Smudge Creations, the brightly coloured beautifully created brainchild of Amy, made its debut at the Spring Fierce Babe Market in March – and quickly established itself as a babe favourite.
In November 2020, freshly graduated from uni (ish), Amy found herself without a project or assignment to work towards and needed to keep her hands busy. Putting the time lockdown brought to good use, she began to experiment with jesmonite to make coasters made of terrazzo, and began to document the journey on Instagram.
Jesmonite is a composite material made of plaster, cement and a water-based resin. Terrazzo patterns – those kinda ‘speckled’ mosaic-type patterns you seen in coasters, plates, and even earrings - come in an unlimited amount of colour and design combinations and every piece is unique; which is no doubt what adds to its appeal. Even better, there’s no need for waste, as leftover offcut pieces of jesmonite can be added in to new items and recycled to create a stone-like finish.
Terrazzo items are seeing a resurgence in popularity as of late, but it’s by no means a new craft design. Over 500 years ago, Venetian workers in Italy would use marble fragments left over from large projects and place them in to clay mortar bases to use as finishes in their own homes. Archaeologists believe that terrazzo dates back considerably further, though: with evidence showing floors with terrazzo type designs of offcuts and fragments across Turkish ruins as far back as 10,000 years ago!
Anna’s crafty creations bring a modern feel to this ancient craft; with bold shapes, vivid colours, items a little more modern than terraces and flooring… and no need for you to stash offcuts from a job you’re working on for some wealthy Italian royal! Smudge Creations’ new collection launched on 24th April, and includes coasters, photo holders, pots, trinket dishes, ring holders, decorative pieces and soap dishes – in terrazzo patterns, marble effect designs and chunky flower shapes. Some stock is already down to just one left, so if you have your eye on something, you need to make that mind up pretty sharpish.
You can shop Smudge Creations on Etsy now, and hopefully Anna will be back at Fierce Babe market near you soon!
