudes. And she anticipates a good response at the fair, at which she has previously volunteered as a helper and guide.

 “The co-ordinators sent out details of how much was being spent, on what and who was spending to help people identify if this was the right show for them and their product,” Catherine explains.

 “With my jewellery having an erotic theme, I do have to spend a lot of time researching which shows I should do. Without that coordinator's report, I don't think I'd have signed up for this.”
 Catherine, too, has started taking part in workshop sessions at the Manchester Craft & Design Centre. “At the end of the workshop, they go away with skills but also with names of specialists for materials, plus books they can get and utilise as their passion grows.” says Catherine.

 “A lot of my customers already have knowledge of craft and the craft process. People who are interested in buying craft also have to have an appreciation for the work behind it.

 “Those workshops give Manchester's creative communities a really great spirit of cohesiveness. You'll never have a problem sourcing suppliers or makers in Manchester.”

catherinechester.co.uk
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Charlotte Verity, jeweller specialising in glass work/lampwork, based at her home studio in Eccles.

In a galley-style home studio at the back of her house in Eccles, Charlotte Verity is talking me through her machinery.

 Among other things in this studio, she makes etching plates, creates silver jewellery, blows glass to create beads and even does delicate enamel work. Every skill requires a different type of machine and a different set of complex skills.

 Today, though, we've working with fire and molten glass. It's a combination of tools that excites and terrifies me, but after one lesson I'm sitting in goggles creating my own unique glass bead - using three different colours of glass.

 It is the most testing challenge of the day – and also the one I fear getting wrong the most – but Charlotte, like all the other makers I meet, loves being given the opportunity to show people how.

 She has also recently joined the Craft Centre's practical workshops and enjoys talking to customers about the processes she uses to further their understanding of the skills and time invested in each piece of jewellery.

 Charlotte is exhibiting at the GNCCF for the third time and says it's a natural extension of the work the Craft Centre does all year round, as well an an opportunity to see new and unique work from some of the best contemporary craftmakers working nationwide.

 “A lot of people that use the Great Northern haven't even heard of the Craft Centre,” she says. “They might not even be looking for craft; they come for a day out and discover what's available.

 “People come as a family, they come to shop or to find unique gifts for people – and then they realise there's so many disciplines of craft out there.

 “The Craft Centre is very full and there's always a waiting list for studios, but it's the only place you can buy contemporary craft in Manchester. Until the Great Northern came along four years ago, we didn't have a craft fair, and that's really surprising in a city like this.”

 Charlotte, who studied in Blackpool before coming to Manchester to do a 3D design degree, said her love for handmade gifts developed when she was a teenager. She started making cards for friends and family, but didn't imagine it would ever become her career.

 “I was always told how difficult jewellery making was to get into and how I should have a back up plan,” says Charlotte, whose pieces retail from about £25 to £1,300.

 “I studied maths, physics, chemistry and art and design A-levels. But now I use those subjects when I'm making my jewellery, to work out how to create my settings or how materials will work together.”

charlotteverity.com

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