Paul Wright – co- founder of the Ideal Shopping Direct and original founder of the Create and Craft TV channel – and partner Val Kaye have announced that they'll be launching a new style of TV shopping channel dedicated to the Home of Crafts, Hobbies and Art called Hochanda.

It will cover a more extensive range of crafts including pottery, woodwork, baking and dressmaking. Paul told us he has come out of semi-retirement to set up the business.

Julie Bonnar from spoke to Paul about the channel. "I've always been passionate about crafts, and this channel sets out to act as a 'how to' for the craft industry. Like me, generations have spent their youth watching Blue Peter get created with sticky backed plastic. The Craft industry is worth around £3.4 billion a year," he told us.

Hochanda aims to be an exciting place for crafters and those who want to craft to learn how to be creative. Paul and Kaye's vision is to make Hochanda the ultimate social networking channel for creatives. "I'm keen and willing to work with retailers and will be encouraging them to get in contact and get involved. At Hochanda we wants to set up a Click & Collect service and we see the independent retailer as a major part of this scheme. It will encourage crafters to go into local shops to collect their items and in turn help promote and give customers confidence to shop locally too."

Hochanda will start broadcasting live on Tuesday 1st September for around 10 hours a day (8am-6pm to be confirmed). To commence, it will be available to 16 millions UK viewers on Sky, Freeview and FreeSat.

The Hochanda website (www.hochanda.com) will be online soon where crafters can download previous shows, see products on air as well as join the community craft club.

Posted: 10 July 2015

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