Hello!

My name is Rachel and I am the woman behind PepperPot Crafts.

I grew up in a creative home with a mum who loved to make. Over the years I saw her journey through sewing, embroidery and patchwork. Being creative was a part of family life.

Making space for creativity

I grew up, got older and set up my own life but things got serious. It was becoming an all work and no play situation. I realised that I needed to get a hobby. Something to enjoy in my free time that gave me more than just going to work and coming home. At that stage I got into art and painting. I did do Art A-level, but I am not a natural artist in the pure sense. It was enjoyable to get lost in the process of creating and painting. However I often wasn’t satisfied with the final piece. It didn’t necessarily look the way I had imagined and I didn’t have the time, knowledge or expertise to improve. So I painted for the enjoyment of the process and I found my attitude to work and life changed. I had something else going on.

Fast forward a few years to life as a mum to a toddler and a baby. Any ideas of spending my evenings painting for no purpose, or any chance of having a place to leave paints lying around, were long gone. I had drifted back into a hobby free life.

The first doll

Then one Christmas when I was given a doll making kit as a gift. I sat down in the evening and made a doll for my little girl. Although I hadn’t sewn anything for years but it was great – I loved the process of making that doll. A few days later I realised that I was still thinking about how much I had enjoyed making her. However I was starting to have ideas about how I would change the design. i had lots of ideas of how other dolls could be.

It took a while to take the step forward from thinking to doing. One day I went out and bought more sewing equipment, felt and toy stuffing and made another doll. This time my own design.

That first doll I designed and made myself has become the face of PepperPot Crafts. I really don’t like having my photo taken so she has become my avatar.

The another and another. Then I tried making others things – lots of random items from drinks coaster to knitted bracelets.

The creative bug had got me again and I was loving having that outlet. One day I went along to a local craft group and met lots of lovely people. They invited me to have a stall at their next craft fair at the local church. I made lots of products, designed a shop name and went for it. For the record I hardly sold anything that day. I realised though that I wanted to make and sell my wares.

What’s in a name

I have been asked a lot of times what the name PepperPot means. I don’t really have an answer. When I decided I wanted to make this a business I sat and wrote down lots of words and phrases I liked. PepperPot just stuck as a name I like. So PepperPot Crafts was born. Maybe all those Mrs Pepperpot books I read as a child made more of an impression than I realised!

My PepperPot Crafts journey

So over the past few years my PepperPot world has gradually evolved. It has been a slow process. PepperPot takes a back set whenever family, home or work need my attention. I have been down many dead ends and changed my style and plans many times over.

Here I am today. I have an Etsy store where I sell my handmade dolls and other items. (I’m afraid those knitted bracelets are a thing of the past now). I sell all around the world to all kinds of people. They find me through my store, through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or my PepperPot Crafts blog and I make custom order dolls in all shapes and sizes.

The PepperPot Crafts blog

My blog was a back of the to-do list thing for many, many years. Now Im focusing more on this side of my business. I will share updates of what I am doing with my PepperPot business, but I also love to find easy crafts – particularly those you can make with or for kids – and I want to share those with you too.

Now my home has that same creative environment for my kids to grow up in that I experienced as a child. I hope some of the ideas I share on here let you bring some creativity into your home too.

Get in touch

Its a funny old world being a blogger. Sometimes it feels a little bit like Im talking to myself. I really love it when people get in touch to tell me what they think of my products, to leave reviews for purchases or comment on my blog posts.

So come and say hi and lets be sociable. You can join me on social media, sign up to my emails or leave me a comment on the blog. I would love to hear from you.