Happy Christmas!

The studio is closed for Christmas now and we will re-open on the 7th January.

Radiance will be opening after Christmas on the 27th and our closing down sale will begin then so do come and grab a bargain and help us find homes for all of our stock! It's all got to go!

Thanks for all your custom and support this year. It means so much.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS x

Last Christmas ordering dates

There is still time to give the lift of cosiness and light this Christmas. As the lamps and candle covers are made-to-order we obviously need a bit of time to make them for you, so the last order dates for lamps (including personalised ones), candle covers and floor lamps is this Wednesday 12th at midday.

BUT even after that date you can still order some things as we have alot of lamps ready made and on the shelves waiting to find new homes. From this Wednesday evening the website will only show what we have in stock that is ready to go and we need your orders for these by Tuesday 18th December so we can get everything wrapped up and ready to send in good time for the big day.

If you're uncertain about anything we have in stock and whether we can get it to you just email me.

xxx

Radiance is closing soon!

We have an important announcement to make. This will be the last Christmas for Radiance. We will be closing for good on the 13th of January 2019. As you can imagine, this decision has not been taken lightly - we have been VERY up and down, but our lease is up for renewal and another 5 years is too risky a commitment. It feels like things are coming to a natural end. 

I was on the brink of closing the shop in 2015 to focus on my own work when Ffion persuaded me to let her take over. Neither of us have regrets, it has been an absolutely wonderful thirteen years (we opened in 2005!), working with so many talented designers and makers, getting to know our lovely customers and staff and feeling like part of a strong, supportive community. 

Things are changing. Times are hard. People are working more and more just to pay their bills, with little or none leftover. People are thinking more and consuming less (which is a very good thing). People prefer to go directly to the makers. With rent to pay every month, making things work as a retailer is more challenging than ever. 

‘Hannah Nunn’ is very much a flourishing business, which has been separate from Radiance since the beginning. I am still designing and making my own lamps, wallpaper, fabric and more in my studio in the heart of Hebden Bridge. I sell my work online and in shops all around the world. When Radiance closes you will be able to visit my studio by appointment, to see my collection. When Ffion first took over the running of Radiance, she had just finished her Software Engineering degree. Her web development and design business has been growing ever since and can now support her fully. So don’t worry about us! 

During the winter months in this deep, dark valley, Radiance is at its brightest and busiest. People may assume that this bustling, tourist town would bring enough trade to support us through the rest of the year, but this is just not the case, and this summer in particular has been (for want of a gentler phrase) soul destroying. We speak to other brave faced, tired shopkeepers in town, giving it their all, who also go whole days without selling even a card. 

While we’re here, we urge you to think about what you can do to keep Hebden Bridge (and everywhere else) full of thriving, independent shops. As we said before, it’s not easy when cash levels are low and uncertainty is high, but even if we can all buy one less mass produced, unethical, cheap item this year, walk around town instead of scrolling through Amazon and save up a little bit longer to buy something high quality, it will be wonderfully beneficial. 

We will both hold our hands up and admit to having said that things were expensive, (out loud!) in small shops… maybe we can change the thinking here. Products that are made with good intentions, by healthy and happy people with quality, sustainably sourced materials are more costly, but they are not “expensive”. They are valuable expressions of spirit, not just made for the sake of it, or for massive profits and they are worth every penny. 

We are so sad to share this news with you, but in some ways we are happy too and we would love to see you again before we close, in joy rather than sorrow. Together we can make it a wonderful last few months. We do have some new things and of course there will be reductions in January, all of which we will tell you about on Facebook and Instagram (or if you pop in!) as time goes on. To everybody who has supported us, from buying a birthday card to investing in a sculptural floor lamp, thank you. Without your support we wouldn’t have been able to bring to life and sustain this glowing business for all these years. Thank you so so so much. 

 Ffion and Hannah x 

 P.s. we will no longer be selling gift vouchers and we hope that the few that are still valid and out in the world can be happily redeemed before the 13th of Jan. Just get in touch if you have any questions :)

The Green Lodge Aviemore

The Green Lodge in Aviemore is a brand new holiday home in the Scottish highlands that has just this week started taking bookings. Helen, the owner phoned me up a few months back full of excitement as she had discovered my fabrics and wallpaper on the lovely Snapdragon blog and said they were just what she was looking for and could we make her blinds and curtains for practically every window and send wallpaper too! 

Of course we could. We were delighted to and it is so thrilling to  now see it all in place thanks to these lovely pictures by Vikki Bruce.

 She used Paper Meadow wallpaper  in Kraft in this bedroom. The low wall behind the bed has the effect of a lovely headboard.

 The upstairs hallway features Paper Meadow in charcoal and what a cosy little nook that is!

Helen has used In the Tall Grass to great effect in one of the double rooms

 with a complementing roman blind in Paper Meadow fabric in kraft.

 Daisy Meadow in dusk features too.

This charcoal Paper Meadow blind looks so lovely here.

It was fun working with Helen as she carefully measured up her walls and windows and made her plan. Aswell of photo's of her bare windows and walls to size up there were photo's of red squirrels as they made an appearance in the trees outside the windows. What a delight.

It's such a beautifully crafted interior that you might just want to stay inside the house all the time BUT the house is set in an absolutely stunning location in the Cairngorns National Park with incredible to scenery and an abundance on nature to explore. Sounds like somewhere I would find alot of inspiration.

Have a look at their website. There's a 20% off introductory offer on right now.

Country Homes & Interiors

I'm so excited to have my wallpaper in Country Homes & Interiors magazine. It has made the FRONT PAGE! Woopwoop!

It has been used in a beautiful article about using peaceful patterns in the home. They used my In The Tall Grass wallpaper in the alcove of this beautiful room and my Beech Leaves above the mantle piece. 

It's the October issue and it's on the shelves now.

Nature as Designer

I recently discovered a wonderful book which has brought me lots of inspiration.

 It's called 'Nature as Designer' by a Swedish man named Bertel Bager. He was a surgeon by profession but had a passion for collecting and documenting the often overlooked details in nature. 

He loved the seeds and pods and fruits and he photographed them like they were ceramic vessels. He was interested in pottery too and pondered whether the original ceramicists were inspired by the vessels of nature themselves.

  

 He gives the seeds centre stage, photographing them with dramatic lighting and making them look much larger than they really are.

He made them look like pieces of art.

His friend encouraged him to make a book of his work to inspire and educate others and with each specimen he tells stories about where he found them and what he loves about them. 

I had a lovely time taking these pictures the other day next to my seed and pod collection.

Which made me look up close again and get inspired to draw.

 There are just so many great shapes in nature.

And there is just SO much to learn.

Towards the end of my little photo shoot I took the old dusty jacket off the book and discovered an uncanny resemblance to my little Tiny Treasures book.

A similar font, a similar book cloth, gold foiled lettering and a gold seed pod motif on the front! I too tell the tales of where I found the seeds and pods and what I love about each one.

Now I feel a kind of kinship with this guy. From one seed pod nerd to another!

This book is a rare find and the only one I have found so far that expresses a passion for these seeds pods and fruits being fascinating, functional and downright beautiful artistic forms.

It was first printed in 1967 and is not in print anymore but I found a copy on Abe Books.

Golden

We have just had the most magical week at Wild Meadow  to celebrate my Mum and Dads golden wedding anniversary. This has been a special place for me and my friends so it seemed like the perfect place to bring all the family together for this special occasion.

It's funny to think that fifty years ago when they made their wedding vows this family didn't even exist and now there are twelve of us altogether. The family tree has grown lots of branches.

The hot summer we have had meant most of the grasses had been mown and I was a bit sad about that at first but I soon realised this meant there was more room to play and we did a lot of that. Everywhere you looked, up and down the meadow there was something going on.

We cartwheeled (well one of us did),

 went for walks, 

 (some of us got a lift) 

played on the rope swings, 

picked flowers for our flower presses,

 made sun prints,

baked pizzas,

 made dens,

drew pictures,

did our yoga with this view (well some of us did),

  and we did a lot of lying on the grass.

 We hired the house and the shepherds hut this time. This was Ffion and Domeniques pad.

Domenique was busy in his sketchbook

and he captured the feel of the place beautifully.

My Mums wish was to lie under a canopy of stars and she even made a wild meadow quilt for the occasion (sunny and colourful on one side for the day and dark and starry on the back for the night)! The sky was kind to us on many evenings and we saw the best shooting stars I have ever seen.

On the night of the anniversary we had a feast. The freshly caught trout from The Salty Dog greengrocers in Presteigne were my highlight.

As well as the company of course! 

  

It was so good to all sit outside and eat together.

 After we had eaten all the scrumptious food we sat around the fire

 to toast some marshmallows

 and sing some songs.

I wrote one for my Mum and Dad and I had an absolutely perfect moment sitting on a log under a canopy of stars just about able to make out their faces in the firelight and singing them their song.

 On our last night we recorded it outside the shepherds hut as the sun was setting and I thought I'd share it here. Listen out for the sheep at the end.

All great trees they start as saplings

From a seed deep down below

If the seed gets all it needs

Then a tree will start to grow

A little sunshine

A little rain

And it will be growing

And it will be growing.

When your love was just a sapling

Well how were you to know

If all your hopes and all your dreams

Would get the chance to grow

You stood together

You made your vow

To growing together

To growing together.

Then your tree it grew some branches

And a trunk that's strong and wide

And roots that go deep down below

And leaves that touch the sky

And it makes shelter

And it makes shade

It's good in all weather

You're good in all weather.

Every branch it tells a story

Every leaf a memory

And all your hopes and all your dreams

They made this family

And we've had sunshine

And we've had rain

Now this tree is golden

This tree is golden

Your love is golden

Your love is golden.

Wild Meadow is the most wonderful place and feels even more like home to me now. Have a look at their website or follow Andrea's beautiful photographs on her Instagram account here. Thanks Dad & Dean for your lovely photo's, thanks to Domenique for your drawings and thanks Andrea and Jonathan for creating this special place...and Andrea for sewing the golden bunting by hand when your sewing machine packed in! You're a gem x