Make Holt

As the new week starts and the day starts off slowly, I had a chance to have a good mooch myself. I am so proud to be selling such beautiful artwork and creations. I will try to make my way around all of them but for now here’s a few of the bits we have in the shop.

Thank you to all for the wonderful messages of support we have had in our first week.

Introducing our newest addition, .co
The candles are lovingly made by Zoe using natural soy wax and 100% pure essential oils prioritising purity and wellbeing.

Hand poured in re-usable stoneware vessels to reduce the impact of the tons of candle containers that end up in landfills every year.

A truly special collaboration between these two makers, I am sure you will agree.

Pop in to .holt to get yours today.

Have a wonderful day ☺️

Celebrating the bounty of Norfolk's coastline. Handmade work featuring fish and fowl. Chalky textured ceramics from Humbleyard, The Dugout Pottery and Tamlin Lundberg. Hand carved Lino fishy prints on nautical charts by Chris Taylor and screen printed lampshades and cushions by The Speculating Rook.

We're here all weekend from 10-4 open this Sunday for the wonderful
Enjoy the sunshine and see you soon!

Look at these super cups and pourers fresh from kiln last week. So vibrant, so joyful and available now. By using slightly thicker glazes than normal Carolyn has achieved even richer and deeper tones. The pistachio and rhubarb look *almost* edible, and don't even get us started on these glorious ocean blues.

We're here Monday to Saturday 10-4
See you soon

May Opening Hours ~
Monday - Saturday: 10:00 - 16:00
+ this Sunday 5th May

The Soodle Street Ethos ~

Yesterday we shared a short bio about one of our makers, the excellent Caitlín Law, AKA . Today we wanted to share a little more about how she goes about creating her original collages.

Core to the process is being as kind to the planet as possible in both process and the resulting product. Each illustration is hand-collaged from discarded paper that would otherwise be thrown away. Favourite materials include junk mail, advertising leaflets and old magazines.

Caitlín has a passion for encouraging the ideals of designing for durability as well as repurposing and recycling materials to keep products circulating – an ethos we value highly at the shop.

This idea of a ‘circular economy’ is intended to be regenerative and restorative for all – and is much better for the environment. Put simply it means that materials flow continuously around a 'closed loop' system instead of being used once and then discarded.

If you haven’t had a chance we’d love to welcome you to the shop today any time between 10:00-16:00 and we’ll be happy to point you in the direction of Soodle Street.

Soodle Street AKA Caitlín Law


Over the next couple of posts we wanted to share Caitlín’s work, talk a little about her ethos and approach to creating Soodle Street collage illustrations.

Originally from Hertfordshire, Caitlín now lives in Norwich. Since relocating to Norfolk she studied for a Masters in History of Art from the UEA and it was during her studies Soodle Street was born.

Inspired by man made city-scapes, the natural world and delightfully well observed still life, she painstakingly creates wholesome and playful esponses to her source materials with recycled paper.

Amongst many things we love about Caitlín’s work is the name Soodle Street. Today we learned its definition is almost as satisfying as the word! Soodle Definition: to walk in a slow or leisurely manner.

Image one:
Caitlín at Soodle HQ

Image two:
Selection of the ever popular Soodle Street collage illustration cards depicting iconic North Norfolk scenes.

We’re here tomorrow 10:00-16:00 if you would like to come have a soodle around Caitlín’s work in person. We have a range of prints as well as the cards featured in image two.

Ok, just one more Earthstone Ceramics post to form a little reminder of our opening hours this summer.

Each week we open Monday to Saturday, 10:00-16:00 + the first Sunday of every month for

See you all again soon, back Monday.

The perfect vessels.

Designed with the objective to bring handmade uniqueness into your home, enhance your decor and punctuate your meal times – these gorgeous stoneware beakers by Earthstone Ceramics do not disappoint.

We’re here tomorrow 10:00-16:00 if you would like to come and see our newest maker’s work.

New Maker: Jamie Walker AKA Earthstone Ceramics

It’s always so exciting to welcome a new makers’ work into to the shop. Especially when we then watch new and returning customers enjoy Jamie’s work for all the same reasons we wanted to stock it in the first place.

We first fell in love with the oh-so-tactile wabi-sabi style of Jamie’s collection, allowing the process of making and creating to happen freely – always trusting the outcome. Often embellished with etching, each piece literally feels entirely unique.

Whilst this isn’t the purest definition of wabi-sabi, the spontaneous energy Jamie’s work captures is often synonymous with more traditionally wabi-sabi.

If you’re new to the term, wabi-sabi is an ancient Japanese ethos. It is a concept that embraces the beauty of imperfection. It celebrates the authenticity and transience of objects, appreciating their natural flaws and simplicity.

Laura Fletcher: Shirehall Apartments

This time last year Aviva was knee deep in mood-board and commission mode curating each of the three Shirehall Apartments above the shop.

As you can see from the early sneak peaks [images 3 & 4] Laura Fletcher’s work was always featured as a key element of Indigo and Weld (plus Madder, although not photographed), featuring Remi and Southwold Geo.

In addition to these, some late changes to Weld’s layout meant that New Horizons cushions and throws would find a very natural home as the bedroom’s colourful centrepiece. [images 1 & 2]

If you’d like to read more about Laura’s work, or place an order online, head to the link in our bio.

Continuing our look at this week's featured maker, Laura Fletcher, we wanted to share a little more about her process from inspiration to finished design. The following is an excerpt from our most recent journal entry (link in bio).

Laura's Process ~
Each design begins with a careful study of source materials. It is in this process that Laura explores the delicate interplay of colour in order to translate the natural palette from her photography into woven textiles. What may seem like small changes and tweaks to each colour’s proportion of the design can drastically impact the outcome.

Image one.
"textured rocks & weathered colours inspire a muted palette of sea blues, grey, moss green and a touch of lilac in the sky."

Image two.
"Inspired by the colours of Cornish seas in Spring 2023"

Images three and four.
Remi, one of Laura's most popular designs, is inspired by the irregular textures of ageing tree bark in the English Countryside. Currently available as throws and cushions in Make Holt – 3 colour-ways: Duck-egg (pictured), muted mustard and moss green.

Hello, good morning, just a reminder of our new April opening hours: Monday (that’s today) to Saturday 10-4. It was so wonderful to see so many of you at the market yesterday – thanks again to all who came!

This week we’re focussing on a new featured maker: Laura Fletcher Textiles ()

Laura creates beautiful woven textile homewares, made in Suffolk on traditional silk looms steeped in history. We stock a selection of Laura’s work in store and online, as well as in the above the shop.

Image 1:
Left Top: Moss Green Remi Cushion
Left Middle: New Horizons
Left Bottom: Duck-egg Remi Throw
Right Top: Duck-egg Remi Throw
Middle Right: Panama Cushion
Middle Bottom: New Horizons Throw

Image 2:
Laura in New Horizons

We hope you all had a lovely Easter and great Bank Holiday weekend punctuated with excellent people and delicious food.

This week we’re gearing up to the first Holt Sunday Market of the year taking place on… You guessed it, Sunday! The town centre will be full of artisan makers, movers and shakers, so be sure to visit if you can.

In the meantime please enjoy Miss Bunny (who had Easter off this year), showing off her homegrown daffodils. These gorgeous little pots are available to buy whilst stocks last.

April Opening Hours ~
Monday - Saturday
10:00 - 16:00

+ next Sunday 7th April

This striking reduction-cut lino print is by this weeks featured maker, .

Reduction printing, a variation of lino-printing, creates unique prints as layers are progressively carved away and ink applied between each stage, resulting in one-of-a-kind artwork.

“A multi-layered reduction-cut lino print of a fresh mackerel, invoking memories of bay summer evenings on the North Norfolk coast with the calm waters ‘boiling’ with schools of mackerel hunting whitebait just feet from the shoreline. The fishermen cast into the melee with empty hooks baited with nothing more than feathers, seconds later straining with bending rods to reel in a writhing mass of silvery, fresh mackerel.”

Featured Maker:
It all began with a whale…

Since 2005 Chris has been a professional photographer and film-maker capturing a range of subjects including; luxury holiday rentals to wildlife, aerial landscapes and everything in between.

According to Chris, his creative career actually started many years prior back in 1994:

“I saw some stunning places on my travels and first ever paid photograph was taken in the Whitsundays in 1994 - a curious humpback whale came right alongside our boat 'spy-hopping'. When I took the film to get processed the lab asked if they could pay me to turn one of the shots into a postcard. The seed to become a professional photographer was sown.”

~The Birth of Norfolk Coast Art
So, what do you get when you combine a lifelong love affair with the sea, and a 20 year career working in the creative industry? You get some of the most beautifully contrived, impressively detailed and perfectly pitched lino-prints.

New to Make Holt:
AKA

Professional photographer, RNLI crewman, Shantyman, marine biologist, father, husband, committed sea-lover and now lino-print maker! Chris didn’t think he was quite busy enough… so in 2023 taught himself linocut printing.

Chris enjoys the therapeutic nature of carving the soft lino, experimenting with depth and colour creating images of salty scenes and marine animals he loves so much.

We’re absolutely loving having his work here in the shop.

Today we’re continuing with our featured maker: Wacky Women, which feels especially appropriate as its International Women’s Day.

— The Creative Process
When an idea, or ideas, enter Annemarie’s head she literally can’t put them down. By her own admission, she doesn’t have a stop button and her output is, at times, prolific.

Unlike many artists, Annemarie chooses not to reproduce any originals as prints, it helps each character retain their own precious personality imbibed when first created. The process of developing each person's unique character somehow feels more human this way, knowing there will only ever be one.

As Annemarie's exclusive stockist we absolutely adore meeting each of these wonderful faces when they first arrive in the shop. With an extremely dedicated following often our new friends don't hang around long as they swiftly find their forever homes.

Featured Maker: Wacky Women
AKA Annemarie ()

Life Before Wacky Women —
in conversation with Annemarie.

Outside of family life and a busy career, topped and tailed with early mornings and late nights, Annemarie could often be found on decoupage projects in her now studio. Chasing mindfulness? Inspiring escapism? Or just the sheer joy of cutting, collaging, arranging and sticking to create something greater than the sum of its parts. A creative spark was clearly present, but how did this light the fire that still burns ten years on?

— Wackywoman V1.0
Between the cutting and sticking on a cool October day in 2014, Annemarie felt compelled to start doodling at the kitchen table. Little did she know the outcome would be her very first Wacky Woman in oil pastel.

Quickly her solitary Wacky Woman, became Wacky Women then a whole Wacky World of small characters with huge personalities was born; all brought to life by Annemarie’s joyous imagination.

Featured Maker: Wacky Women
AKA Annemarie