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

It's the End of The Road

We have just had a wonderful weekend at End Of The Road Festival in Dorset. There were loads of great bands (Sigur Ross under a clear starry sky was a highlight) but it was its magical setting that made it really special for me.

It was in Larmer Tree Gardens in Dorset with resident peacocks strolling around (or finding peace in the treetops..we were surprised to find that they could fly). 

The surrounding woods became an enchanting playground full of surprises.

Like colourful fruits in trees,

a woodland library lit with lanterns with people sitting around reading books to each other,

pretty things to discover,

the most enchanting tunnel of twinkly fairy lights,

and a piano that made the lights come on.

There was a piano you could play if you fancied, comedy in the woods, cinema,

Scrabble,

nice things to eat and drink,

and at night...

can you imagine discovering a dance floor under the oak trees?

complete with mirror ball,

 Dj's in a boat

and a flashing dancefloor?

 The perfect setting for a boogie!

We needed a little help keeping warm at night. You could feel the Autumnal chill creeping in.

Look at these two. It was fab hanging out with them both for the weekend

and it was the perfect way to mark the end of the Summer.