Monday 31 March 2014

Creativa 2014. Part two.

The Creativa fair also had special sections dedicated to beads, garden goodness, teddies and dolls. These events took up less space, but were very popular as well.
The garden part of the fair, LandGarten, consisted mainly of plant related home decor, handmade food, and of course, the Dutch flower bulbs.

Creativa 2014: LandGarten


Both beads and handmade jewellery could be admired at the PerlenExpo. Bead shopping was probably one of the favourite activities of the fair visitors. This was truly an amazing chance to see (and touch!) so many bead and gem strands, as one usually has to rely only on the web shop pictures.

Creativa 2014: PerlenExpo

Creativa 2014: Orubis Jewellery


Dolls and teddies on display seemed to be more of the kind that were intended for adult collectors. There were only a few stands with miniatures; had really been hoping to see more of them. Must probably visit a special miniature event for that.

Creativa 2014: Puppen- und Bärenmarkt


Last but not least, Kenya as the guest country of the fair this year was represented by an exhibition of Kenyan textiles, so colourful, sunny, and exotic.

Creativa 2014: Kenyan textiles


Went back to the fair on Sunday morning, only one thing in mind: shopping. Of course, I couldn't find everything I had set my eyes on the previous day (for instance, a sewing themed coffee mug I had already taken into daily use in my mind). Nevertheless, my bag was certainly many times heavier when coming back.
This photo shows all the lovely things I managed to bring home. They just look to good to store away, let alone open, cut, use... Some items were gifts from the goodie bag given to bloggers, which was a very nice surprise.

Creativa 2014


My special thanks and best wishes to BeadsPerlen, BurdaStyle, Christa-Bänder, Creative Beads, DuftHolz, Farbenmix, Feestje-Enzo, Kimya, Rayher Hobby, Van Rooyen Hobby, VBS Hobby Versand, Villa Landleben, Zwanette's Sprookjes Atelier, as well as the Creativa team.

Thursday 27 March 2014

Creativa 2014. Part one.

Have you ever dreamt about being in a place, where you could browse beautiful creative supplies on endless counters, instead of visiting just that one local store or going through several online shops to find the right things? I certainly would have, if I'd known such place existed. But I found myself being there last weekend – at the Creativa fair in Dortmund, a real crafters' paradise.

Creativa 2014: Villa Landleben

Didn't quite know what to expect beforehand: handmade products or supplies to make them. Turned out, both were abundantly represented, perhaps with a greater emphasis on the latter. It is an impossible task to list all the things on display, the word everything covers it most accurately. Or all from wool and fabric to paper and wood and the rest that falls in between. And beads, and tools, and paints, and...
Plus all those lovely products made of these materials.

Creativa 2014


Even just walking through the six vast exhibition halls was an accomplishment in itself. Almost certainly visited all of them. Trying to see everything (about 700 stands) and remember where you'd already been usually proved to be a hopeless attempt. As soon as you start admiring a pretty booth, all sense of direction is lost.

Creativa 2014: QuiltersCorner

There are probably two possible strategies to tackle such events.
One could be a super organised visitor equipped with a layout plan, marking down the aisles gone through and taking notes.
The other, and much easier way, is to just go with the flow. And from about noon onwards on Saturday and Sunday, there wasn't much else to do. No wonder, as altogether 85.000 people visited this Europe's largest creative design fair during five days. It's actually very heartwarming to see more and more people get infected with the craft virus.

Creativa 2014: Scrapbooking supplies


In addition to passive looking and active shopping opportunities, many workshops took place where visitors were able to try new and old craft techniques: sewing, knitting, scrapbooking, beading, making bobbin lace, spinning wool, to name only a few.

Creativa 2014: Workshop


The catwalk events added excitement and fashion show feeling. Here the Sabrina knitting magazine is presenting the playful designs from their latest issue.

Creativa 2014: Sabrina knitwear show


I couldn't possibly exclude yarn, so here is a colourful sock wool picture.

Creativa 2014: Sock wool


The story will continue in the next post.