Hello Wallpaper!

We had a big exciting delivery to the studio this morning. My friend Claire just joked 'Congrats on the delivery. Was it a boy or a girl?' 

I tell you it was like a labour getting all these boxes up the stairs. Phew. Thank goodness for Robert and Euan and Sarah and Suzi who all gave up their morning to help me. They were good birthing partners!

It's funny actually because the gestation period was about nine months all in all when I think about it.

It was good to finally meet it for the first time and hold it in my arms ;)

Hello wallpaper! Welcome to the world.

I promise to look after you and grow you into a big strong business. We will learn together along the way. 

I'm a proud Mummy x

The independent Interiors Show

photo by Tim Simpson Photography

I had a lovely Saturday exhibiting at this brand new show in Manchester at 2022 in the Northern Quarter.

photo by Tim Simpson Photography

I took my wallpaper and lamps. (I didn't get any pictures of the wallpaper. Silly me)

I got some of my friend Claire Murrays though, which looked really lovely. 

We both gave out a lot of wallpaper samples.

It was nice to see some old exhibition friends like the amazing Helaina Sharpley with her exquisite wirework.

...and to make some new ones. Like Rebecca from May Wild Ceramics. I have seen her birds in the press loads but never in real life.

photo by Tim Simpson Photography

It was nice to meet Lomas and Lomas, a husband and wife team who were really lovely too with their lampshades and wallpaper.

 Helen from Memo was cute with her lovely illustrations.

It was an unusual basement venue with tiled window recesses which became the perfect stage for everyone's work. These are the guys from Northern Letters and their stand looked great.

Scandinords lighting looked amazing.

photo by Tim Simpson Photography

and this lovely lady Heather from Eclectic Chair creates amazing reupholstered chairs.

There were lots more lovely things and people too and the show got a good turn out.

photo by Tim Simpson Photography

The show was organised by this cute pair. Victoria Watson and Rachael Adams. They did a great job and are planning to do more so look out for them in the future. This is their facebook page so you can keep an eye out for future events.

Next up for me is Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair on the 11th October. 

Hope to see you there. x

Morning Mushrooms

It was great to get out in the woods this morning after weeks of not quite making it.

And it was Autumn in there. After a week of wet and warm weather the mushrooms were popping up everywhere.

Took me back to being little when we would go on mushroom walks with my nature expert neighbour Norman. He knew the names of them all.

Alas I can't remember any...

...except for this guy. The Fly Agaric. Super poisonous but ever so handsome. I was hoping we'd find one and we did :)

Mathilde Heart Manech interview

I have a sweet interview over on the Matilde Heart Manech blog today. Lisa came to my studio for a cuppa and a chat and she took some cute photos. Nip over and visit her beautiful blog.

The Independent Interiors Show

I'm getting ready for the The Independent Interiors show. It's this Saturday in Manchester's Northern Quarter.

I'll be there with my wallpapers and lamps and there will be 20 other interior brands too so do come along if you can. It's going to be good :)

Horse & Countryside

This month I've been featured in Horse & Countryside magazine. 

When they phoned me up i did hear 'HOUSE & Countryside'. Horse magazines are a new one for me. 

The interview is all about how a city girl (me) found the countryside to be the inspiration for her work. And they gave me a fabulous six page spread full of Sarah's lovely photos :)

Now I'm feeling the need to go for a trek...

Taking orders now!

I'm so happy because my wallpaper is on my website! 

We're going to take some proper photos next week  but for now, for those of you who have been waiting for it, these pictures will give you an idea of what's available and I can send out samples now so you can make sure the colours are right for you.

We've been having fun in the shop this afternoon deciding which walls to paper. I can't wait to see the charcoal meadow on the chimney breast wall with all the white lights in front of it. Scrummy!

The wallpapers will be delivered to me at the beginning of October but you can pre-order rolls now on the website...which would be wonderful for me as it will help pay for the huge wallpaper bill that will be coming my way any day now ;)

Who is going to be the very first person to order a roll?

Production Day

So, the day finally arrived. Production day at the factory.

Six lovely colours are now signed off and printed.

It was pretty amazing seeing them on the machines. 

The machine has tiny camera on to check that it's all calibrating properly. That's what all those funny symbols are about.

It all gets trimmed and then wound onto these enormous rolls. You could paper your whole house with this!

They have an amazing wall that holds the paper up with suction so they can quickly lay out three drops to check.

So by lunchtime (they don't mess about at this factory), I had Paper Meadow in kraft,

teal

and charcoal.

And Beech Leaves 

in kraft,

mint,

and pebble.

In two weeks it will be delivered to me here at the studio and I can start sending it out to YOU! 

I will be able to start sending A4 sample sheets by the end of this week if you're interested. I'll keep you posted as I add things to my website.

Hooray :)

Twilight magic in the woods

I have been soooooo excited to share this with you. In July I was contacted by Pretty Nostalgic Magazine and asked if I'd like to style and write and article about British lighting designers. They envisioned a feature with 6-8 designers lights photographed in the woods at twilight. Oh my goodness. I immediately squealed across the studio 'Sarah Mason Sarah Mason Sarah Mason, come quick, we've got the most exciting job to do!'. 

And so the planning began. Where were we going to do it? How were we going to light all the lights? How would we get everything we needed to the woods? Can we fit ladders in the car? Who's good at climbing trees? We thought, being surrounded by woodland that it would be easy to find a location but it was trickier than anticipated. We needed somewhere accessible by car and with low hanging trees. Emily Jones our lovely friend who runs The Tinderwood Trust Forest School came to the rescue and introduced us to the perfect spot and we got permission from the land owner to use it. Phew!

So. Ready to roll. Euan, Ffion, Will, Suzi and Robert all helped out...many hands make light work as they say. 

It was a challenge. You see this shot? Beautiful Jennifer Collier paper shades just about ready to shoot. Well this was moments before a rain storm. Yes it had been beautiful all summer and then the week we planned the shoot was the week of thunderous downpours and flooding. We had to bundle everything under a tarpaulin and wait for the rain to stop (ages). We all trundled out of the woods in the dark with soggy lampshades and heavy hearts :(

But we bounced back to the woods again the next night and knew exactly what we were doing the second time round.

I found these brilliant battery powered LED egg lights shaped like bulbs and attached them to black cable which we tied to the branches. An absolutely perfect simple solution. 

It really was magic. The lights looked utterly beautiful in this woodland setting. 

 Here's the photographer at work!

The wood grain of the Jane Blease wall lights looked fantastic on the tree trunk

and the Tom Raffields looked so at home in the woods. 

This little silver birch had the perfect bendy trunk and enjoyed being adorned in Deryn Relph and Beau Vamp lampshades.

Look at them glow. 

The Sarah Lock lamps looked amazing among the mossy rocks.

Amy Coopers were next. They had been to the woods with us each evening but they hadn't quite found their spot...

until Ffion spotted this bank of mushrooms where they nestled in perfectly.

The Colins (as we call them) were sooooo beautiful. I really didn't want to take them down afterwards. 

In fact I think they should all stay in the woods all the time. I want to be able to take a twilight stroll and come upon these beautiful lights and feel their magic again. It was joyful.

It looks wonderful in print in this beautiful smelling magazine! Issue 9 of Pretty Nostalgic is out in the shops now or you can buy it on their lovely new website. It's a lovely magazine and we're really pleased to be a part of it.

Thanks to Ffion for the behind the scenes shots and thanks for everyone who played a part in bringing this project together. Couldn't have done it without you x