Cocoa & Paper
Cocoa & Paper was founded by Elisa back in 2013, whilst she was studying at university; back then, it was known as ‘Treats for Chocoholics’ as the business was started solely for making chocolate.
Elisa made chocolate in her spare time and attended many craft fairs to sell her products.
In 2017, Elisa took over and now runs her own card and gift shop. She spotted a gap in the card market and wanted to offer her customers something personalised and different – that is when the idea of the scratch cards arose. They were mainly designed for surprises such as holidays, days out or theatre tickets, as in Elisa’s experience, she never had anything physical to actually give, so the scratch card was a fun way to announce a specific surprise and a special keepsake.
In January 2020. Elisa changed the business name to Cocoa & Paper to represent both of her products together. Then, as you will be aware, COVID happened, meaning her card & gift shop, classed as non essential, had to close for several months.
Elisa decided to focus her efforts into her chocolates, working from home and she has never looked back!
Elisa now has her own unit based in Wing, Leighton Buzzard where she goes everyday to make her chocolates (as, during COVID, she outgrew her home kitchen and spare room rather quickly). She specialises in hot chocolate spoons, bars and her best seller – the personalised slab!
Lilliput Home Designs
Louise is the founder and designer of Lilliput Home Designs.
Her background is in Art and Design, and she gained a degree in Photography, also working as a make-up artist in films and television. After becoming a mum, she was inspired to start her own business that kept her creative side alive and that worked around bringing up her children. Louise feels very fortunate that she now has the best of both worlds!
Louise founded Lilliput Home Designs to bring beautiful designs and great quality products to the heart of the home. She also loves baking and having two children, they all have loads of fun baking and creating dishes in their kitchen!
Products include 100% cotton oven gloves, tea towels, Aga/hob covers and adult and children’s aprons.
Mark Harding Blacksmith
Mark was trained at the Hereford College of Arts and he undertakes commissions both traditional and contemporary.
He can also be contacted for repairs, and restoration work.
Greet and Smile
Greet and Smile was born in 2021 and the name came to the team as they were thinking about how they like to approach things and the positivity that we can all share.
As a husband and wife team Greet and Smile love coffee, travel and being creative. They like to do some things differently and so design all their cards and gifts and laser-cut them themselves, too (usually from more sustainable poplar plywood).
Every now and again they get an idea for a different type of thing – like their wine labels, coasters, or hand painted lasting flowers – and so they make prototypes and see if they can make the ideas work. They try and make things that are useful, eco, meaningful and personal.
They hope to have fun with creating their designs for different occasions and turning them into the keepsake cards and gifts in which they specialise. Their inspirations come from observing the natural world around them and the encounters that they make as they travel and experience life.
Greet and Smile know the importance of family and relationships and sharing life together – the good and the difficult times – and they hope some of this makes it through to their cards and gifts. Standing alongside each other and showing consideration and encouragement can be simple ways of helping others through challenging times, and participating in the happy moments of life and making the most of them is good for the soul and helps create a more joyful approach to life and so they love “sharing big-hearted greetings for all occasions!”
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The Angelic Cake Company
The Angelic Cake Company can usually be found at Amersham Market on a Tuesday with cupcakes, brownies, loaf cakes and more!
At this event, there will be Christmas cakes and other cake related Christmas gifts too.
Great Bois Wood
Barry Philpott creates handmade wooden products including chopping, carving and cheese boards, doorstops and individual pieces, all sourced from timber in Great Bois Wood and chosen for the natural beauty of the wood.
Great Bois Wood is a privately owned 20-acre woodland within Chesham Bois, east of the Amersham Road adjoining the Woodland Trust, Parish Council meadow and Burial Ground.
The woodland, which has existed for several hundred years and is in part designated as ‘Ancient Woodland’, has a good variety of native trees and is rich in ancient woodland ground flora.
Situated on the edge of the Chilterns AONB it has also been designated as of ‘special wildlife intertest’, within Buckinghamshire. It is bordered by a public footpath and has several permissive footpaths through the wood.
There is evidence throughout the wood that it has been used over the centuries for many industries, including for the supply of timber, wood fuel and charcoal and for the extraction of clay, flint and chalk. The bridle path and hollow way, along the valley bottom, was the original drovers track between Amersham and Chesham.
Three Acorns
Three Acorns is run by Kelly, who got back into art and nature a few years ago after foolishly neglecting it for a while.
She started with just a couple of designs and now has a whole range of cards, artworks and prints. Kelly’s work is nature based with a bit of a fairy tale twist and is inspired by things she sees (or thinks she sees) whilst out wandering in the Chilterns.
Pinky The Weaver
Elaine is an independent dyer/weaver based in Hertfordshire.
She works with sustainable plant-based yarns that have been sourced from around the world. One of her favourite fibres to work with is Tencel, an award-winning Eco- friendly yarn made from wood pulp, which is a great alternative to silk.
Elaine dyes all her yarns using a technique where her warps are painted with dye; this is how she manages to get these beautiful colour transitions – she lives and breathes colour.
Most of her weaving drafts date back to the 16th/17th century. Some are defiantly older, but there is no written record. She loves to use bright modern colour with these old patterns, bringing them back to life.
Elaine has pink hair and has had it for a long time – this is why she is known as Pinky The Weaver. Her work can be found in local independent shops in and around Hertfordshire. Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire.
You can see work-in-progress on Instagram #pinkytheweaver
Holmsdale Wood
Chris has had an interest in trees and their timber from an early age. For the last twenty odd years his work and hobby has involved the use of wood and he’s still fascinated by its strength and beauty.
He likes sourcing timber that has natural interest and sometimes adding a variety of resins to hopefully make something that is interesting and unique. Chris also uses man made materials such as plywood and acrylic sheet.
Further to using a lathe, Chris makes all sorts of bird boxes, bird tables, bat roosts, &c. He also make slab/live edged tables all from local sources.
Ink and Paper Den
Stacey is an architect with a special interest in listed buildings.
In her downtime she creates whimsical illustrations for her Ink And Paper Den, inspired by the things she finds enchanting.
She makes handmade cards, prints and more. She has created woodland wedding packages, business illustrations and commissions for special occasions.
C P Summers Sculpture
Chris Summers is passionate about creating art based on whatever scrap metal comes his way.
Metal sculptures, lighting and small tables are just a few of the items he is inspired to make.
Two Spoons Tea
Two Spoons are a Chesham-based company named after the tools of the trade – their tasting spoons!
For the taste-buds behind Two Spoons, Giles & Mark, their time has involved tasting over one million cups between them. They choose teas they love using their many years’ expertise and want to inspire curiosity in this amazing product.
They’ve come up with an award winning range of teas that can be found all over the county. They will be bringing along caddies of their new, seasonal, spiced tea – it’s not called Winter Warmer for nothing! But it in the meantime, put the kettle on!
JG Resin
Jason and Gemma create resin products from their little home workshop in Chesham.
As a carpenter and perfectionist, Jason’s passion has always been to create his own products that are detailed and made to great quality.
They mix wood and resin to create the perfect combination of modern, artistic and rustic styles which work well as a statement piece in every home.
Puddingstone Distillery
Pitching camp on the boundary between classic and contemporary artisan gins, multi-award winning Campfire Gin is distilled by Hertfordshire’s Puddingstone Distillery.
Named Campfire because founders Ben and Kate have enjoyed their best gin and tonics outside and around campfires.
The multi-award winning Campfire Gin range consists of:
Campfire London Dry – refreshing juniper, sweet orange and rich golden berry.
Campfire Cask Aged – citrus and piney juniper meet vanilla, caramel and soft fruity bourbon notes.
Campfire Old Tom – fragrant and lightly spiced with a hint of roasted barley sweetness.
Campfire Navy Strength – dry, smooth and zesty with pleasing candied fruit notes.
Their Christmas PUD PUD Cherry Gin will also be available – a gin made using Christmas pudding ingredients and fresh cherries from Horwoods in Bucks! Re-launched this year in 70cl bottles.
Come and see them at the Craft Fair for Christmas gin gifts, bottles to take home and gin gift packs.
Lets Be Cats Jewellery
Chesham based Liz Turner is the face behind Lets Be Cats Jewellery and she loves to upcycle unusual materials into something new.
Book pages, maps, bicycle inner tubes, playing cards and more are refashioned into jewellery, accessories, cards and decorations. She also takes commissions for her map work – jewellery and Christmas ornaments.
This year she has held a number of workshops using upcycled paper and also new are her range of Story Tins which incorporate words cut from famous novels, matched with an original map featuring the story’s location.
She’s hoping to expand and develop both of these ideas in the coming year.
You can also find her work at Little Wren Collections in Great Missenden and online at Etsy.com and TheBritishCraftHouse.co.uk.
Made to Scale
Ali started making jewellery out of chainmaille many years ago, but rediscovered her love of it during the pandemic lockdowns.
Her bracelets, earrings, necklaces and other accessories use both traditional and modern chainmaille and scalemaille techniques to create one-of-a-kind pieces for both everyday wear and special occasions.
Create Your Happy
Liz and Laura established Create Your Happy from a desire to help people take time out to craft! They recognise the huge benefits from sitting down and ‘making’, and love to make crafting fun, achievable and accessible to all!
They have an ever-growing Craft Kit range for adults and children, with materials, full colour instructions and a link to a video guide, helping you learn the latest craft trends.
They also run public, private and corporate craft workshops in the local area, in which they help people enjoy nourishing, mindful, creative experiences.
Hooked On Leaves
Sarah from Hooked on Leaves is a natural dyer; she has always loved nature and crafting, so when she discovered botanical printing and natural dyeing in 2019 it seemed a perfect fit. It quickly became a passion!
Sarah uses plants, flowers and leaves to dye and print textiles. Creating clothes and accessories from natural fibres, combining the crafts she is passionate about, Sarah also likes to use upcycled fabric and clothing, giving new life to unwanted textiles so reducing waste.
Sarah can often be found gathering the leaves, flowers and plants in the Chilterns where she lives or from her own garden. The connection to nature and the excitement of unbundling a piece that has been eco-printed or dyeing a skein of yarn in a beautiful plant dye is what keeps her coming back for more!
Anidoodle
Kat is a local illustrator working on a range of cute and quirky gifts. These all include her fun cartoon style and range from adorable pin badges to humorous greetings cards, postcards and prints.
She has created her own comics including a family-friendly dinosaur adventure, Dinos and Dice Rolls, and is the illustrator on the more brooding series Tails of Mystery.
The Sock Sisters
The Sock Sisters are a pair of sisters who share an antique sock knitting machine.
They knit merino wool socks in beautiful subdued, rich colours. They also make “LongHotties” in alpaca wool, perfect for keeping warm and cosy.
New to their range are their “Dinkies” a small version of their long hot water bottle and their hand warmers all knitted on the sisters’ “cranky” sock knitting machine.
Polka Dots and Roses
Polka Dots and Roses is a small sewing business run from a garden workroom based in Stoke Mandeville.
Laura makes all her items from carefully chosen fabrics – items for your home and for those you love!
Items range from cushions to bunting, to hanging hearts.
You can also attend workshops where Laura will teach you and your children the skills you need to make your own project.
Julia Batten Glass
Working in her Chesham studio, Julia Batten creates bright, colourful and quirky fused glass pieces for the home and garden – all of which are certain to raise a smile!
Julia also runs very popular workshops throughout the year, which are suitable for beginners and improvers of all ages. Julia is constantly creating new pieces and is always happy to chat about her work – come and visit her at Chiltern Made and see what she’s been up to recently!
LJC Pottery
Pottery is a lovely hobby for Laura – she says it’s good therapy throwing clay about!
Laura loves experimenting with new glazes to see what can be achieved using different colours together. Her style is very varied as she likes to try out new ideas such as her little vases with houses on them.
Ellie's IPad Art
Based in Aylesbury, Ellie spends her spare time sketching quirky and characterful creatures, all on her iPad Pro.
Ellie will be back at The Elgiva this November with a range of cards, prints, gifts and more.
Looking for a unique Christmas gift? Ellie also does pet portraits!
Wildflower Botanicals
Anna believes magic is in the detail. From concept to execution, each product is carefully handmade for wellness and positivity with only best in class and ethically sourced ingredients.
In today’s fast-paced world, it is essential to prioritise self-care and create moments of mindfulness. Their aromatherapy collection is meticulously crafted using the finest natural ingredients, ensuring a luxurious and indulgent experience for their customers.
Each product is thoughtfully designed to promote relaxation, wellness, and a sense of balance in your daily life.
Notion Jewellery
Notion Jewellery is handmade woodland silver and gold jewellery, simple designs inspired by nature, woodland leaves, oak, beech, sycamore and acorns cast in recycled gold, eco silver, and silver clay with precious and semi-precious stones.
At the heart of Caroline’s jewellery making is a deep-rooted love for the natural world, inspired by the breathtaking Chiltern Woodlands surrounding her home in Hertfordshire.
Growing up in the countryside instilled in her a passion for nature, which now finds expression in her beautifully crafted woodland jewellery. All the pieces are created from trees and plants local to the Tring area and can be made in silver, 9ct or 18ct gold on request.
Caroline can also use your own sentimental heirloom metal to create new jewellery of your choice.
Wood Dudeism
The Wood Dude is also known as Stephen Madden.
Stephen is a self-taught woodworker who creates art from fallen timber gathered around the Amersham/Chesham area. He uses British-manufactured eco-friendly dyes and colours and finishes his work with natural food safe waxes. It is this simple ethos that helps him achieve the smallest carbon footprint he can.
Chiltern Bee
Chiltern Bee is a small, low intensity bee keeping venture, with hives located in the South Chilterns, mainly between Henley and Marlow (the Hambelden Valley).
Chiltern Bee was founded by a beekeeper who is a biochemist by training (worked Pharmaceutical R&D for over twenty years).
Only the local native bee species is kept, and the focus is beeswax rather than honey. Product development is centred on effective skincare, and all products are unique and formulated by the founder. All have been independently safety assessed, undergone stability testing and are registered with the UK cosmetic agency.
The products behave completely differently from “High Street” products.
Skin Balms are made with the purified honeycomb beeswax, sweet almond oil and coconut butter. These three ingredients create an intensively moisturising balm where the oil and butter moisturise the skin which is locked in by the beeswax forming an occlusive layer.
Lipbalms are made with beeswax, extra virgin organic olive oil and shea butter. They work the same way meaning that one application should be sufficient for an entire day.
Soaps are incredibly mild, yet are still true soaps in they are of a pH to kill bacteria and cleanse. This is due to the properties of beeswax and “superfatting” of the soap, making it gentle on the skin.
“Naked Bee” only have the bare minimum ingredients to produce an incredibly simple yet effective product. There are then generally three variants: Mandarin & Grapefruit, Lime and Lavender. These are created by adding cold pressed essential oils to the Naked Bee base.
In addition to cosmetics, Chiltern Bee also produce honey, candles, bath-bombs and beeswax based homeware products (chopping board conditioner, leather conditioner and furniture polish) as well as Beeswax Food Wraps.
Product sales support our local bee population!
Yvonne Makes
From making her own clothes as a teenager to designing and creating leather bags and accessories, Yvonne has developed a wide range of skills which she has put to great use in the development of a range of beautiful cork products. With sustainability and the rise of veganism in mind, cork is the perfect material, being sourced from the bark of a tree, Quercus Suber, the cork oak.
Following a random suggestion to try cork from a friend, Yvonne took up the challenge, imported printed cork fabric from Portugal, then designed and made bags, purses, pen cases and much more.
Find Yvonne on Facebook and Instagram at Yvonne Makes.
JHSGlass
Jenny Hoole makes modern, affordable fused glass for the home and glass with silver jewellery. Her inspiration comes from vibrant colours, textures and patterns which combine to make contemporary, bright glassware.
Living in the Chilterns influences the abstract, enamel painted panels and bowls, drawing from the local landscape and translating the ideas into abstract pieces.
Jenny is a member of the Buckinghamshire Craft Guild and The Contemporary Glass Society.
Chilton Ceramics
Caroline likes to make expressive animal sculptures which are then finished in underglaze and fired to stoneware. She is influenced by both domestic and wild creatures and tries to capture their individuality in her work.
She is delighted to be returning to Chiltern Made fair again this year!
Twee Preserves
Twee Preserves grows, makes and sells a range of homemade delicious preserves, local honey, pure beeswax candles and gifts.
All made with love in Hertfordshire.
Katie Sarah Makes
Katie designs and creates each of her greeting cards by hand using high quality textured papers and a miracle pair of scissors.
She also make framed art pieces in the same style and hand knit seasonal decorations.
Kiss My Hide
Silke Stahl has been working with leather for approximately 17 years making bags, purses, jewellery and belts.
She has also undertaken commissions and repairs, restoring much loved items.
Leather is a long lasting material which has been used for centuries and Silke uses different types of leather depending on the product.
She uses both hand sewing techniques as well as machine sewing.
Silke lives in Chesham, but work can be further afield.
