FuzzypegFolk is OPEN!

Katharine Ricks
Apr 29
4 min read

Updated: 6 days ago

The last few weeks before FuzzypegFolk opened it's door on Wednesday April 16th were pretty frantic. Despite my endless lists of lists and working long hours every day it didn't seem like I was ever going to get it all together ready for opening day.

Most importantly we needed to complete the exterior and hang up the 2 signs outside. First to be hung was the wonderful FuzzypegFolk sign made and painted by my friend and artist Mark Copeland. He used the curved back of an old sideboard to create the fairground shape and then painted it in my font and colours. It was quite a faff to hang due to the curve of the bay window but after some head-scratching and plenty of bracket shenanigans Mark and Will (my partner) managed to fix it safely and perfectly.

Meanwhile the old Fuzzypeg sign, that had hung outside my Mum's shop all those years ago, was waiting in the wings to be hung just before opening. Will, who is a boat builder so knows about wood, had spent hours and hours carefully restoring it and touching up the paint and varnish so that Fuzzypeg looked almost new again. I wanted him to have a grand entrance so waited until the evening before to hang it up so as to surprise everyone the next day. Here he is flying high again.

Thanks to Brexit some of my European orders had been delayed at customs and so delivered at the last minute meaning stock was still flooding in right up to the last few days before opening. Our spare room looked like a cardboard recycling plant!

I was having kittens worrying that I wouldn't be able to fit it all in what now seemed like a rather teeny shop! I'd been gathering various enamel bowls and wooden boxes and hook boards to display things in and of course had all the furniture I'd been painting but it was still a worry until I could get it all out into the shop. Somehow after a lot of fiddling and faffing it was alright on the night as somehow I managed to stuff everything in and the cluttered look worked really well creating a mad chaos of colour just as I had envisaged.

Of course there were some last-minute ideas I just had to put in place. Like finding a picnic basket to display all the enamel mugs and plates. And lining the back of the red dresser with fabric. Thank god I had help with that from my dear friend Bob Ringwood. Being a costume designer he meticulously and painstakingly created the padded, fabric covered panels after persuading me to sweet-talk a carpenter working outside into trimming the plywood panels to size.

Lovely Bob slicing up the fabric with his fancy scissors

Finally the shop was all ready to show the world. Well...Bungay at least! Here's a panorama of the complete shop in all it's colourful glory taken the day before opening.

The evening before the opening I had a fantastic Private View party for local and faraway friends and family. Thank god the sun shone as the forecast had been very iffy for a week and I had no idea how I was going to fit 60 plus people in the shop if it rained!

I'm so lucky to have some lovely, and very talented friends who kindly provided the entertainment. Pete and Vicky are brilliant folk musicians and played folk music on guitar and recorder outside providing the perfect atmosphere. Meanwhile my crazy, Portuguese friend, the inimitable Dulce Duca, juggled with various objects and gave a great show by balancing one of the (pretty heavy) outdoor chairs on her chin. I was pretty relaxed by this as have seen her do the same with her husband's double bass. Incredible!

Pete & Vicky playing Eastern European folk with Duca and her pins

Duca was also the MC for the evening and had made me write a speech which I somehow rambled my way through, thanking the world and his wife, with cars (thankfully) mostly drowning me out. I then smashed a (sugar glass) champagne bottle against the door and flowers flew everywhere as we opened the door to everyone for the first time. It was a magical moment!

It was so busy and I couldn't believe that people were actually buying things! Since then it has continued to be pretty busy and I've met some lovely and interesting people over the past 2 (?!) weeks.

Here are some final pics of the completed shop

Centre table with enamel bowls full of bits and pieces

THE dresser and a stack of colourful crochet cushions made by my friends Helen and Ysabel

Mark Copeland's incredible theatrical surround transforming a dreary barred, bank window. My kids' old rocking horse got a -- Dala- esque makeover from me

My wall of treasures - inspired by a print tray

An array of folk art cards and my beautiful pom-pom curtain

Little did I know when I was a bored teenager working in my mum's shop, the original Fuzzypeg in Woodbridge, that one day, 45 years later, I would have my own Fuzzypeg...