Craft Festival Bovey Tracey 2026

Well. What a weekend.

I've been trying to write this for weeks and kept putting it off, mostly because I wasn't quite sure how to say "my earrings were on a massive banner" without sounding like I'd lost the plot entirely. But here we are ✨️

The posters

Back in the spring I found out that my acanthus scroll earrings had been chosen for the Craft Festival promotional material, and honestly I don't think it properly sank in until I actually got there.

They were on the banners. Enormous ones, all around Bovey Tracey. They were on the flyers, and the invitations, and there was a full page of them in Devon Life magazine. I kept catching sight of them out of the corner of my eye and having a little moment about it.

Several people came up to my stand over the weekend and said "oh, you're the famous one on the poster!" which is a sentence I never expected anyone to say to me. I'm not blushing. Definitely not blushing, haha.

A massive poster in Bovey Tracey featuring my earrings

Getting there (a genuine achievement in itself)

Before any of that though, there was the drive.

Three hours, on my own. Anyone who knows me knows I am not the most confident driver in the world, and I'd been quietly dreading it for weeks. But I did it — the whole way there and the whole way back — and I'm counting that as the first proper achievement of the weekend.

Setting up

I arrived, got the stand set up, and then did the thing I always do at shows, which is have a sneaky wander round everyone else's stalls before the doors open.

It was extraordinary. The level of craftsmanship across that festival is genuinely staggering, and there's something quite grounding about standing in a field surrounded by hundreds of people who have all decided to spend their lives making things by hand. I came away with about forty new ideas and a very long list of makers to follow.

My stand all set up for the weekend! :)

It's basically a craft music festival

I don't think people always realise quite how much else is going on at Bovey Tracey.

There's live music all weekend, and the food is genuinely delicious — I ate extremely well, which is not something you can say about most trade shows. Between the music and the food and the sheer number of people milling about in the sunshine, it has far more of a festival feeling than a fair.

All of which is down to Sarah James, who puts on the most wonderful, inclusive and vibrant festival. It's a genuinely special thing to be part of.

There's also a brilliant programme of talks and events running alongside the stands, from organisations like Find a Maker and Heritage Crafts. Worth building time into your day for those if you're visiting — I always come away having learned something, and it's a lovely reminder of how much work goes into keeping these skills alive.

The Byre Gallery Showcase Award

And then on the first morning, something completely unexpected happened.

Elaine from The Byre Gallery came to the stand and bought a pair of my lifted earrings — she was so excited about wearing them to the races, which I loved. Off she went, and I got on with the day.

An hour later she came back. And presented me with The Byre Gallery Showcase Award(@thebyregallery).

I was absolutely over the moon. There was a rainbow rosette and everything, which is now sitting in pride of place in my studio and will be staying there indefinitely, thank you very much 🏆

Me awkwardly posing next to my award!

My stand buddies

I was so lucky with who I ended up next to. Jodie Crook Giles(@jodiecrookgiles, ceramics) and Clover Robin(@clover_robin, illustration) made the whole weekend, and if you don't already follow their work please do go and have a look — it's beautiful, and they're both lovely.

There is something about doing a long show that means you get to know your neighbours very quickly. By day three we were watching each other's stands, fetching each other coffees, and having the kind of honest conversations about making a living from craft that you only really have with people who understand it.

Swaps

The best bit of any craft fair, obviously.

I came home with a posy ring from Jodie (@jodiecrookgiles), which is absolutely beautiful and hasn't left my finger since, and a gorgeous butter dish as well. I also swapped a ring for a beautiful bag from Bracken & Sole(@brackenandsole).

I do love a swap. There's something rather lovely about a piece of your work going off to live with another maker.

Saying goodbye to the Pathless Forest necklace

This one was bittersweet.

I sold the Pathless Forest necklace, one of my absolute favourites from my MA collection and one of the most personal pieces I've made. It went to someone who really understood it, which is all you can ask for — but I did have a little moment after it left the stand.

It's a strange thing, letting go of a piece like that. Wonderful and a bit sad all at once. Mostly though it's made me want to get back to the bench and make something new in its place, so I'm taking that as a good sign 🖤

A couple of very star-struck moments

If you follow jewellery teaching online at all you'll know Andrew Berry(@at_the_bench_uk) — and he came to my stand. With his wife, who very kindly bought a pair of the acanthus scroll earrings.

I stood there trying to look normal while he examined my work rather closely, which was a slightly terrifying few minutes. He said some very nice things, and I'm choosing to believe he meant them.

I also bumped into the one and only gold polishing guru(@goldpolisher), which is always a treat. It's such a pleasure to chat to an industry veteran — you always come away having learned something you didn't know you needed to know.

Thank you

First and most importantly — an enormous thank you to my helpers, Maddy Barnett and Viki Benwell. I am fairly certain I would have had a major meltdown at some point over that weekend without them, and they gave up their time with such incredible generosity. Thank you both, properly. I couldn't have done it without you 🖤

Genuinely, thank you to everyone who came by. To everyone who stopped to chat about the work, who asked how the pieces are made, who bought something, and who just said hello.

The conversations are the bit I love most about doing shows. I'm lucky that I get to talk to people all the time in the studio, but there's something different about a weekend where everybody has come specifically to look at craft. People arrive curious. They want to know how a piece was made, what they mean, where the ideas come from — and getting to talk about all of that, all weekend, with people who genuinely want to hear it, is such a treat.

So I packed up, drove the three hours home in one piece, arrived slightly lighter in jewellery and with an extremely full heart.

Hopefully see you next year ✨️