Seeing as I'm wanting you all to follow my blog and my work, I thought you might be interested to know how my little business came to be...
I've always been an arty one, for as long as I can remember, I vividly remember being about 6 and making handbags using paper and a stapler (and whilst my materials may have become more sophisticated, I can tell you that the methods aren't too dissimilar!). I've always had a love of product, so apart from the period when I was determined to be a colouring-in person for Walt Disney it was probably inevitable that I'd end up with a product-based business.
I attended Cleveland College of Art and Design where I studied Design Crafts before moving on to my degree. We covered a lot of disciplines there, which was great and gave me a lot of skills but it's also very confusing and I left with no clear idea of my niche and what my "thing" was - on a Monday I'd be making sterling silver jewellery, Tuesday I'd be preparing porcelain for the kiln, Wednesday I'd be fixing fabric dyes and working on the sewing machine...I didn't have a clue what I was meant to be doing.
I played around for a long time but the one discipline I continued to come back to was textiles, particulary felting. Felt is a great material, hand-made felt is so tactile and so many colours and effects can be achieved, whilst "bought in" felt is just so practical, fantastic for linings. And so it began! I started to hand-felt my own bags, with handles that attached to either side (much like my stapled ones!). I also started needle felting which is time-consuming but I love it - it allows me to be extremely precise, which the OCD streak in me loves! To the bags I added large vintage buttons and lined them with strong felt, which actually was the beginning of my next product - large flower corsages. I can't stand waste (nor can I afford it) so I was keen to make products using the scraps of felt left over from cutting the linings.
Personally I love the corsages, they're real big and I treat them so they're stiff and hold the curves of the flower shape. Each flower has a vintage button centre making them truly unique. They've proved popular too!!!
I think that's probably enough for now, will be back shortly to share some more of my products with you! Good night all!
This bag isn't my favourite but I'm really pleased I've done it, my favourite bags are actually very dark - bags like New York and Vegas are based on black so it's nice to have something like this one to really brighten up the collection.
