The 'Us' in this case are Chris and Frank Carrick
We have been working
together for the last 20+ years and married for most of them.
It all began with Chris making jewellery as a hobby.
Then things started to get out of hand.....
We started to sell
Chris' jewellery at craft fairs.
One day she got talking to another 'craftworker' and we ended
up buying his ornament business.
That involved, renting a workshop, hiring staff and a lot of paperwork.
The jewellery sort of got left behind.
After five years
it was time to get a hobby (getting a life was out of the question).
In one of those happy accidents, Chris learnt to paint with an
iron.
A technique called 'encaustic painting'.
For someone who insists that they 'can't draw', the results are
pretty impressive.
One thing led to another and Chris now makes the wax, paints with it , photographs the images used, fights with Photoshop to put paintings and photos together, organizes the printing and finishs them off in various ways from straight, mounted prints to - glassware, candles, key rings, magnetic address books, magnetic bookmarks, quartz crystals, tobacco tins, you name it, she'll try it.
Most of the selling
was done through exhibitions, renting stand space in shopping
centres and shows like the Ideal Homes Show at Earls Court and
Glastonbury Music Festival.
We both saw a lot of motorways.
Then in 2002, Frank
(trying to be nice) bought Chris broadband for Christmas and she
discovered eBay......
Frank got left making the ornaments and chess sets, he didn't
get much help or hindrance in the workshop, those days.
It didn't take long to discover that doing shows and selling on
eBay didn't go together.
eBay takes up a lot more time than you expect, but after several
cool, wet shows (think Glastonbury in the mud) eBay won and the
shows were left behind.
Chris likes auctions,
online and off
She bought a lot of ribbon at one, when a wholeseller closed,
hence the ribbon'n'stuff website
Shortly after that she got the chance to buy the stock from a
wool shop, she took that too.
Nowadays Frank's
workshop is a ribbon and wool store. He's got a post room instead
and before you feel sorry for him, he's got tv and hi-fi stuff
in there as well as bags and boxes.
The staff have long gone, reducing the mountain of paperwork and
associated headaches.
And somehow or other Chris is getting the tax man to subsidize
all her "hobbies", auctions (online and off), painting,
photography, computers and even the jewellery is getting a look
in again.
Chris recently started
cutting wooden jigsaw puzzles. She tries not to make them too
easy. So far we don't have a web site for those. They take a long
time to cut and don't hang around long after they're finished,
This
is where you'll find things
(Everything opens in a new
window)
Almost Abstract - Encaustic Painting
ie painting with an iron
This is Chris' artwork,
her original encaustic paintings, the wax materials, instructions
on how to use them, her photographs and her prints in all their
guises - magnetic bookmark, magnetic address books, tobacco tins
and keyrings as well as the more traditional sort you frame and
hang on a wall
Ribbon'n'Stuff
Single sided satin ribbon...
the... er... 'stuff' part isn't there yet
Knitting
Stuff
This is exactly what it
says - stuff to do with knitting
Carrick's
Characters
- Chess Sets
Ornamental chess sets for
play and display.
Not what you'd call over stocked, but what we have are excellent
eBay Shop
Where you can bid on our
eBay Auctions or buy from out eBay Shop
If you haven't delt with us before, you can check our 'eBay feedback'and
see what people who have delt with us think
Contact
You'll find our contact
details on the botton of all the main pages. That's our address,
phone number and an email link