Crafted is a new scheme which pairs craft makers with leaders in the luxury sector in mentoring relationships. Launched in November 2009, the scheme is now in its fourth month and the mentoring relationships are well underway. Mentees are supported by specialists in areas such as intellectual property rights, e-commerce and international growth and trade, and a six-month programme of workshops hosted by Andaz Hotel Liverpool Street.

Crafted has been developed by Walpole and Arts & Business to enable makers to develop their business skills whilst at the same time connecting luxury businesses with a new generation of skilled crafts people. The scheme is funded by the American Express Foundation.

For further information on participating in Crafted 2010 visit www.crafteduk.org.

I recently added a post to our Vanilla Storm blog about online Christmas shopping trends in the UK. The statistics are quite interesting and demonstrate that, despite the credit crunch, online shopping spend is continuing to grow. Good news for small indie companies.

I was also interested to read that 3.8M Internet shoppers spent £102M online on Christmas Day alone.

You can read the full post at www.vanillastorm.com/blog/2009/01/larger-later-and-longer.