About Justine

Justine Robson
A message from our organizer, Justine…
 
From a very early age I was often seen with a crayon in my hand, I have coloured and drawn and created since I can remember. Throughout school I excelled in art and went on to do a degree in graphic design. I then studied further with interior design and of course I ended up working in finance?!?!
 
Everything came crashing down around 2015 when I had a breakdown, seemingly out of the blue, my body and my mind just gave up. It was the darkest year of my life, but without it, I wouldn’t have come back to what I love…… Being creative.
 
I started helping mum with her little Facebook business and it started to grow so much she needed to teach me how to crochet so I could help with orders and that as they say is how it all began. Our Facebook page now has around 10K followers which is amazing.

I now teach crochet weekly for a living and run 6 crochet retreat weekends a year. I also teach upcycling and beginners sewing as well as continuing my personal love of papercrafting and decorating. So all in all a very crafty lady!

A few years ago I was toying with the idea of organising a craft fair in my town of Worthing. Not a craft fair for finished items but the old craft fairs where you could go and buy stock, see the latest crafty gizmos and watch demonstrations. I hadn’t been to one in years and they were sadly missing in local cites. My brain still wasn’t really in the right head space but it mulled over in my mind.

Over these last few years we have also grown to love camping (sadly not on the floor in a tent) in our little mini Bedford Bambi “Dolly”. We pack up the dogs and head off sometimes just for the day, but to be able to make your own cuppa and a bacon sarnie does wonders for your soul. Dolly has been done up to use for the business, we’ll let you know when she is being launched.

So, our love of Dolly and my love of crafting got me thinking during lockdown. So many people got crafty, heck even Tom Daley learnt to knit and crochet! Now is the time to create that event I’ve been dreaming about. I talked to some of my friends and my sister and asked how they’d feel about a big crafty festival where you can try new crafts, take some little classes, have a go. Watch demonstrations, buy some stock, maybe buy some presents? Oooooh oooh and some vintage stalls, oh yeh and great food trucks with yummy food? Oh and we love all things vintage, what about some beautiful vintage cars to look at?

The ideas were just pouring out and they loved it! Then the icing on the cake, how about we let you camp and you can stay for the whole weekend and in the evening we can have campfires and crochet and laugh and meet other crafty folk!!
 
It was a hit! They loved it, so I just said OK, go big or go home and so we did! July 2022 was our first festival. It was a great success! Tiring but so much fun and now we’re making it a yearly event so come and join us.
 
Take care
 
Justine x