The Tiny Treasures have come to life!

Let me tell you the story of our new Tiny Treasures. 

At the end of last year I bought a laser cutter for the studio. We have been out-sourcing our laser cutting since I started making lamps many years ago but my laser man (he has been WONDERFUL) was talking about retiring so it seemed like time to buy our own. As well as the practicality of being able to cut the lamps in house I knew it would be an opportunity to play and that new products were bound to happen.

I started using the motifs from my Tiny Treasures wallpaper to practice cutting with the laser. We began using thin paper to cut the shapes and they looked lovely but not super strong so we experimented with thicker and thicker paper which made for some robust little shapes. 

The lovely paper was available in lots of juicy colours too so we have been cutting and cutting lots of lovely shapes and stringing them upon nylon thread to make mobiles and wall hangings.

 We launched them at open studios last weekend and they went down really well.

Oonagh (my wonderful force-of-nature assistant) made these sweet little boxes (knocked them up with the laser cutter one afternoon!) and they were the perfect way to display the treasures.

 It was like a pick and mix sweet shop!

They really sparked peoples imaginations and it was lovely watching what colours and shapes people chose and how they put them together.

 Ever since then we have been working hard, photographing them so we could add them to the website and we are please to announce that they are all now up and available HERE. Hooray!

So now you can order a ready chosen selection or you can pick and mix your own :)

I can also make made-to-order wall hangings with the treasures too. They will be threaded up, hanging from a length of dowel like in the photo below. They would look great on a chimney breast wall or in a window.

I've got loads of ideas and shapes I want to play with but for now me and Oonagh are celebrating having launched this new product after many weeks of work and hope that you'll pop over to the website and have a look. The tiny treasures are waiting....

Spring Flowers - Debbie George paints Hannah Madden

I was waiting for a delayed train at Manchester Victoria station when I saw this little painting on Debbie George's Instagram feed. It stopped me in my tracks. Now, I see alot of pictures fly by on Instagram (we all do these days right?) and I LOVE many of them but it is very rare that I actually want to own one but within moments I found myself writing to Debbie asking if it was taken. 

Debbie is famous for her beautiful paintings of flowers in mugs. And the thing that was doubly special about this painting is that the mug made by my friend Hannah Madden. I met Hannah on Instagram many years ago when she was just starting out her hand printed textile business.  Debbie I know from many many years ago as her gallery Sanderson, George & Peach was one of the first places to stock my lamps. To see them collaborating like this was just lovely.

Hannah had posted a picture of one of her new Spring Flower mugs and Debbie commented on how much she liked it (she likes mugs, can you tell?) so Hannah decided to send Debbie a mug in the post. 

In no time at all Debbie had filled it with snowdrops and painted it. 

Debbie shared it on Instagram just when I was waiting for that train. It spoke to me and I bought it! 

I'm always on the look out for lovely objects of interest to use in my wallpaper photos (this is how I justified the sale anyway). I knew this would be just right with my new Paper Meadow colour 'brume' which has been waiting to be photographed properly.

 When I told Hannah I had bought the painting she was so delighted then she gifted me a mug too! So here they are together!

Looking lovely don't you think?

Wild Meadow

We had a blissful week staying in this beautiful house in the middle of a meadow. Wild Meadow is near Presteigne just over the border in Wales, a large meadow hillside brimming with life and loveliness.

We chose the solstice week in June because we knew the grasses would be high and the flowers would be blooming.

And because there would still be a few weeks before the owner Andrea would be cutting it down. She runs scything courses and teaches people how to cut the tall grass in the traditional way.

So we made the most of it.

It was the perfect playground for us lot. 

We spent our week collecting,

identifying species (trying anyway),

 pressing flowers,

drawing

and painting, 

(Sarah took these gorgeous pics of Dean at work)

cooking

and eating

singing lots of songs,

(meadow karaoke)

and barbecuing with friends. 

We had fun learning to fly our little balsa wood areoplane.

When it found a thermal it was a delight to watch

but there were a lot of flops and crashes and searching for it in the long grass.

We had some lovely walks in the rolling countryside

 and hired the Wild Meadow bikes and cycled for miles. 

We had some golden sunsets and we'd all rush outside to take pictures and breathe in that evening light.  

 On the last evening Andrea gifted me a botanical eyeglass, something I have been meaning to buy for a while. She knew I'd been looking up close trying to identify all the grasses. It is a whole new world through that lens I tell you and we all ran round around the meadow like excited children discovering everything for the first time.

I can highly recommend this wonderful place. The cottage has three double bedrooms so it's great for a big group but if there are only two of you there is a beautiful shepherds hut at the top of the field too. We miss the meadow now but we have already booked again for next summer!

Thanks for all of your beautiful photos Sarah. x