These Two Hands

Directions Website Contact the business

These Two Hands Handcrafted homewares, gifts and accessories inspired by nature and made from natural, sustainable m

"The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt" - Sylvia PlathThis has been true throughout my life - not feeling good eno...
23/10/2026

"The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt" - Sylvia Plath

This has been true throughout my life - not feeling good enough at something to say I'm creative. Not a good enough songwriter to call myself a musician. Not a good enough lino printer to call myself a maker. Not a good enough grower to call myself a gardener. It has meant I haven't promoted my own work because I assume that others work is better. I don't shout about my wreath workshops because I'm not a professional florist, and yet they sell out every year and I've made hundreds of beautiful wreaths with people over the years. 

Part of reaching mid-life is giving less of a damn what other people think, which means finally being okay with saying what I am good at and believing it. And I am really good at making wreaths. I never tire of it and I love doing it. I love the feel and smell of the damp moss, I love finding new colours and shapes of flowers and plants to work with and being more creative with what a wreath can be - it's not just holly, fir and ribbon.

So many people turn up to a workshop doubting themselves and their own creativity. Apologising up front for not having any creative skills and not knowing what to do. And every single person leaves with a unique and beautiful wreath. The same variety of materials to work with but every single result is different. That is why it never gets boring - creating something from scratch using your own hands and working with nature is never boring. You get lost in the moment, in the doing and it's a form of therapy. Friends come and make wreaths together to reconnect and have time out for themselves. Companies have booked wreath workshops for their staff Christmas do as a lovely way to calmly connect and make things together rather than going to a bar or restaurant. 

In the spirit of making things work better for me this year, I am running less workshops so I can spend more evenings with family and avoid burn out. The growing and collecting of materials to work with takes me time and I want to make more wreaths myself to sell this year, so if you want to make a lovely wild wreath with me this year, there are 4 dates available to book online. X

The Bristol shop is 5 years old today! How did that happen?! What opened as a 3-month pop up to try and connect with peo...
21/10/2026

The Bristol shop is 5 years old today! How did that happen?! What opened as a 3-month pop up to try and connect with people after the craziness of Covid, has turned into a real community hub and heart of my local high street. I have started a local BS4 arts trail and launched a monthly BS4 Makers Market. It has been a huge learning curve and an emotional rollercoaster. Every year has brought some new challenge and felt even harder to stay open, and yet I am still here. People come in and remark on how surprised and glad they am that I’m still open. I wish that wasn’t the case. I wish the expectation for small businesses wasn’t that they will struggle to make it to 5 years. You have to be so much stronger than I realised to keep at it, and it has tested me to the point of breaking. But I really believe in the importance of small businesses to keep high streets alive and to build community and connection.

I have got to know so many amazing people through running my shop and to see them coming to my monthly markets to support that new venture has warmed my heart. People come into my shop and open up, they let go and share real emotions and stories and I feel so privileged to be part of that and to have created a safe space for that. It would be lovely to be on a busier street with a lot more customers, but then maybe I wouldn’t have that community feel. I don’t know what the future holds for my shop or for our little high street as we have lost a few small businesses over the past year. But today I am going to live in the present and celebrate this 5-year milestone and how far the shop has come and how far I have come. I can see it in these photos - the second one is from the first week in the shop of me with empty shelves and wearing black, and this photo from last year is me with full shelves and in bright orange. The colour and my face (with both more wrinkles and smiles) show how much this shop has given me.

If you come in today, there will be cake and a free card of your choice with every purchase over £15. See you in the shop today or soon and thank you for helping me reach this milestone! Naomi x

 

I have had some lovely reviews recently that I wanted to share here because it’s easier to share other peoples’ words so...
20/10/2026

I have had some lovely reviews recently that I wanted to share here because it’s easier to share other peoples’ words sometimes than find them myself. All I really want to do through my shop is to bring joy to people and every time I get a lovely email or review, it makes it all make sense.

1) Ceramic incense fairy house - "Of all the gifts I have given my daughter, this is her favourite! (I do have to keep topping her up with new incense cones though!) It gets lit almost as soon as she gets home from work and gives her pleasure daily.”, Nicola

2) Wildflower dimple jug - "Beautiful little jug and very tactile. Bought along with the matching mug as a present and the recipient was delighted” Claire

3) Wooden flower press - "I was given this flower press as a gift from my daughters There are always flowers in it being pressed. I forget sometimes and t’s lovely looking back over a few weeks as to what was in flower then that is no more. I pressed flowers as a child in heavy books and I’d forgotten how pleasurable a thing this is to do.”, Caroline

4) Moorland mug - "I love this moorland mug, the soft colours of heather. It's really light and the perfect size for me. I have run out of room for my mugs from Naomi’s shop but maybe I can squeeze one more in!”, Marion

5) Mini fruits and leaves notelets - "Beautiful cards and perfect for making little messages look special”, Claire

These Two Hands is 9 years oldI was supposed to post this yesterday, but it was my BS4 Makers Market day and I forgot. O...
04/10/2026

These Two Hands is 9 years old

I was supposed to post this yesterday, but it was my BS4 Makers Market day and I forgot. On 3rd October 2017, I launched my online shop with a handful of designs created by a few friends, not knowing what to expect. Slowly I started doing craft markets and adding more makers to the collection. I ran some workshops, I got to help photograph my collections rather than doing it on my garden table.

There have been many highs and lows over the past 9 years. The shop has survived a pandemic, a cost-of-living crisis and plenty of uncertain times. I have opened a physical shop on my local high street. I started a local arts trail 3 years ago and this year I launched a monthly Makers Market. I now stock the work of over 85 small makers, many of whom have become close friends. At my 50th birthday, several of the guests at my party were friends I have made since starting this beautiful business. There were definitely days when I wasn’t sure I would make it this far, but now I really hope to make it to a decade at least and maybe more.

To thank you for helping me get to this milestone, I an giving £9 off your next order over £50. Just enter the offer code: BIRTHDAY at the checkout to get your £9 off any time before midnight tomorrow (Monday 5th October). I have extended this by a day as I was supposed to share the offer yesterday 😬

# #

01/10/2026

It has been a while since I've shared some favourites from the shop. I love doing this as I can walk around the shop looking at all the gorgeous things and appreciating the golden autumn light. Its also so quick to film. No hunting in my billions of image folders for photos or finding audio. It's one take, lots of ums and too many close ups of my face, but it is instant and that is all I can manage at the moment.

I have a crazily long to-do list as do most makers and small shops at this time of year, so I am trying to hunker down and work my way through it. But every day needs a bit of fun stuff (and some movement too) so here it is. Which of today's six favourites do you like most? X

Featuring:
Wooden plant pots companions by
Pumpkin beeswax candles by
Autumn Comforts card by
Bonfire chocolate by
Moorland mug by
Mabon candle by .moss.botanical

"The world is but a canvas to our imagination" - ThoreauPeople often tell me when they walk into the shop that they've n...
29/09/2026

"The world is but a canvas to our imagination" - Thoreau

People often tell me when they walk into the shop that they've never seen anything like it before, and that's because a lot of it doesn't exist anywhere else. I don't talk enough about how many of my designs are made exclusively for me. I can't make most of the things in my head myself, but I've been lucky enough to find incredible makers who share my love of nature and are happy to experiment with glazes, shapes and designs until something feels just right. From Lucy Winch's autumnal Fired Earth ceramics to Jen's new heather-inspired Moorland glaze and Jonquil's snow-capped evergreen trees, these women have given me the canvas for my imagination and turned my ideas into something real.

I've shared some of my favourite These Two Hands exclusives here. Which would you choose? Naomi x

1) I asked Lindy to make me an autumnal bowl, and very specifically a crumble bowl. She played around with shapes and designs, and created these stunning oak leaf and blackberry bowls exclusively for my shop, perfect for crumbles and more!



2) Julie’s beautiful plates imprinted with fresh cow parsley have been unique to my shop for years. Every year, we wait for the cow parsley to bloom and she makes a small batch of these exclusively for me.

3) I love ferns and I have known Wendy Calder since I launched These Two Hands, so this fern dish made perfect sense when we talked about creating some exclusive designs for my shop. I love these fern imprint soap dishes so much!

4) These stunning new Moorland ceramics are inspired by heather-covered hillsides and created exclusively for my shop by lovely local potter Jen who knows how much I love landscapes.

5) Tiny earthenware trinket dishes imprinted with persicaria and meadow grasses with an ink wash in their natural colours. Helen creates these lovely dishes especially for me using flowers and grasses from her garden.

6) These new Alpine Forest ceramics were created for me by Jonquil to represent a snowy winter evergreen forest and I absolutely love 

7) Last autumn, I met with Lucy Winch looking for a multilayered autumnal glaze that had an earthy warm feel and this love

What makes the BS4 Makers Market such a lovely market to run and to visit is the makers. That sounds obvious, but starti...
25/09/2026

What makes the BS4 Makers Market such a lovely market to run and to visit is the makers. That sounds obvious, but starting a new event meant reaching out to lots of local artists and craftspeople whose work I love and hoping they would give my new market a go. I love curating collections and gatherings, and this market has given me a chance to do that outside of the shop and with different makers who aren't part of my shop, but who feel like the perfect extension of it.

It is more than a market, it is a place to gather and connect. The local community have really supported this and people take time to chat to makers and browse every stall. It has brought people to our hidden area of Bristol which is what I hoped it would do. There is so much competing for our time and attention every day and I am so grateful for how many people choose to visit the market. At the next one on Saturday 3rd October, there are some lovely new makers joining, some beautiful locally grown flowers and produce and we are raising money for Avon Wildlife Trust. Come and visit if you can and help spread the word.

Address

83 Sandy Park Road
Bristol
BS43PG

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 3pm
Tuesday 10am - 4pm
Wednesday 10am - 4pm
Thursday 10am - 5pm
Friday 10am - 5pm
Saturday 10am - 5pm

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when These Two Hands posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to These Two Hands:

Shortcuts

Share

Category