Craft Focus - December 2020/January 2021 (Issue 82)

The Craft Focus ULTIMATE GUIDE Our pick of the company’s who will be bigger and even better in 2021!  1 HERITAGE CRAFTS Heritage Crafts is a world leader in counted cross stitch design. The company works with talented artists, including John Clayton, Peter Underhill, Karen Carter and Valerie Pfeiffer to produce highly detailed cross stitch designs which are a joy to stitch. Look out for more designs throughout 2021 including Tree of Life (KCTF1582), featured. www.hcrafts.com 2 CORINNE LAPIERRE Former French Fashion designer Corinne Lapierre created her own brand of felt sewing and embroidery kits for adults in 2010. Since then the company has been going from strength to strength and is now selling to shops, museums, and department stores all over the UK, France, Japan, the US, Australia, and New Zealand. Award-winning craft designer, Corinne has also published four books with Search Press and makes regular TV appearances on Create and Craft TV. Based in Yorkshire, the company produces everything in the UK, working with sustainable, recyclable materials as much as possible. 2021 is set to be a great year with plans to launch a new range of textile products. https://www.corinnelapierre.com/ 4 HAWTHORN HANDMADE Owner and kit designer Stephanie Carswell has been crafting and drawing since she can remember and spent her childhood with a pencil in hand doodling on anything and everything. After a brief spell in hospitality and event management, she was re-introduced to contemporary craft whilst working at a local craft centre and in 2010 branched out on her own to open her very own gallery and workshop space in north Dorset called Hawthorn. It was there that she taught herself how to needle felt on the quiet days (of which there were many!). This quickly progressed to selling her finished wool sculptures around the country at shows and exhibitions as well as teaching hundreds of keen stabbers how to magically turn fluffy wool into beautiful creatures and decorations. Her original needle felting kits evolved from these workshops, and in May 2013 after months of development, Hawthorn Handmade was born. Year after year we continue to see the company go from strength to strength. The company’s best- selling Pop-Up Loom from 2016, weaving has seen an incredible growth in popularity and to mark that, Hawthorn Handmade is excited to release this brand new collection of complete weaving kits - in stand-out new packaging! We look forward to hearing what else the year ahead holds for the forward- thinking company. 3 ZWEIGART Zweigart has more than 140 years of passion and experience in the production of the best needlework fabrics available – all of them 100 per cent made in Germany. The company offers a range of needlework fabrics suitable for all kinds of embroidery techniques. It’s a first choice for world-famous designers and premium needlework kit producers and the brand enjoys great recognition around the globe. Zweigart uses nothing but the best raw materials in its full-fledged production facility located in southern Germany. Quality and choice are key aspects making Zweigart a market leader and benchmark in the industry. www.zweigart.de 39 CRAFT FOCUS ULTIMATE GUIDE