Snapdragon's garden

Drawing competition

It has been one interesting week - our Internet went down in last weekend's storms and we spent most of the week without it, trying to run a business on an i-phone. . . .

Which is why I didn't get time to publicise our drawing competition;  If you want to win a personalised mug read on.

We are about to launch a new range of mugs - "my masterpiece" mugs - which will have framed pictures on them - it's a chance to immortalise your children's drawings.

We thought that it would be fun to organise a portrait competition to go along side them.

So to enter . . . all you need to do is

email a portrait to valerie@snapdragongarden.co.uk.

It can be any medium but must be square (or croppable to a square)

Let us know your name and age and include either a message or a photo for the back of the mug (these must also be square)

The competition is open until 5th July (next Thursday) and the results will be announced on Friday 6th.

If you don't have email then you can post it to Snapdragon, Sunnyside, Gartacharn Road, Balfron Station, G63 0NH but it must reach here by Thursday and fit onto an A4 scanner.

 

Thank you Thursday

I've been reading Tara Hunt's Book The Power of Social Networking and the final chapter really chimed with how I have been feeling about the business and how I feel that there are more things we can do.

The point of Snapdragon is that we make things that make people happy - and that is particularly true of our personalised things -

We have countless emails about how giving something we have made with a personal message has made the recipient cry (in a good way) - a wonderful way to show what you really think of someone, without having to drop aesthetic standards.

Now I like to think of Snapdragon as being a generous business - every week we give away samples and extras on our Facebook page - but what Tara asks is "How can you help your customers be generous?".  And, as I say, that chimed.

So we are launching Thank you Thursdays.  The deal is that each Thursday we shall give away either a mirror or a mug - personalised with a message - for someone to say thank you.

I am going to do it on my Facebook site rather than here (and I know that will make some people groan) but it is so much faster an interaction and easier to keep track of.

I am going to be posting the status at 10 each Thursday and someone will be picked at random at 7.30.  We will then make it and dispatch on the Monday. With a thank you card.

Quilts - the Loch Lomond Quilt show

I love quilts - I have drawers full of precious old ones and a number on show that kind people have given or made for me.  Yet it is a craft I have yet to try myself and I am in awe of people who do it.

So on Saturday I headed off to the Loch Lomond Quilt Show - it is a multi layered, multi venue show ranging from antique turkey red quilts through modern interpretations of traditional whitework techniques to abstract works on felt and beads.  Something for everyone.

Most of the venues were churches in Alexandra, Dumbarton and Renton and the quilts and quilted hangings looked amazing amid the stained glass and carved oak.

Though the dark atmosphere and lack of a tripod means that these photos are a bit less sharp than I would have liked.

What amazed me though was that - amid all the hundreds of beautifully quilted pieces there were three large quilts that set my heart alight, that had me bustling across aisles to get a better look.

and all turned out to be by the same artist - Rosie Furlong

Different venues, different colour schemes, different trechniques but the same exuberance.

Amazing work that lit up my Saturday afternoon.

Scotland magazine

This month I am delighted to find that Scotland Magazine loves us!

Their back page of things made in Scotland is devoted to Snapdragon

We are over the moon and very grateful! 

A WHOLE page . . . . my Mum will be very impressed.

Expanding

When we built the workshop back in 2009 it seemed enormous - we rattled around in it - none of the shelves were full and there were acres of space between the sewing and cutting tables.

2009

Gradually the business has grown, our fabrics have expanded, there are more people in the team, there are more orders to be packed . . .

2010

2011

And now we have got to the point where it is impossible to move, Valerie is packing things on the floor, plastic boxes are stacked over head height, the computer is squashed into a corner and even doing the simplest jobs involve clearing space.

So this morning I had a preliminary meeting with our builder about extending the workshop by 50%, creating a proper stock and dispatch area, so that we can extend the sewing space and hopefully take on another person later in the year.

Its a long process - planning permission will be needed, but at least its started.

It makes me wonder how I ever fitted the business into here

 

Photo shoot

Yesterday we had important visitors.  Vivienne Ayres, the Homes Editor of Country Homes and Interiors, and Polly Eltes, their photographer, came to take photos of my house for an article which will be published in the magazine some time over the winter 2012-13.

I was worried about not having any flowers to dot about - the cutting garden is at its barest at the moment, just a few droopy hellebores and dogwood - but my friend Nadja allowed me to pillage her garden for snowdrops

and I potted them up into old tureens and sugar bowls.  This is very obviously my photo - ones taken by Polly (in much worse light conditions if I'm honest) are gorgeously sharp and luminous.

The day made me realise how much work and skill goes into photo shoots - the careful consideration of angles, the balancing of colours, the way that photos are quite different from 3D in the way that things have to be arranged, to make it seem natural, to close up the gaps. I am left in awe.

It is the first time that I have been able to see photographs as it all goes along - Polly had her laptop with her - and they are absolutely wonderful.  I can't wait to see them in the magazine.

The other thing I learned was that snowdrops are scented - the house smells wonderful, like honey.

 

Period Living Competition - Land Rover print

Do you fancy winning one of my framed Land Rover art prints?

If so head over HERE to the Period Living Magazine website where they are giving away 3 framed prints - each worth £95

Country Homes and Interiors

Last year I was approached to be featured in Country Homes and Interiors magazine; In August the photographer Alun Callender visited us, took some amazing photographs of the garden and made me feel great.

The issue is now out.  I have been hopping about with worry for the past few weeks - I needn't have worried though, for the article is beautiful.

5 pages of Snapdragon loveliness

with great text by Vivienne Ayers

This is my friend (and also genuine and very supportive Snapdragon customer since we began) Fiona

and what is great is that Vivienne and the magazine's editor Rhoda Parry took care to show our embroidered things as well as the garden

Isn't this a stunning photograph of the airstream as the sun sets?

as well as the main feature we were also mentioned in an article about selling through online marketplaces such as Not on the High Street.

So thanks to Vivienne, to Alun and everyone else involved.  And do go and check out Alun's BLOG as it has amazing photographs - I love the entwined parsnips especially.

Photos from Mull

Its very busy here this week - trying to get lots done while my girls are away playing on Gullane beach for a week.

So I thought I would post some photos of things I loved on Mull and Iona when we were there a couple of weeks ago.

This was the view from our tent

beautiful clear rockpools for watching crabs

Metal and stones on an Iona beach

 and weathered gates

 and feathered fence posts

It was a wonderful break.

The Make Awards - the results are out

Earlier this month I was delighted to make it to the short list of The Make Awards in the category Designer Maker of the Year. 

I didn't win - the title went to Janette Nieman and Caroline Brown of the the Oak and Rope Company who produce really beautiful carved wooden things, from cheese boards to tables - but that doesn't detract from the fact that I was overwhelmed to be one of the 6 shortlisted designers.

Snapdragon seems to have come so far since I made the decision to expand the business back in January 2008 - I have learned so much over the past 3 years. The experience of moving from a kitchen table business to one that is busting out at the seams of our workshop has been amazing.  From selling to the customers who bought via my blog to well over 300 stockists . . .

And for me, a woman who decided out of the blue and with hardly any formal design training, to create a craft business, well to be shortlisted for such a prestigious design award was amazing!  I would like to say a big thank you to Not on the High Street who organised the awards and to the judges.

But most of all the team here at Snapdragon is so grateful to all our customers, stockists and general supporters  who make out continued success possible and we are looking forward to all the fantastic things that we have coming up in the rest of  2011.