Snapdragon's garden

Roll up . . .roll up. . . .

Sometimes themes crop up on me unawares.  I don't consciously collect the images together, they aren't up on my inspiration board, there for all to see.

I just seem to turn round one day and realise I have piles of things, all of the same theme, crying out to be made into mirrors, badges, notebooks.

And so it was with the latest collection. 

It began, I think, with this

 a 1950s fabric with a cute graphic collection of lions

zebras, monkeys and

 sealions.

One of my favourite things when I was about 5 was a china sea lion balancing a ball on its nose.  The ball was the top of a corkscrew - pure 1970s kitsch.  It sat on the dining room windowsill and I wasn't meant to play with it.  I wish I had it now.

It was probably the sea lion which made me buy this brilliant birthday card

The idea is that you can get the monkey our of his hoop without ripping the card . . .

Anyway, this is all a preamble to saying that we have a new collection up on the website - all circus themes

Mirrors

badges

and notebooks

We launched these at the Trade Show in Birmingham and the response was really good - Almost all the orders we took included Circusy things.

I'm delighted as they are such fun designs to sew.

The cards - at last

I feel as though I have been droning on about my new greetings cards for months and months -

First when I was making them

then the excitement of choosing card, then proofing the photos

and now, finally they are here.

   

    

   

I can't really begin to explain how important these cards are to me - I began the process to be honest because it was obvious that I needed to expand the business beyond the point where every last thing is made by me.  Printing seemed the most straightforward route.

However, along the way it became much more than that - somehow, along the way the change of medium added something to my embroideries - I can't really explain it, but it is as though in multiplying they became more concrete.  I love the idea that these (and the postcards which will be on sale from 20th) can be framed.  I love that a tiny piece of Snapdragon cheer will be winging its way with thousands of presents, cards are very feelgood things to be making.

I also loved the fact that I could use tiny pieces of precious fabrics - the 1950s flock behind the vase of flowers, the Liberty lawn meadows - fabrics that I can't really use in my other, more repeated embroideries.

 

This detail is over life size - but it shows how you can see the fuzz of the cord, the contracting weaves of the lawn and the linen, the sketchiness of my stitching.

The printer that I use - JTCP in Glasgow - and particularly Nick Thompson there - were brilliant, capturing every last stitch and working out how to get them to print well onto an uncoated, largely (75%) recycled board.  Though this may not sound much, anyone who has tried to do this with a less involved printer, will appreciate that you often end up with a blurry mess.  Here, every stitch can be seen.

They are now up on my website - so you can buy them here - as well as the individual cards there is a chance to buy the whole set for a bargain price.

I do hope that the long drawn out process hasn't bored you all rigid . . .Do let me know which is your favourite.

Bright meadows

I've a bit of a thing about deadlines.  I hate them with a passion, just as I hate being late for anything, I hate seeing a looming deadline in my periphery vision.

And just as, seeing that I am already late for something, I am apt to add in extra things to do - so with the final deadline for web copy and pricelists there penciled in for tomorrow I began to design totally new things.

It began as a caprice - changing over from sewing tweedy tea cosies for part of a Ness design, the sewing machine was threaded with bright pink and I thought I would do the first of a row of meadow mirrors with it - just to see.

Then I liked the effect so much - and got such great feedback from a snap posted on Facebook - that I took out all the brightest threads in the box and made these.

Then Lorna on Facebook suggested that they would make lovely badges and I gave it a go. Tiny meadows in zingy colours.

and absolutely love them.

Sometimes I think it is a good idea to deviate from whatever plans you have - sometimes it brings great surprises.

Opening hours

We had such a great time at the Open Studios in June that we have decided to open to the public on Fridays over the summer.

There are plants from the garden for sale, some cut flowers by the stem (phone in advance if you want a bouquet made up to collect) and the airstream has become a shop for the season.

You are welcome to look around the garden (just don't expect it to be perfect) and visit the studio where I can show you what I do (as long as there isn't a mad rush on).

Looking forward to meeting lots of new people.

J x

Fathers' Day

I don't know where this year is going.  I have suddenly realised that it is Fathers' Day the Sunday after next.

Which means that there is only a week left to order Fathers' Day presents.  Which means I should have probably written this post sometime last week.

Sometimes I despair at my lack of business acumen.

Anyway - enough self flagellation . . .Fathers' day presents.

I think that Men are often very difficult to buy for, especially if you want to get something hand crafted.  Where shops overflow with beautiful, handcrafted gifts for women and children, there is hardly anything equivalent for men.

Which is why I was absolutely delighted when the badge people began to make components for bottle openers.  I was even more delighted when they turned out to be really solidly made and when I found that they also have a magnet on the back so you can store them on the fridge.

We do the bottle openers in camper vans, space hoppers, and caravan designs but we can do any of our mirror designs as bottle openers. They only cost £5.95 and are easily postable I think they make a wonderful Fathers' day present.

You need to be quick though as the last day for guaranteed delivery before fathers Day is 14th June - a week today.  You can buy them here.

Or if you want something bespoke like a Westie email me - snapdragonjane@googlemail.com

The teatowels have arrived!

My tea towels have now arrived - a great box load - too heavy to bring down to the workshop - is cluttering up the hall.

I have spent this morning packing up and sending out all the pre-orders and can now see that I am going to have to think about putting in a re-order pretty soon.

I am so pleased with the quality of the tea towels - one of my bugbears is tea towels which go floppy and stain easily, so I went with linen union which is more absorbent and has more structure.

But its not just that - my brief for the colours was that I wanted to keep the joyousness of my original fabrics - I wanted the orange and green to sing against each other, I want to cheer up people's kitchens.  I also wanted to use a UK based printer.  Fortunately the one I used has really done a great vibrant job, even though it seemingly involved a reprint.

Part of that was a desire for the design to go right to the edge - a more pricey production as it means that sewing has to be done by machinists in UK after printing - rather than having a simple placement print on a pre-sewn tea towel.

I am so glad that I made all the decisions that I did - to use a UK printer, to go for the linen union fabric, to print to the edge - even though they all had price implications and even though they may only matter to me.

Form worrying about whether people would want to pay a lot for a tea towel at the start of the process, I am now convinced that this £8.95 tea towel is the bargain of the year.

I'd love to know what you think about this - my first product which isn't actually made in the workroom.

J x

Wear your heart on your sleeve

Ever since boxing day orders have been coming from shops for heart badges and mirrors for their Valentines Day displays.  I thought that it was time to put them up in a special section on the website and to mention them here.  That way, if there is to be any international postage involved there is still time.

Over the years I have experimented with lots of different lovey dovey badges - doves, cupids, double hearts and so on - but I have always been happiest with the straightforward, sweet and simple hearts.  They have also been everyone else's favourite too and outsell all other versions put together.  So this year I thought "Why fix something that isn't broke" and concentrated instead on putting together a really luscious collection of vintage fabrics to make the hearts.

These badges are 37mm, slightly larger than our tiny button badges, and show off the fabrics beautifully.

And on the square badges I have added in a cupid's arrow - it fits well into the corners - like a sailor's tattoo.  The fabrics in the photo above have hearts made from C19th French ticking, a 1960s chiffon flock and a scrap of futuristic silver from the 1970s.  We have had a great time choosing beautiful fabrics.

All the Valentines badges are grouped together here - but of course you don't have to keep them just for February 14th, you can wear your heart on your sleeve any day of the year.

Red magazine

This week has been very exciting as the December issue of Red magazine was published.

And there we are

The photos are absolutely beautiful; they show up the airstream, my wreaths and the embroidered pieces really well in a gorgeous golden light.

The feature is about how we shall be opening up the airstream caravan as a temporary Christmas shop on Fridays 10-30 - 3.30; 27th November; 4th, 11th, 18th december.

Bring wellies!

The post

The main topic of conversation between small on-line businesses at the moment is what to do about the postal strike. 

Recommendations about couriers - good and bad - are whizzing round the internet along with a great deal of despondency and panic.

I can completely understand the worry - my retail web sales had begun to build with organised people buying their Christmas presents - since the strikes on-line retail sales are down by 3/4.

It worries me though how quick we are to go from "lets save our local post offices" to " lets find an alternative to posties".

It isn't actually the performance of the postal service that I am worried about - it is customer confidence.  Believe me - if you order your Christmas presents from a small craft business now you will get them by Christmas even if the maker has to deliver by hand.  Thats just the kind of people who run small businesses - they care about the customer.

For the meantime - if it makes customers any more confident - the Snapdragon policy is that all retail orders over £40 will be sent via our lovely couriers and any small orders will be held off until a day after active strike. (Tuesday in this case).  If this isn't good enough get in touch add we can add a bit of postage costs onto the order and send by courier.

But please do keep ordering from mail order businesses - I shall be highlighting some of my favourites here when I get time.

Now - back to the sewing machine - camper-van bottle openers this morning I think!

Blooming

At the Scottish Trade Fair this weekend I was on a stand next to my friend Polly - this turned out to be lovely as trade shows, even very good trade shows, have their lulls and it is super to have someone to chat to.

We were talking about how, at the beginning of the year, we had both independently written down in notebooks what we wanted to achieve for our businesses this year.  We were both amazed at how we had far surpassed our ambitions - seemingly without effort. (though I have my suspicions that we both tend towards workoholicism)

Now that I have finished the trade show part of the year and can focus on filling orders, making things, dancing round the workroom to the radio - well it seems pretty amazing that, from a standing start in January, there are now over 150 stockists of Snapdragon products.   That and, thanks to contacts made at Trade Fairs, a couple of very exciting projects on the way. Projects that I could not have begun to have written down at the beginning of the year.

The dahlia in the photo is also a surprise - I don't know what it is, it grew by mistake a few years ago.  An unpredictable tuber.  Much more beautiful than whichever one I had planned I am sure.
I hope you are having a blooming good week.
J x