I have moved my blog....

I have been blogging on this blogger platform since 2008 and it's been quite a journey! This place holds SO many stories for me and has really watched my designs and my business develop and grow.

But for ease and continuity I have moved my blog over to my main website now. You can find it here. I know these days people aren't following blogs quite so much as Instagram and Facebook have so much right there and this last year I stopped blogging so much BUT I want to keep this platform alive so I'm back!

Someone (I can't remember who) use the analogy that social media is like being outside in the street...you never know who you will bump into and anyone can see what you are up to whereas a blog is like inviting someone into your kitchen and putting the kettle on. It's inviting you round to my place. I'll show you my work and tell you a story or two.

I hope you will come and join me there.

Christmas Open Studio

We've never opened the studio before at Christmas. We have always been too busy in the shop BUT this is the first Christmas without a shop so we thought it would be a nice thing to do!

We have been making some winter treasures too. Mistletoe and Evergreen. It's ever so much fun having a laser cutter to play with in the studio. You can see them on my Tiny Treasures page.

The studio will be open on the 7th December from 11-5. You can come and choose your own tiny treasures from our pick-n-mix tray and find lamps and candle covers to gift your family and friends.

Julia Ogden will be opening her room with her cards and prints and other lovely screen printed goodies and Sarah and Suzi will be around too.

You can find us at:

Suite 1, Burlees House 
Hangingroyd Lane 
Hebden Bridge 
HX7 7DD 

Burlees House is adjacent to Hebden Bridge Town Hall in the centre of town. It's the big building (an old mill) to the right of Bonsalls hardware shop and it houses therapists, offices, art studios and is fronted by an Italian restaurant called La Perla.

Please note! A satnav will take you beyond our building so search for directions to the restaurant instead and it will bring you here. There is metered on street parking close by and we are opposite a couple of car parks. 

There are big glass doors at the front of the building. Buzz the buzzer for Suite 1 (it's 101 and the telephone icon) and we will let you in. 

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....

Hebden Bridge Open Studios 2019

It's nearly time for the Hebden Bridge Open Studio trail. We will be opening the studio on 5th, 6th and 7th July and I'll be having my SECOND SALE where you can find 'imperfect' (or are they?) lamps at half the usual price.

We are only doing the seconds sale in person this time (online in February) but there will be 20% off  wallpaper, fabric, cushions and 'perfect' lamps on these dates online with the code 'SUMMERSALE19'.

My open studio is part of a huge trail of studios around town and will make a marvelous day out (or weekend visit) for the creative and curious! Find out more on the website.

Really hope to see you. x

Featured in Period Living

I am very lucky to have a feature in the July issue of Period Living magazine. It's a really lovely article across five pages and it tells the story of how I developed my business and where I find my inspiration.

Back in April Heather Dixon came to style the shoot and interview me and her husband Dave Burton took all the beautiful photographs. We had a lot of fun that day and we are all pleased with the results.

We went for a walk up the hill just when this marvellous Pussy Willow tree was in full catkin heaven. I like this shot a lot. It's me in my happy place!

I'm delighted to be featured and be able to share my work and my story on a national scale. If you fancy a read it's the July issue and it's on the newsagent shelves right now.

The Yoga and Creativity Space

Every morning for the last sixteen years or so I have got up before everyone else in my house and headed to my yoga mat for practice. Through thick and thin, through good times and bad times my practice has been my passion and my anchor and it has looked after me. It's not something I have talked about that much on this blog over the years but I can tell you that my practice has been the power and enthusiasm behind all the creativity that I have shared here over the years. It's been my driving force.

I never wanted to teach before, really because I had a lot of fear about it (what do I know about it? I should just stick to what I'm good at blah blah) but I decided to face my fears and do my teacher training course with Yoga Campus, so for the last 18 months I have been studying hard and re-writing those stories about not being good enough in the process!

And I have been growing a vision about the kind of space I'd like to teach in. A beautiful, inviting space full of colour and light. Warm and comfy props for deep relaxation and restoration. Somewhere peaceful for meditation and for listening to ideas. And also chairs and tables for for when inspiration strikes and you need to journal and mind map and plan big ideas and dreams. Ultimately the creative process is what fascinates me the most and I'd love to help people manifest their creative dreams through yoga.

Last month a space right across the hall from my design studio came up for rent and I JUMPED on it.

I could have a space to teach but also rent it out to other teachers for classes and workshops in yoga, meditation, group-work, well being, art, writing....whatever! It was the perfect place for my vision and being right next to my workshop was absolutely perfect. There was lost to be done. We have fitted a new floor, had the ceiling tiles replaced, painted everything and I have had lots of fun choosing colourful mats, cushions and yoga props.

So here is the Yoga and Creativity Space!

I am so very in love with it. 

There is space for eleven mats and each mat has a bolster, two blocks, two bricks, a pillow, an eye pillow, a cotton blanket and the softest 'sheepskin' you ever stroked (from Ikea made from recycled plastic water bottles) so everyone will be comfortable and well supported.

I bought some old stacking school chairs and me and Oonagh have painted them all in these lovely colours. 

There are twelve chairs altogether so there is room to run a workshop for eleven people (plus seating for the teacher).

And there are six tables too which can be configured in all sorts of ways....

How's about a very important meeting here?...about something fun of course!

There is a cloakroom to store bags and coats and to change into yoga gear.

And the space has a kitchen too equipped with twelve plates, bowls, mugs, glasses and cutlery and although it's not equipped for full blown cooking I have provided a portable electric two ringed hob so you can heat up a big pot of soup for your workshop lunch!

I'll make a website soon with more details of what is going on and news of my workshops and classes as and when I develop them. For now if you are interested in renting space then please email me on [email protected] and tell me your plans and your dreams and maybe we can work together :)

Shadow Play

I made a few more laser cut shapes today. I'm pretty astounded at the level of detail that the lasercutter can manage.

This Chinese lantern skeleton is another of my Tiny Treasure motifs and it's come out so well.

 I'm not sure what all these shapes will become but it's lovely having them around. They have a lot of energy about them! 

 And here are the beginnings of some elderberries. It's so nice to play with the shadows.

Paper and light is one of my favourite things.

Paper treasures

I haven't mentioned on my blog yet that I have bought a laser cutter. I have been outsourcing my cutting for years and years to a wonderful man named Bob all the way down in Cornwall. But Bob is soon going to retire so I thought we would have a go at doing our own.

Here she is. She's massive and very red and we had to rearrange the whole studio to accommodate her!

Bob has always been very helpful when I am excited about trying out new designs and he sends me them in first class post but I have to say it is wonderful having the machine right here in front of me as I can get into a creative flow of experimenting and tweaking as I go. It makes the process much faster and much more fun.

The last few months we have been getting to know each other. There have been fights and falling out (the software is pretty basic and very frustrating and the machine a little glitchy) but slowly slowly we are beginning to understand each other. I often ask too much of it as I want really fine cuts but too thin and it won't hold together so I am beginning to understand and work with it's capabilities.

Today everything held together. Everything behaved and I remembered everything I needed to remember! We worked well together. 

I've been tweaking these little paper treasures for a while and today they all cut well.

I'm not sure where I will go with all of these but it's really good to play. 

I first dreamed of having a laser cutter way back before lamps when I was still making handmade cards but they were SO much money at the time and it was way beyond me. Then I found Bob and decided it was a much better idea to have someone else do the cutting BUT it's lovely to finally have one of my own. A new toy with new possibilities.