An innovative Midlands artist offering customers a ‘home-made’ Christmas has been making the most of the opportunity given to her when she won a rent-free Shop at Birmingham’s The Square Shopping Centre.

Craftsperson Cassandra Jovic from Moseley says the credit crunch, and shoppers’ desire to give something truly unique this year has given her business, Crunched Gifts, a huge boost.

She was given the chance to cash in on the festive period after winning a competition earlier in the year, run by the Square shopping centre, to run a pop-up shop in the city centre location, rent-free until Christmas.

Cassandra and jeweller, Will Cutler, from Yoxall in Staffordshire, who runs F7 Jewellery,  won over judges with their vision, passion and commitment, and have been sharing a unit in The Square since November.

The 26-year-old gave up a job with the City Council to pursue a more creative career, and believes the current climate is just right for crafts to make a serious comeback, as her success with the pop-up shop has proven.

“With Christmas coming, everyone’s feeling "crunched" and buying presents with little money is harder than ever,” she said.

“People have really been going for the idea of making their own gifts, and our craft packs have been really popular,” she said.

“As well as helping save money, giving a hand-made present is also extra special because love has gone into its creation, and as many of my items are recycled or vintage, they are much more environmentally-friendly too.”

Cassandra stocks a weird and wonderful range of goods, including knitted scarves and beanie hats, vintage cake stands, baking biscuits, customisable handbags and tea pot lamps.

The self-taught artist also runs workshops, to help show people how enjoyable and practical craft-making is, from knitting to card-making and paper crafts, and is writing a blog about the whole experience.

“My craft workshops have also been really popular, for people of all ages, and knitting particularly is in vogue. I’ve had lots of interest in my introduction to knitting classes.

“I think people are trying to be a bit more thrifty this Christmas. Also, programmes like Kirsty Allsop’s Homemade Britain are encouraging people to do something a bit more unique and imaginative, which has been great for me.

“The majority of the products in my shop are created using everyday products in unusual ways and where possible I use vintage and recycled products,” she explained.

As well as sharing a unit  in the Square Shopping Centre until  Christmas, the fledgling retailers have also been receiving mentoring from established shopkeepers and support from the centre’s management team.

The centre launched the competition earlier this year to help give an aspiring retailer a step up the career ladder with a pop-up shop, at a time when cash flow and budgets are tighter than ever.

Will, aged 22, who studied Metalwork and jewellery at Sheffield Hallam university, graduating in 2010, said the jewellery market is extremely hard to break into for new graduates, unless employed by a large company.

His love of making things stems from helping his grandfather, an automotive engineer, and he is using his opportunity to help other craftspeople too.

“It’s very difficult to become an established designer/maker, which is why I started working on F7 properly a few months ago – it’s a new service for up and coming or graduate designer/makers in the jewellery and silver-smithing industry, and hopefully in the future, will include other crafts too,” he explained.

“We plan to help designers by offering them three ways to market their products – online retail, events, and concession stands in retail and luxury outlets.

“Winning this opportunity for a pop-up shop in Birmingham has helped me so much – as well as raising much-needed capital to get my company started properly, I wanted to see if a pop-up shop would be suitable to sell jewellery – I think I’ve proven that it is.”

Yvonne Moulton, manager at The Square said she had been overwhelmed by the enterprise and imagination of the two winners, and feels they’ve added a special edge to shopping at The Square this Christmas.

“We held the competition to help get some fresh, innovative new businesses off the ground at a particularly tough time for retailers,” she said.

“Will’s business not only offers some unique and imaginative new products to our customers, but is also about helping other young artists boost their careers, which is wonderfully enterprising.

“We loved the idea of Cassandra’s shop, and are delighted it’s doing so well at this time of year, offering some fabulous present ideas.  Her products are witty, unique and thoughtful -  both winners have been wonderful additions to our retailers.”