Unique Christmas pop-up shop opens in Wells selling gifts handcrafted by well-known artist

A new retail experience is coming to Wells this weekend. Expert signwriter and artist Joby Carter is opening a pop-up shop in Broad Street. The shop opens on Sunday, November 17, at 10am and will remain open until Christmas.

Joby is one of the world’s leading experts in traditional signwriting with over 30 years experience in signwriting, fancy lettering and fairground art and is a highly skilled decorative artist. His shop will combine a range of hand painted gifts and signwriting books and supplies alongside live demonstrations throughout the day as Joby plans to signwrite in the shop while people browse.

Joby has long been an advocate for championing traditional skills in a digital age and for many years he was well known as the owner of Carters Steam Fair, the world’s largest travelling vintage funfair. The fair was enjoyed by millions of visitors over the years and it showcased traditional fairground art and flamboyant lettering styles which Joby has become famous for.

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The fair stopped touring in 2022 which allowed Joby to focus on championing traditional signwriting skills. He has published two books: Signwriting tips, tricks and inspiration and All the Fonts of The Fair, both of which are available in the pop-up shop to buy

Joby creates stunning hand painted lettering the traditional way, using techniques that have been passed down through the centuries. That means designing a layout by hand without the aid of computers or modern design software. Everything is painted by hand: he lets the brush do the work. Visitors to the shop will be able to see Joby at work: he will be painting at his easel working on different stages of a project throughout the week from laying out by eye to painting special effects such as shadows and blocks to make the lettering stand out. He welcomes people to ask questions about the craft and believes that the more people that are aware of these traditional techniques, the more chance they have of surviving in our digital age.

On the open day, Joby will be showcasing signwriting and has invited signwriting friends who all create lettering by hand in different styles to join him. There will also be special opening offers available on many of the hand painted letters he created for his second book, All the Fonts of the Fair.

Joby said: "I’ve recently moved to Wells with my family and I’m excited to be opening a shop here. It’s quite unusual for signwriters to open a shop so I’m looking forward to being able to showcase this skill to a wider audience. Wells is a lovely part of the country and everyone is so friendly here.

"I'm a people person and I love chatting to everyone about what I do. I’ll be demonstrating most days or other signwriters will be there if I’m not in the shop. People can see traditional signwriting taking place and we can spread the love of this craft. I know that it’s a popular skill because I’ve been teaching people to signwrite for the last 17 years: I’ve taught 1000’s of people to signwrite through my books and workshop courses.

"I’ll be hosting traditional signwriting courses here from the shop too. I run a five-day course for groups of 15 people which people fly from all over the world to attend. The shop is a great opportunity to meet people, showcase traditional skills and to hopefully sell lots of my truly unique hand painted signs and gifts. I'm a big believer in shopping local and not buying all your Christmas shopping on Amazon or from the big conglomerates. I’m planning to shop local in Wells this year.”

To find out more about the shop you can follow Joby on Instagram @joby.carter or sign up to his newsletter via jobycarter.com