AW Artisan Wholesale Giftware

It's a Summer Shake-up   Greetings from Spain   Welcome to June, it's officially Summer and the sun is shining.   Yes back in Spain after a long time, we arrived yesterday evening on a rawkus hen and stag laden Ryanair flight from Manchester to Malaga. All good humour and long (endless) queues for the toilet, I'm not sure everyone made it haha... it reminds me that this is full on wedding season - and the greatest gift to gift traders everywhere. At  AWGifts  (our EU distribution) they just had their busiest month ever and totally driven by wedding season gifts,  Soap Flowers  used by craft people selling next-level. Plus  Father's Da...

Connecting the Dots Greetings from sunny Sheffield. Yes we are in the hometown of AW. Sunshine and blue skies, friendly Yorkshire folk and lashings of the worlds best pale ale. I'm so happy to be back in my hometown and catching up with family, friends and all the team at the heart of AW. And my wife (and our China agent) Coco is here also. It was December 2019 the last time she was here, just as rumours about a strange illness were starting to circulate from China. I remember getting in a crowded hotel lift in a city centre hotel and seeing two people wearing masks for the first time, we were all holding our breath until we could get off.  Then KERBANG.. the whole world changed.  ...

From Xiamen to Sheffield Greetings from Sheffield UK.. Yes we are not in China anymore.. last week I was telling you about the Gemstone back streets of Yiwu in China, and spilling some trade secrets. If you missed it you can catch up here . From Yiwu we took the train to Xiamen four and a half hours south and noticeably more tropical on the coast the city facing Taiwan. It's a lovely island city with a holiday vibe, and so we enjoyed a couple of days being regular tourists visiting the small historic island of Gulangyu just off the coast and walking around the beautiful Siming District. We realised that we had actually been here 10 years ago. Just outside our hotel was the spot where I took a pict...

More China Secrets Greetings from Yiwu City in China Yes I'm still in China and still very busy. Last week I was telling just how busy Coco (my wife and your China agent) actually is, if you missed it you can catch up here .  This morning and yesterday morning Coco was out of bed at 5.30am because these two days are container loading days, yesterday's container is on its way to Spain ( AW-Artisan.eu ), today's container is being loaded as I write and will go to our Slovakia warehouse ( Awgifts.eu ). A team of guys on motorbikes turn up, they are the professional Container Loading Gang.. they know how to use every single square inch of space, because in a container space is actually money. ...

Coco is so busy in China! Greetings from Yiwu, China So busy in Yiwu, lots to do and this being China things happen at pace it's quite invigorating.. Coco my wife (and your China agent) makes it all happen. I'll describe a typical day below. Last week I was telling you about catching up with some of our old suppliers and always greeting each other with the Chinese greeting.. "Long Time No See!" .. if you missed it you can catch up here .. I also mentioned our trip down the G60 (China's Route 66) to Coco's home town where we caught up with the rest of her family and made a visit to the ancestral village. Coco's family are the nicest people, she has a brother (James Dean good looking) who runs the vil...

In China.. Long Time No See! Greetings from Dongxiang City, China Happy May Day Weekend.. hope you have Spring in the air and a Spring in your step. I'm in Dongxiang City, which certainly does, it's a small up and coming city close to the hometown village of my wife. It's a friendly and well kept place, everyone seems to know each other.. I'll explain why below. Last week I was telling you about my arrival in China at Shanghai, where I met up with Coco (my wife and your China agent) and we hung out in the coolest (we think) neighbourhood in Shanghai - I was telling you about the profound changes there.. if you missed it you can catch up here . From Shan...